The Mood of Menace

Rating: 9/10 (19 February 2008)

Somewhere down the line films have become about sensation rather than mood and, in the case of horror, atmosphere. It is most obvious with action movies as the genre was always essentially about sensation, but horror has largely migrated to that camp as well. Horror started with films like 'Nosferatu' and James Whale's 'Frankenstein' and it was almost all about mood and atmosphere. Naturally a lot of it was due to lack of elaborate special effects, but it nonetheless resulted in many classic horror films.
By time time he made 'The Shining' Stanley Kubrick wasn't a director that had to worry about budget constraints and he used the relatively high-for-its-time budget to include some great shock effects, but mainly focus on the atmosphere and on the anticipation of shock rather than on the shock itself. Then when the shock arrives it still looks the same, but feels more genuine. Kubrick maximizes his opportunities to create the mood of menace and terror by pretty much doing it in every scene. Well almost every scene, as there are obligatory scenes that set up the story, but the opening sequence alone lets the viewer know very well that something is up. And it only gets better from there as Kubrick manages to draw such a thin line between reality and nightmare that H.P. Lovecraft would be proud. It is also interesting to see how Kubrick builds this tension and it is almost solely due to placing his camera in all the right places and a very eerie score. Seemingly simplistic when compared to many of today's horror films, but simplicity can be very effective. And I suppose simplicity isn't wholly the right word, 'The Shining' is a complex film with many things going on, so instead of simplicity, it could be said that it simply gets right to the point of what it is trying to say. Even with the gradual build up, not a scene is wasted.
However, the film does vary from the source material considerably. I hardly consider that a strike against the film and it should be seen as simply two artists (King with his book and Kubrick with his film) working on nearly identical painting, but inevitably each has his own story to tell with that painting. --- 9/10
Rated R for horror images and violence. Ages 13+