There ain't nothing in Room 237 !

Rating: 8/10 (10 November 2012)

Jack Torrance (Nicholson) takes on the job as winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, as he wants to use the time to write a book. His wife and son Wendy and Danny are also part of the package, and will also stay at the hotel with him. There are a few tantalising facts thrown at us both before and after the Torrance's arrive, and are ultimately left alone at the Overlook. Firstly, in the interview for the job with the Hotel Manager Mr Ullman, Ullman feels it necessary to warn Torrance that some years before, at the beginning of the 70's a previous winter caretaker had lost his mind, and murdered his wife and two daughters. Torrance, laughs this off, cheerily telling Ullman that isolation and quiet is what he's looking for, and probably sealing the deal and getting the job with his well mannered and charming response. The second is that Danny is not a "normal" little boy. He internalises a lot, and has a special "friend" named Tony who lives in his mouth and shows him visions. This is The Shining of the title, an ability to see things that no one else can see. Unfortunately for Danny these visions are without any frame of reference, definition and vague to the point of frustration. All he knows (and we know because we see the visions along with him) is that they are disturbing, foreboding and scare him half to death. Another fact, which may go some way to explaining why Danny is as he is, is that we are made aware that Jack is a recovering alcoholic, who although hasn't touched the hard stuff for five months, is still trying to work off the debt with Wendy of having done semi-serious harm to Danny. Apparently Danny knocked over one of Jack's half written manuscripts, dozens of pages of carefully drafted work all over the floor, and in a fit of anger, Jack grabbed the boy a fraction too hard and broke his arm. Jack, we find out is angry that he did it, and even angrier that Wendy can't forgive him for it, or at least doesn't appear to have yet. Then, the Torrance's are left alone in the Overlook, and the film kicks into a higher gear. The sheer space available to the Torrance family is overpowering, and a building such as a hotel which is designed to be filled with people, is an entirely different proposition when it is completely empty, and there is no sound whatsoever, except the tip tap of Jack's typewriter as he gets stuck into his book. Can we really not have been aware of the precariousness of the situation ? We suddenly are, and it is uncomfortable. Jack's irritation, while almost certainly derived from his inability to come up with a good storyline, is being massaged and manipulated by the Overlook itself. Whether the Overlook itself is inherently evil, or whether some evil force dwells within it seems irrelevant at this point, and it is not long (one more confrontation with Wendy) before Jack's mind is hopelessly lost. There are many chilling scenes in the movie, and Kubrick is indeed a master at turning the Overlook into a very sinister place indeed. There are hundreds of empty rooms, and the building itself is very old, with a dubious history. What have these walls seen ? When inevitably Danny find his way to room 237 and then turns up shocked into silence displaying wounds on his arms Wendy assumes these can only have been inflicted by Jack, because the hotel is empty right? Depends entirely on your definition of empty. The scenes where Jack speaks to Lloyd and Grady are masterpieces of understated film making. It has been posed that Jack is simply talking to himself and these apparitions are simply manifestations of his damaged mind, but I prefer to think that these are simply tools that the Overlook is using to manipulate his already damaged psyche. The hotel, the very building itself, deep in its wood and brick has a hunger, and it wants Torrance and his family. So we in the audience already understand the nature of the danger that Wendy and Danny are in, but they do not. A second visit to the lobby, finds Jack's manuscript lying neatly on the table, and while we understand that Wendy must read it, we know there will be implications if she does. In a scene of unadulterated ratcheting freewheeling terror does she realise that her husband is lost to her forever. There must be 1000 pages of typed manuscript on the desk next to the typewriter, and every single line reads "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". It is written with the mechanical, thundering repetitive ferocity of a man whose mind has snapped. Suddenly realising she and her child are alone with a madman, Jack appears behind her. Some of the remaining scenes in the movie are even more terrifying as Jack loses all pretence of sanity, and sets about "correcting" his errant family, ably assisted by the hotel itself, spurring a host of ghostly apparitions, including an entire ballroom dance scene circa 1920's, and even when Wendy does manage to lay Jack low and lock him in the huge hotel's food locker, the ever malicious yet helpful apparition Grady turns up to free him so he can continue on his mission. Kubrick plays with the themes of isolation and claustrophobia as a virtuoso plays the violin. Sure there are hundreds of rooms and corridors and kitchens and basements for Wendy and Danny to hide in, but where can they really go ? Jack smashes the radio. More tension. Jack rips the engine out of the snowmobile, More tension. The use of the Steadicam creates an atmosphere of something always behind you, creeping, waiting, biding its time. I recommend this film to all horror fans although surely most people have seen this terrific movie by now ?