Essay.

The Shining, a Horror Story Developed in a Frightening Environment.

Horror movies are supposed to provoke fear in their watchers, but it is interesting how the directors achieve this task. Indeed, terror films need a set of elements that together and well applied produce a context of dread in the story.  The Shining, by Stanley Kubrik, is a great terror movie because of its atmosphere made up by the isolation, desperation, and madness components showed there.

In The Shining there is the isolation feeling. At the beginning of the movie, a car, driven by Jack Torrance is going over a narrow and lonely highway demonstrating that there is not much traffic of cars driving in the same direction Jack does. Also, different landscapes showing that it has been a long travel, supported by the statement made by Jack that it took 3 hours driving from Denver in order to arrive to the hotel he will work in. In addition, after the hotel is abandoned by the crew for the winter season, nobody remains there, so Jack’s family remained isolated from everyone since that moment and on. Furthermore, Wendy could not make a call because the storm not only destroyed all the lines but made it difficult to arrive to the hotel because of the blockade of the highways. In addition, Jack damaged the Snowcat, which represented the only one vehicle that could take the family out of the zone and the radio that could be used by the family to communicate with the police.

Desperation is exhibited in the film in a contagious way. Danny feels desperate because he saw two twin girls talking him and with injuries more than once. Also, weird things happened to him such as the arrival of a ball with no apparent reason after the twin sisters told him that he would stay with them to play for ever. Along with the disturbing incidents, Danny’s fear is showed which made me feel part of his fear. In addition, room #237 was opened and after that, Danny appeared in front of his parents with his neck hurt while nobody should be in the hotel but the boy and his parents. Furthermore, Wendy is worried because Danny told her a woman injured him and she cannot imagine what is going on there so she asks Jack to go and investigate what was happening on that room, and the answer she receives from Jack is that nothing is in that bedroom.

Madness is an incidental component that was not exhibited at the beginning. After some days, Jack truly becomes mad, seen by the change of behavior with his family; above all, with Wendy because of his yells to her, weird talks with Danny, the scared smile he shows, terror nightmares suffered, and the new habits acquired such as the anorexia and insomnia. In addition, his appearance changed from a well-looking guy to a vagabond pattern. Also, Jack tended to punch everything near to him and perform strange movements looking like he is full of anger.

Finally, it is interesting how Stanley Kubrik used different items to create a fearful atmosphere in order to achieve a great horror movie. Focusing on how directors arrange their possibilities to produce a dread story enriches the watcher because he becomes observant and enjoys more if he pays attention to those details.