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Elephant's Graveyard: THE SHINING1980
- DANIELLE GORE
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
⊹ ˚₊ ♪ ˚₊‧꧁ 𓆩༺ 𝄞 ༻𓆪 ꧂‧₊˚♪ ₊˚⊹
Welcome
Hello hello, and happy Halloween!! One of my favorite movies of all time fits perfectly in theme with UIC Radio's Week of Horror, and it's The Shining!! It's such a classic scary movie, and I watch it year-round. I'd love to share my insights on the movie, as well as some interesting facts I've gathered. For those who are going out this weekend, stay safe, and have a ton of fun! I'd love to hear about everyone's costumes :-) My boyfriend and I are going as Jack and Wendy Torrance from The Shining, and I cannot be more excited, especially because I adore Shelley Duvall and her acting.
𝄞 A Synopsis of The Shining
A former school teacher, writer, and father, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is offered a job to be the
winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, to maintain the boiler room, and to perform general upkeep. A downside of this position is that it is located in a secluded area in the mountains, and during the winter, the roads become completely snow-covered. It is too expensive to salt them and have someone sent in for monthly maintenance, so as an alternative, the family is offered to stay for five months, with food and general needs and expenses paid. During that period of time, past caretakers have been known to go "mad" with cabin fever, and the last caretaker had butchered his wife and children.
Jack takes the opportunity, bringing his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and their five-year-old son, Danny. (Danny Lloyd). Jack is currently in the process of
becoming sober, has been for five months, after an incident where he harmed his son by accident, dislocating Danny's shoulder. While managing his new normalcy, he represses his angry and violent tendencies in order to keep his family life in order. Wendy is trying to uphold the family structure by caring for her son and her abusive husband, but Danny experiences psychic premonitions through his friend "Tony." Tony is a little boy who hides inside Danny's mouth and crawls into his stomach when he doesn't want to come out or talk. Before arriving at the hotel, Tony tells Danny that the hotel is dangerous and not a good place to be, but refuses to tell Danny why.
When arriving at the hotel, Chef Dick Hallorann gives the Torrance family a tour of the kitchen. He keeps calling Danny "Doc," without ever being told his parents called him Doc as a nickname. Eventually, his parents must attend to more important matters in the basement, such as learning how to care for the hotel, and Mr. Hallorann offers to entertain Danny and give him ice cream. While they're alone. Mr. Hallorann tells Danny that he knows about his psychic premonitions, and he has the same power, and his grandmother used to call it "Shining." There are not many people who have the gift to shine, but they're able to sense one another, and have entire conversations with one another without opening their mouths.
Jack is in the process of writing his novel, and is trying to find his concentration and make something productive out of these five months. But later on in the hotel during their stay, there are instances in which things cannot be described as anything else other than paranormal. There are sightings of the dead daughters murdered by the past caretaker Mr. Grady, and a sea of blood pouring from the elevators. Danny and Jack both on separate occasions have paranormal experiences in room 237, after being told directly to not enter that room. The moment in which possible hallucination turns into reality is when a naked dead woman strangles Danny, bruising his neck. Jack spirals into madness, even breaking his sobriety, saying himself that he would sell his soul just to have one drink. It was revealed that there was no alcohol on the premises.
Wendy noticing her husbands mental decline, and her sons distress and bruising only assumes that this was at the hands of Jack, and they needed to get out. Eventually, Jack snaps, and begins his murderous rampage trying to kill his family after being told by the ghost bartender Lloyd, and past caretaker Mr. Grady that they should be dealt with. During his spiral of trying to kill his wife and child, the paranormal activity of the hotel goes rampant. Eventually, his wife and child manage to outrun him in the snowy maze outdoors--symbolic of the mythological tale Theseus and the Minotaur--they lose Jack, he freezes to death, and they escape.
Overall Thoughts
Garnering a cult following, especially with Kubrick's fan base, this movie has been analyzed from every possible angle, and I still love to watch movie analysis videos about The Shining just to get a different perspective. A few popular theories that people have gathered is that the "haunting" are merely metaphorical, and not actual real paranormal activity, and they're a product of Jack Torrance's declining state. Another is that it really isn't that deep, and the hotel was haunting and possessing the caregivers, driving them to murder.
It's uncertain as to what is what, I do believe that it's a mix of both, and one of the scariest aspects of this movie to me is that it's so incredibly realistic. Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining has been claimed to feel cold, and hateful, and not in the way the original author Stephen King had intended for it to be interpreted. Kubrick's film does a great job showcasing Jack's descent into madness, and the interactions between Wendy and Jack. The murder of his wife and child is unfortunately a common reality for many families, and it is something most women fear out of their husbands. Jack Nicholson did an amazing job at capturing a hateful man that resents his family.
Wendy was also wonderfully played, a lot of people critique her character saying she enabled her husbands abusive behaviors, but the reality of it is, when you're in that state of abuse and emotional neglect, you cannot see it if you're directly in the relationship. It only took seeing Danny's bruising around his neck for her to snap and realize he was no good for either of them. Her fear and anxiety is felt through the screen, and I relate to her in many ways. My favorite final girl. <3
A common theory is that the haunting are an allegory for CSA (Child Sexual Abuse), and that Jack is gay. I think the possibility of him being gay is unlikely, but I do think that after seeing the evidence that points to this, it's not unrealistic that this is a possible outcome, especially considering the scene where Wendy walks in on a doorman, and a man in a bear costume performing oral sex on the other--symbolizing that this is the moment where she realizes that her husband has been abusing her son without her knowledge.
Another theory is that this was all within Wendy's mind, and she hallucinated Jack's madness, and her son being abused, this is also unlikely to me because it just seems like lazy writing, and I don't think Kubrick would want to go about his work this way.
The last of the many theories out there I'll cover is that the hotel is haunted because it was on an Indian burial ground, this I can see to be a realistic outcome, especially considering near the area was where settlers were stranded in the cold, and had to resort to cannibalism.
Lastly, a cool fun fact: Wendy Torrance smokes Virginia Slim Golds :) Which is my favorite brand! I haven't gone for gold's in the past, but it made me feel connected to her more haha. Thank you everyone so much! I hope you have a happy, scary, but safe Halloween!!!
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