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The Investigation into ‘The Shining’

with Frauds views of ‘The Uncanny’ to

explain the ways on how this can be

used in film to effect the audience

CGAA Unit 3 Written Assignment

By: Nicholas Baker

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Contents Page

Introduction: Page 3

Main Essay: Page 4 - 6

Conclusion: Page 7

Bibliography: List of Sources Page 8

List of Illustrations Page 8

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Introduction

Uncanny: “having or seeming to have a supernatural or inexplicable basis; beyond the ordinary or

normal; extraordinary: uncanny accuracy; an uncanny knack of foreseeing trouble”. (Uncanny, 2011).

This assignment will be based around the investigation of the term ‘the uncanny’ to Stanley Kubrick’s

‘The Shining’ (1980) Sources include; Sigmund Freud’s ‘The Uncanny’. This will help get an

understanding of Freud’s views of uncanny to compare to with the film and to see the effects that it

could have with the audience. Another source is; Michael Ciments interview with Kubrick about the

Shining. This goes into depth about the imagery and reasons for the production design for how it is

and how it physiologically affects the audience. The final source is; Gordon Dahlquist: Kubrick FAQ

‘The Shining’ which argues some of the unexplained parts with the views of Freud’s views. With

these sources they will help to answer how uncanny has made such an impact to Kubrick’s film

adaptation to Steven King’s novel ‘The Shining’.

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Main Essay

The Shining is a film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel (The Shining) which was directed by

Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick has directed many famous films through the decades like Full Metal

Jacket, The Exorcist and Clockwork Orange though all pretty explanatory films except for the

Shining.

The way Kubrick has produced and imagined the novel to his adaptation has marked it as an

uncanny film by how it makes you feel uneasy and unwelcome as well as how it leaves the

audience confused and left with questions unanswered. The film emphasis on a family that

stays in the Overlook hotel for 5 months during the winter when things start to go wrong for

the father ‘Jack’ who starts to see apparitions or phantoms as he slowly spirals into madness

from the hotels horror like atmosphere. Fraud stats “The uncanny is something which is

secretly familiar, which has undergone repression and then returned from it. Everything that

is uncanny fulfils this condition.” (Freud, 1919) By Freud’s statement in relation to the film

this gives off an impression that the ghosts that jack sees could not be ghosts they could be

the troubled history of when he attacked his soon and this could be that the hotel is making

his repressed demons come out in physical form with the hotels own intentions. With

Kubrick using Freud’s Uncanny views to mould a base for the main character to then show

the uncanny in him throughout the film to give an unsettling presence for the rest of the

family.

Figure 1 - 'The Shining' Hallway Scene

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The production design and layout to the films sets were meant to give off the impression of

unsettling aura from its long corridors and horrible carpet and wall patterns which clashed

the perfect symmetry of doors opposite each other and the high case of claustrophobia

from most parts of the hotel give off an eerie atmosphere. The Film still above is a scene

from the film. The way this scene has the sense of uncanny to it is from Kubrick’s production

design to make the hallways huge in comparison to the characters in the film like Danny for

example in this scene seems tiny, certain camera angles and patterns clashing can give off a

different perspective to confuse and disorientate our minds from the repetitiveness. Kubrick

stats “The hotel's labyrinthine layout and huge rooms, I believed, would alone provide an

eerie enough atmosphere. This realistic approach was also followed in the lighting, and in

every aspect of the decor it seemed to me that the perfect guide for this approach could be

found in Kafka's writing style.” (Kubrick, 1987) This puts the point across of Kubrick’s style of

production worked well to gain the effect of uncanny and to give off that feeling to the

audience with the techniques used.

Figure 2 - 'The Shining' The Dog & Butler

The film still above is a scene from the film when the hotel is starting to unravel all its dark

secrets as it physiologically breaks down and instead of just appearing to ‘Jack Torrance’

they show odd and uncanny things to the rest of the Torrance family, mainly Jacks wife

‘Wendy’. With the mental destruction of the Overlook hotel it suggests that the paranormal

activities that occur are to break Wendy’s will and either bring her to same level of madness

that Jack has come too or to make it easier for her to be killed by Jack. Freud Stats “An

uncanny effect is often and easily produced when the distinction between imagination and

reality is effaced, as when something that we have hitherto regarded as imaginary appears

before us in reality, or when a symbol takes over the full functions of the thing it symbolizes,

and so on.” (Freud, 1919). With this we as the audience focus primarily on physical realities

and not so much the material realities, which is what Kubrick emphasises on through the

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production of his film but we as the audience don’t notice this and get confused as we try to

put a meaning to it which to us makes us get an uncanny feeling.

Figure 3 - 'The Shining' 1921 Photo

At the very end of the film there is a scene of the hotel as classic 1910-1920 music is being

played as the camera slowly moves forward to focus on this photo in the distance and as

you can see, Jack is in the photo which was taken in 1920, which leaves the audience once

again confused and seeking answers as from what they just saw. Through the films endless

use of uncanny it leaves the question was there two ‘Jacks’ and he somehow attained the

feeling that he has always been the caretaker or is it all Jacks imagination. Dahlquist argues

“It is to say he is two people: the man with choice in a perilous situation and the man who

has 'always' been at the Overlook”. (Dahlquist, 1991). The film does not give off this extra

knowledge and gives an unexplained ending which leaves the audience wanting answers

from the confusion of the two ‘Jacks’.

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Conclusion

In conclusion to the investigation Freud’s views have influence Kubrick greatly to direct

Stephen King’s novel ‘The Shining’, and how he has interpretated his views into his work to

create an environment of pure uncanny throughout the length of the film from the camera

angles to hallway scenes. The way Kubrick has made the paranormal entities seem realistic

but yet beg the question are they ghosts or the breakdown of Jacks imagination is confusing

but the way it has been portrayed gives of the impression that they are as real as them.

Overall there are many traces of uncanny within many scenes throughout ‘The Shining’ with

every scene building suspense and tension from the nerve wrecking breakdown and slow

build up to the mental destruction of the hotel, which leaves the audience with a more

common feeling to uncanny after they have seen the film.

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Bibliography

List of Illustrations:

Fig 1 - The Shining Film Still: Hallway Scene. [1980] From: The Shining. On Billmovieemporium:

http://billsmovieemporium.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/30-day-film-challenge-day-22-your-

favorite-horror-film-the-shining-1980/ (Accessed: 17/01/2012)

Fig 2 - The Shining Film Still: Dog and Butler. [1980] From: The Shining. On Melissasmedicinema:

http://melissasmedicinema.wordpress.com/category/lists/ (Accessed: 17/01/2012)

Fig 3 - The Shining Film Still: 1921 Photo. [1980] From: The Shining. On Electricfleapit:

http://electricfleapit.com/2010/11/25/film-review-the-shining/ (Accessed: 17/01/2012

List of Sources:

Dahlquist, Gordon. (1991), ‘Kubrick FAQ’ http://www.visual-

memory.co.uk/faq/html/shining/shining2.html# (Date Accessed: 14/12/2011)

Freud, Sigmund. (1919) ‘The Uncanny’. http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/freud1.pdf (Date

Accessed: 14/12/2011)

Kubrick, Stanley. (1987). (Interview by Michael Ciment, 1987) http://www.visual-

memory.co.uk/amk/doc/interview.ts.html (Date Accessed: 14/12/2011)

Uncanny. Definition 1. (2011). In: Dictionary.com. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/uncanny

(Date Accessed: 14/12/2011)