Monday 19 October 2015

'The Shining' Essay

'The Shining' Essay


At the start of the sequence, Kubrick uses a one point perspective shot to show Jack walking down the hallway. The shot looks symmetrical which isn't  natural. It made the hallway look disturbing to me, yet I found it hard to detect what the issue was. The forced symmetry was used to  create a dreaded sense of the unknown which is a common convention of the horror genre. The converging lines also added to this effect.
The use of yellow/gold Mise - en - scene for the shot also adds to the disturbing atmosphere. The colour yellow can symbolise  dishonesty,  betrayal, jealousy, deceit and illness which are all linked to what happens in the film. The wallpaper, also yellow/gold, is very busy and made me feel uneasy and claustrophobic even though it's made clear from the extreme - long shot that the hallway is very large and empty.
I saw crosses in the window panes in the door that leads to 'The Gold Room'. that could symbolise religion since the hotel was built on an old burial ground with potential unhappy spirits. The theme of religion is a common convention of the horror genre and is used frequently throughout the film.

Another horror film convention is echoing which is also used in this scene when the use of the non-diegetic music is played through the hotel which made me feel unsafe and scared because echoes are referred to something ghosts do. Kubrick created an unsettling effect  by  pairing the scene with Al Bowlly and Ray Noble & His Orchestra’s “Midnight, The Stars and You” playing as mood music which has a certain creepy connotation despite its romantic lyrics. The emphasis on the line “I surrender all my love to you” feels eerie in the context of Torrance being seduced by the ghoul in Room 237 and submitting to his dark urges at the bar to Lloyd later in the scene. The song also appeared in Bong Joon-ho’s survival horror film, 'Snowpiercer'; a film that also revolves around isolation and surviving in harsh winter conditions which prevent the heroin and child from escaping.

The lighting in the hallway is quite high key, but somehow there is still a sense of darkness and are lots of shadows because the light has been angled so that it points upwards. This means that when the light hits of the ceiling, the brightness at the bottom of the shot will be decreased and look dull because the light doesn't travel as far. Linking back to the idea of the sub - genre religion, this could metaphorically symbolise how Jack has a bad soul and is kept in the darkness (hell) because of it. Once Jack enters the Gold Room with all the 1920's people, none of the chandeliers are on. Referring back to the idea of reality vs fantasy because it's just in his head.

When Jack enters the room, the camera begins to track right but he is not kept directly in the middle of the shot, he is just off centre which created an  effect for me that something was odd. Even though the camera is revealing the rest of the hallway and room to me I found it very peculiar that the camera tracked through the wall. It made me think that the camera shot was a perspective shot of a ghost following him into the room.


Once Jack reaches the bar, the camera zooms in and Lloyd enters the scene. There is an eerie resemblance between Jack and Lloyd which is spotted clearer at the end of the film when it shows the photo of Jack in the 20's. The way that Jack is wearing the same colour jacket as him could symbolise that maybe they worked together at the hotel in their former lives
 Even though they're both in the same shot, I could detect straight away that their relationship was not close by the use of light separating them at the bar. This could again  indicate  fantasy vs reality as it is bold and bright.

The context of the speech has a lot of meaning and importance to the scene. Jack says "...I've been away, but now I'm back." This indicated to me that Jack has been here for a long time but his attempts to escape have failed. Another quotes from the dialogue that could support this idea is when Lloyd says, "Drinks from the house." I found this an odd sentence because it's a hotel not a house. The made me think that it could be a clue towards the idea of the house being haunted; a typical convention of setting for horror films.
Later on in the dialogue when Lloyd asks what drink he wants, Jack replies with "The hair of the dog who bite me." This means any alcoholic beverage, the consumption of which is supposed to clear up one's hangover from previous drinking; but will tend to have the opposite effect in reality.  The phrase dates back to medieval times, when hairs from a biting dog were put in the bite wound in the belief that this promoted healing. This gave me more suspicion to believe that Jack was from another era. On the other hand, I already knew from the start of the film that Jack was an alcoholic so maybe he's only seeing all of these strange things because he's drunk.

The film uses mirrors as a symbol of reality versus fantasy.  Mirrors are more frequently used as the film progresses, however, they are introduced early on. In all of the shots that Lloyd is in, he is always in front of the bar mirrors and lights; the same styled ones as the one on the bar table top. This Mise - en - scene represents how he is just a figment of his imagination because he's just staring into his reflection in the mirror opposite him.


This mirror and light combination occurs whenever Jack is in contact with what I see as a ghoul. Later on in the film Jack interacts with the old caretaker 'Grady' who murdered his wife and twin daughters. This repeated mis-en-scene gives a ghostly, fantasy effect and creates an eerie mood with such harsh lighting; contrasting the tone to the conversations taking place.
 It is then featured again when  Jack enters room 237 and the importance of mirrors becomes clear.  The mirror reflects reality or, at least, something closer to reality than what Jack sees; in the mirror, the woman’s body is decaying and repulsive.





 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmcnnRv58Z4

(0:00 - 2:20)



No comments:

Post a Comment