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The fear and horror concerning Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining are surrounded by the topics of insanity and paranormal realities. These elements are first shown through the abilities of Danny, the son, and Dick Hollerann’s, the hotel manager, ability to communicate telepathically. In the scene following the first display of this ability, the hotel manager takes Danny to get ice cream and explains the nature of their ability in simple terms. He terms their ability as “the shining.” He also explains how some buildings are similar to people with the shining and hold memories and footprints of previous activities that occurred at the location. From this point forward, paranormal activity and the mental stress of cabin fever began to take their tole on the Torrance family.

This film brings attention to both the comparison and contrast of insanity and paranormal/ demonic behavior. Early in the film, when Danny describes the nature of Toni, the voice that lives in his mouth, to a doctor, it is made rather apparent that Danny was schizophrenic. This marked him as a potential threat to the Torrance family within the context of a horror film. However, Toni displayed is ability to accurately predict the future on several occasions. This in not a characteristic of schizophrenia and blurred the lines between mental illness and the paranormal. At this point, the audience is forced to abandon the logical notion of Danny being and schizophrenic child trying to understand his mental illness, and accept “the shining” explanation proposed by Dick Hollerann.

Once the paranormal explanation is accepted, the fear of the unknown plays it’s role on the audience as a source of horror. In a clever fashion, the audience succumbs to the paradox of horror as they are attracted to a repulsive story of The Shining in the same way that Johnny Torrance succumbs to the will of the Overlook Hotel and its hauntings. The paradox of horror explains the phenomenon of how “normally aversive events and objects can give rise to pleasure or can compel our [the audience’s]  interests,” (Carroll, 161). The paradox of horror usually describes the artistic presentation of horrific events. However in Johnny’s case, he flirts with the paradox of horror as he interacts with the paranormal inside of the Outlook Hotel. This ultimately leads him to begin wielding an axe with the thirst to murder his small family. With one dead and the ongoing pursuit of a nearly defenseless woman and child, the audience continues to watch from the edge of their seat as the desperate are hunted. The paradox of horror successfully exploits the fatal flaw of man. It exploits the curiosity as it lures us into greater tragedies than we originally wished to witness.