Is the house haunted, or not?

Rating: Null/10 (3 August 2002)

I feel that Kubrick was trying to make his audience wonder whether the hotel was haunted or, did the characters share some delusive dream?
Kubrick's films tend to build up, layer by layer, into a mounting avalanche that the characters cannot control. One miscalculation sets the avalanche tumbling down, taking on a personality of its own.
Stephen King tends to create battles between good and evil...The world is full of characters with either halos or horns..
Kubrick does not. He sees clashes of interest setting characters against one another and isn't trying to convince the audience to "like" or "hate" someone or something. The people we are at odds with in life have a view...and it's not all invalid.
Each time I view this film I see something I missed earlier. In my latest viewing the scene with Danny playing darts drew my attention. As he approaches the dart board a portrait suggesting a faceless woman is on the distant wall. As, he turns, he sees two small girls holding hands...In the background is another portrait...an extremely gruesome one of a woman on the distant wall...
When Danny is riding his big wheel down the hallways, he comes face to face with the two girls again...In the background is a window with drawn semi-transparent drapes...Behind those drapes is the figure of another woman looking on and slightly blurred..Second and third return takes then make the viewer feel that it was only a reflection of the hallway lights that created this vision...but a short rewind can create debate in a household quickly...The figure is more pronounced.
Kubrick was not trying to frighten his audience...just make them ponder.
Imagine some child in a mall....Mother just let go of a hand. Some kids panic while others run...Some feel abandonment while others feel a freedom to explore. King was the first of these while Kubrick cherished getting lost...Which are you?