From its ingenious sound design to a limited use of gore to Jack Nicholson's iconic portrayal
of Jack Torrance, The Shining left a permanent mark on horror.
Here's how The Shining changed horror movies forever...and ever...and ever.
One of the ways The Shining stands out from the horror crowd is through Stanley Kubrick's
hyper-realistic lens.
This terrifying tale is not told in the familiar shadowy environment most horror movies prior
to 1980 had used to bump up the scare factor.
In fact, the majority of the film takes place in broad daylight.
Add Kubrick's signature style to the mix, and the result is one beautiful looking movie.
With common tropes out of the way, Kubrick's signature sense of cinematic framing and lighting
helps to place the audience firmly into the mood and world of the Overlook Hotel.
The story becomes accessible in a way that many horror movies don't.
As supernatural as things become, this is still a human story.
Kubrick nails this point home by presenting each frame with a heightened sense of realism
that pushes psychological boundaries in a way that's almost unnoticeable.
Everything seems fine.
"Little slow tonight, isn't it?
HAHAHAHA"
Disrupting this genre formula not only keeps viewers on their toes, it also results in
a compelling story that never stops being creepy.
The Shining made it clear that it was okay to bring your monster into the light.
Not only does Stanley Kubrick focus on the get-under-your-skin moments throughout The
Shining, but he also commits to creeping out audiences through an unexpected use of sound
and silence.
As we've been reminded with the box office success of A Quiet Place, silence can be a
major tool in amplifying a sense of dread and danger.
There are moments throughout The Shining — following Danny's tricycle through the Overlook's winding
hallways come to mind — where the audience only hears the sounds of the wheels regularly
transitioning from the hard floor to the soft carpet.
It's not much to watch, but as the camera follows Danny, our perspective is minimized
and becomes childlike.
Add that to the unexpected sound cues of the movie's score, and the results are quite unnerving.
The result finds the audience no longer receiving warnings that the visual horrors are right
around the corner.
And with those guidelines thrown out of whack, a steady stream of dread and anxiety comes
into play.
“No. ah.”
We've already mentioned the film's color palette and uncharacteristic use of light and realism
to add to the terror, but The Shining doesn't stop there.
What Stanley Kubrick pulled off is akin to the other classics in his filmography: He
made a well produced, well-acted, well-written film.
For decades, the horror genre has fought tooth and nail to climb its way out of the jokey,
B-movie recesses that have remained its home.
At its heart, The Shining is the tale of a family fractured as its patriarch descends
into madness.
It's a story that'd be easy enough to tell under low-budget circumstances, but Kubrick
was a perfectionist.
He elevated the genre through cutting edge methods and high-quality production.
These standards not only left an impact on horror movies, they forever changed cinema.
Throughout The Shining, Kubrick focused more on the personal demons Jack Torrance and his
son Danny were dealing with.
Yes, there are still spirits haunting the hotel.
But their appearance here coincides with Jack's own troubled past.
The ghost story is just the mask to the deeper, more human horrors.
Using horror as an allegory for a real-life issue is as old as the genre itself, but with
The Shining, Kubrick crafted a legitimately terrifying film that works on all the potential
levels.
If you're scared of hotel ghosts, don't watch The Shining.
And if a family man giving in to his addiction in violent ways makes your knickers quake,
don't watch The Shining.
And while prior horror movies like Rosemary's Baby and Night of the Living Dead were steeped
in allegory, The Shining's cultural impact influenced modern horror filmmakers to give
their movies depth that goes beyond jump scares.
One of the biggest horror movies in recent years, Get Out, explores its themes in similar
ways, and director Jordan Peele hasn't been quiet about drawing from The Shining for that.
He went so far as to admit that he even, quote, "totally ganked" the opening title credit.
"It's a f------ hedge maze out here."
In the same vein, The Witch director Robert Eggers told SlashFilm:
"When I watch The Witch, sometimes I’m a little disgusted by how much of my film flagrantly
reeks of The Shining.
At the same time, I will admit that if it wasn’t for that, I don’t think the film
would be working for people at all."
Before The Shining hit theaters, a popular trope explored in horror was that of "The
Evil Child."
From the Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life" to films like Village of the Damned
and The Omen, the creepy child motif had been a strong one in genre entertainment.
It still is, but The Shining represented the beginning of a transition.
Suddenly, movies started paying less attention to the young Antichrist wreaking havoc at
home, and focused more on telling empowered tales of survival and redemption through the
innocent perspective of the children themselves.
In putting Danny Torrance in a position of power — with the help of Dick Hallorann
showing him the how to "shine" the boy became the beacon of hope throughout the entire film.
"You've got the shinning.“
“You mean Shining... “shhh do you wanna get sued?"
As the '80s progressed and films like A Nightmare on Elm Street, It, and The Goonies arrived,
the trend of empowered children gaining the upper hand against the evil adults of the
world grew exponentially.
Kubrick's The Shining flipped the proverbial script, turning this adult/child dynamic on
its head.
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