Stanley Kubrick’s, The Shining, is a film filing under the psychological horror genre, following the Torrance family while they stay in the isolated Overlook Hotel and the effects it has on the father, Jack Torrance’s state of mind. Throughout the film, he descends into madness and becomes fixated on murdering his family.
At the beginning of the ‘redrum’ scene, a close-up of Danny on a sidewards view tracks him over to Wendy, when it switches to a mid-shot halfway with Danny only taking up a small amount of the frame, but in a way which abides by the rule of thirds and makes the shot look more aesthetically pleasing. The mise-en-scene of the knife is a common convention of the horror genre, found in the film, Scream, when being wielded by the infamous ‘Ghostface’ and also Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho during the shower scene. This popular item of iconography adds a sense of realism to the film and makes me feel dread as well as giving me a cause for alarm and panic. Watching a small child holding such a powerful object emphasises the unbalanced nature of the film and invokes a feeling of unease and disturbance.
The diegetic repetition of the word ‘redrum’ is then constantly used by Danny as he stands with a knife in a long shot. The mise-en-scene of the slanted lampshade behind him represents his father’s descending mental state and how this has affected the entire family, in a sense, making them also mentally unstable. The mise-en-scene of the upside-down cross depicted in the door in low-key lighting further conveys this, as this is a common repeated motif throughout the film, suggesting sinister events yet to come and a connotation of evil and the devil. The door is framed within a large amount of the shot, foreshadowing its later significance when Jack attempts to burst inside.
As the camera tracks Danny back towards the door after he’s picked up Wendy’s lipstick, the non-diegetic sounds rise to a piercing sound, building tension and suspense. The camera captures a mid-shot of Danny writing the word ‘redrum’ in bright red, another convention of the horror genre, giving the connotations of danger and fear. His diegetic repetition of the word then reaches a crescendo to awaken Wendy. A two shot shows her pulling him into a hug and the camera quickly zooms in to show her shocked facial expressions.
The shot then cuts to the mirror’s reflection, portraying the paradoxical narrative of the film and zooms in on the word ‘murder’ now visibly clear, also highlighting the main feature of the narrative and emphasising Jack’s purpose: to murder his family. A non-diegetic bang is then heard to alert the audience to danger and made me feel a pang of fear, making me physically jump. This is succeeded by Wendy’s diegetic scream, which is a sound often heard in the horror genre to show a physical manifestation of a person’s fear and enable this to be conveyed to the film’s audience.
The shot then cuts to a mid-shot of Jack swinging an axe at the door and the banging sounds become diegetic. The use of an axe is another feature of iconography which is a typical convention of the horror genre. The camera quickly pans the action of the axe to convey the urgency of the movements and harshness of the reality Jack is inducing on his family. The loud diegetic sounds also portray Jack’s loss of mental stability and the sporadic nature of his thoughts. Parallel editing is used, cutting from Jack to Wendy and Danny to alert to the audience these events are occurring at the same time and add pace to the sequence, which arose a sense of panic in me whilst watching.
Wendy and Danny are then tracked into the bathroom where the mise-en-scene of the cross motif is again repeated to suggest danger is yet to come and their safety is greatly compromised. When Wendy goes to the window, the shot then cuts to an extreme long shot of the outside of the hotel, completely surrounded by snow. Low-key lighting is used to symbolise the hopelessness of the situation and the harsh weather conditions portray the battle Wendy and Danny are undergoing. The way the surrounding make the characters seem insignificant and small also adds to the sense of vulnerability, emphasising that they don't seem to have an escape or anywhere to run to- a key feature which is commonly manipulated in the horror genre. A further sense of isolationism is also achieved by this same shot by conveying the lack of surroundings. They are, in fact, all alone in the middle of nowhere.
As Jack is then back-tracked closer to the bathroom, the performance aspect of the mise-en-scene has him swaying from the centre of the frame, outwardly portraying his mental state and how he’s become corrupted by the whole experience. This is further emphasised by the psychotic grin he wears constantly. He then begins to swing the axe at the bathroom door, similar to one of the final scenes in Friday The 13th when Mrs Voorhees breaks through the pantry door with a sharp weapon to get to Alice. The idea of villains having to break down physical barriers to get to their victims seems to be another convention of the horror genre and in a way, symbolises Jack breaking down his entire identity. By breaking down the door, he loses his identity as a family man and becomes the psychopathic murderer his mental breakdown led him to be.
The mise-en-scene of the splintered wood represents a broken man and the shot cuts to a close-up of Jack saying the infamous line ‘here’s Johnny’, still with the everlasting grin on his face. The sociopathic nature of this very shot captivated me and stayed with me a good length of time after watching the film. It invoked a fear from me that I never realised I had - the fear of madness. Insanity however, seems to be yet another convention of horrors, specifically linking to an ending scene in Scream when Billy Lumis claims, ‘we all go a little crazy sometimes’, which in summary, is the entire narrative of The Shining.
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