Don't Read This Blog

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.

What is really the Monster?

In Carrol's The Paradox of Horror, she brings about the point of "how to make a monster". She states that monsters can be different in regards to how they scare, or threaten; that it has to destroy, whether its fatal physically, morally, or societal. She then states:

"However, in order to be threatening, it is sufficient
that the monster be physically dangerous. If it produces further anxieties that
is so much icing on the cake. So the creators of art-horror must be sure that the
creatures in their fictions are threatening and this can be done by assuring that
they are at least physically dangerous. Of course, if a monster is
psychologically threatening but not physically threatening—i.e., if it’s after
your mind, not your body—it will still count as a horrific creature if it inspires
revulsion." -Noel Carrol

 The Shining plays a major role in having a threatening monster(s). The story revolves around a small family stranded in a hotel locked away by winter storms. The hotel is haunted and is basically playing terrifying mind games with the family. The two most important characters: the father, Jack, being an alcoholic and a major anger streak, and the son, Danny, who is telepathic, become the most affected. The hotel wants Danny, which causes a lot of strife for the father, who becomes jealous.

 There are a lot of ghosts in the hotel, causing mental distress for the family, but in the sense of who, or what, is the monster of the story, it would be the hotel itself. It isn't physical but it turns the dad into the physical being that is threatening. There are differences between the book and film, which can lead the audience astray to Stephen King's meaning of a monster. The father isn't supposed to be an evil person, he becomes entranced by the hotel and uses the fathers weaknesses against him. Having a building as the major antagonist is so fascinating in itself, because it takes the idea of what a monster has to be, and construes the idea. Who are we supposed to be afraid of? Who is the real monster? Examining the film while keeping Carrol's statement in mind, I question these things. I question if the true monster is the hotel, or the father.I believe Stephen King wanted the hotel to portray horror in a strange way, and if that's the case, I don't necessarily believe that the monster has to be physically dangerous. The hotel couldn't actually touch the family, which is why the hotel had basically "possessed" the father. The ultimate goal is that the hotel wanted the family dead, and to absorb Danny's powers.

Personally, I recommend reading the book. Even Stephen King was unnerved by the film, believing that a lot of the direction that the film took, ignored the key undertones that the book had, which made the story far more intense. A huge issue is that Jack Nicholson was given the role, and he makes the father character seem mad from the get-go, but the father is actually a sympathetic character, almost a Byronic hero in the sense that he is flawed, and the hotel used that against him, but his intentions were well at first.

The Overlook

In Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of The Shining, Jack Torrence and his family move to the historic Overlook Hotel to be the winter caretaker. But over the months of snowbound solitude, Jack begins to lose it. The hotel comes alive around the family as Wendy tries to keep her son safe from her now  homicidal husband. It happens slow,  but the characters soon realize what a dangerous place the Overlook is.

" As far as my wife is concerned, I'm sure she will be absolutely fascinated when I tell her about it. She's a confirmed ghost story and horror film addict." This is Jack's response when Ullman tells him the story of how a past caretaker murdered his family in the hotel one winter. This plays in with Carroll's essay "Why Horror?" He discusses why horror as a genre is so popular and the draw it has. Although Jack says this about his wife, he never tells her about the murders. We are shown horrific events and given hints at the Overlook's past through Danny and his gift of shining.

Carroll discusses the narrative structure of horror films and their importance. Throughout the movie, the monster that is the hotel is slowly revealed to the viewer, as well as the characters. The most important facts are shown to us through Danny, which makes his character especially important to the structure of the film. In Horror movies the viewer is usually a few steps ahead of the characters, which gives the viewer a kind of pleasure while watching things play out.

Jack is slowly revealed to be taken over by the monster, and like Carroll states, "...the human characters in the tale must undergo a process of discovering that the monster exists, which in turn, may lead to a further process of confirming that discovery in an ensuing scene or series of scenes." Wendy has to realize that her husband has been taken over by the hotel, which takes time. Watching someone you love become a monster is a realistic fear, although this sense may be taken to extremes. But like Carroll's points about monsters, the viewer craves the reveal and always wants to know more.