Stranger In A Stranger Land

Rating: Null/10 (6 September 2002)

Stanley Kubrick is my favorite director, and watching The Shining recently on DVD reminded me why. Kubrick has an uncanny way of setting up normal-looking objects and places so that they have an alien, spacey, distant quality. There are so many other adjectives one could use. He uses lighting, especially in The Shining, masterfully. The Shining, visually, is all about glows and indirect lighting, putting us in the mood for a ghostly story. Strange repeated geometric patterns, which Kubrick shoots with obsessive care, provide more mood, illustrating the relentless heartlessness of the icy world outside of the small bits of quivering, vulnerable warmth known as human beings. (The interlocking geometric carpeting which young Danny plays on, and the fabled hedge maze outside The Overlook Hotel are two prime examples of this.) Finally, even the camera work in The Shining contributes to its otherworldly, inhuman feel, as the camera flows down the hallways and around the corners of The Overlook like a ghost sweeping through a graveyard, or, even more relevantly, like the tidal wave of blood sluicing from the elevators in Danny's visions. The inhumanity in the way the camera moves - which is contrasted with the clumsiness of the human subjects the camera inevitably follows - causes the sneaking feeling that there is something "out there" which cannot be stopped.
Like the best horror films, The Shining works its fear by building dramatic tension. Jack Nicholson's performance explores all the rage, delusion, and confusion needed to lead us down the path from normal world to the other-world of The Shining's darkest moments. When he does go over the top, he plays right into the movie's hands. Even Scatman Crothers' jovial performance, seemingly at odds with the movie's tone, allows something Satanic beneath the surface. Shelly Duvall's Southern neurotic is somewhat unexplained, but she does her best, and visually she could not be more perfect as the dark-haired willow in the haunted hotel. Danny Lloyd as "Danny-Boy" holds his own in the surprisingly large number of scenes he is required to carry. His creepy 10-year-old voice screaming "Redrum!" as Shelly Duvall sleeps may give you chills.