Ager suggests that Danny's experience in Room 237 was his way of externalizing his abuse and that it was his father who assaulted him instead. This appearance doesn't clear up the question about why Jack is seen in the 1921 photo at the Overlook, but it does suggest that the theory about his soul being somehow absorbed by the haunted hotel is actually true. Danny: "Tony is a little boy that lives in my mouth. Kubrick was responsible for such awkward structuring, mainly because he wanted to instill horror through ambience. All the aforementioned signs, and many more, point to the likelihood that Jack sexually abused Danny, making sense of the childs fragile mental state where he frequently has terrifying visions about the vast hotel. Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is a textbook example of a storied film. The hallucination ends when an hysteric Wendy comes running in and informs Jack about a woman in Room 237 who tried to strangle Danny. With scenes that show an elevator gushing out blood or creepy twins that greet you at the end of a hallway, its not hard to see that the visuals of the film are enough to keep anyone on the edge of their seat. The most disturbing aspect of the movie and something that creeped me out after thinking about it (I am an avid horror movie fan but this aspect is just terrifying). Another tracking shot and Danny encounters the Grady twins again, with a new vision of them lying bloodied on the ground. The film within a film parallel is also hinted at by the television content initially filling up our entire view of the scene before zooming out to reveal Danny and Wendy in the lobby. Unable to pass through that same window, Wendy is trapped when Jack arrives and breaks through the door with the axe the famous Heres Johnny! scene. Another connection is that both of these bear motifs are featured in relation to beds or bedrooms. But there are also plenty of ludicrously far-fetched The Shining conspiracy theories that made the cut as well. Why does Tony stay in Dannys mouth? She knocks him unconscious in an act of self defense and locks him in the pantry. The first thing to note is that in the film the guy is dressed in a bear costume instead of a dog costume. Most recently, Pennywise was portrayed byBill Skarsgardin Demons, ghosts, and serial killers all make for frightening movie subjects. Theres something inherently wrong with the human personality. One of the most persuasive is the reoccurrence of The Shining bear symbolism. Jack gets annoyed by Wendy coming in while he was working and tries hard not to completely lose it. The ghost is Delbert Grady, and the past caretaker was Charles Grady. Either way though, it's a haunting moment in The Shining, as the dynamic between the two men is uncomfortable, to say the least. As for all the weird stuff Wendy stumbles across while running through the hotel, like the guy in the bear suit blowing the party guest and the lift full of blood, it's like Halloran said earlier in the film: "A lot of things happened in this hotel over the years, and not all of them were good". Next to the bed is a mirror above a sink and in front of the sink is a stool for the child to stand on, just as he was stood on a stool when brushing his teeth. Meta Quest 2 - Advanced All-In-One Virtual Reality Headset - 128 GB (Renewed Premium). There are many reasons why Stanley Kubricks The Shining is considered one of the most influential horror movies of all time. Simply put, this The Shining analysis posits that the film is just as much about the genocide of Native Americans as it is about ghosts haunting the hotel. Were here to help. Related: The Shining Movie's Most Significant Difference From Stephen King's Book. One of the most chilling details about both the novel and film versions of The Shining is that the Overlook Hotel is based on a real (possibly haunted) location that Stephen King once visited. Kubrick deliberately left many things unexplained, including many details from the third act he did, however, explain why Jack Torrance appears in The Shining picture at the end. First few seconds and we are already given a taste of the mise en scne. In the psychiatrist scene Danny lays on the bed with his jeans removed and his hands curiously covering his groin area, just as Jack did in the fatherly love scene. In the games room, Danny encounters the two girls who are supposed to be the Grady twins. However, in Kubricks adaptation, this context was missing which left many viewers questioning what they were looking at and why at that moment. Danny goes back to his room to get his firetruck and sees a grim looking Jack, his face shown through the mirror again. With a booming siren in the background conveying the initiation of an emergency, we are in the yellow car and we come to know Danny watched something about cannibalism on T.V, and earlier Jack mentions his wife being a horror addict and shes also seen smoking with quivering fingers. The point of Horace's request was cruelty. She also finds Hallorans body, while an injured and weak Jack is chasing Danny through the maze. A rotating shot followed by a hawk-eye shot of pine forests that point out of the screen like needles with the nerve-wracking high pitched background score. The Shining is full of allegory and mystery, but none are as wild and potentially insidious as what could be lurking behind that strange man in a bear suit. Its rumbling overcome by Jacks maddening bellows, who eventually freezes to death. The second obvious factor is that Kubrick has omitted the entire back story associated to the dog costumed man in the book, leaving his audience at a complete loss as to the scenes meaning. And another strange aspect is that there are lots of pornographic pictures of women on the billboard in the basement (see HD version of the film). Quite sensibly quoting Martin Scorsese Watching a Kubrick film is like gazing up at a mountaintop. The Shining Ending Explained: Why Jack Is In The Photo, The Shining Movie's Most Significant Difference From Stephen King's Book, IT Chapter Two's Shining Reference Hints At Stephen King's Shared Universe, The Shining Has An Alternate Ending You Will NEVER See, What Jack Nicholson Was Really Like Filming The Shining, Lloyd the bartender was never a real person, The Shining: The True Story & Real-Life Hotel Behind The Movie. Played with quiet confidence and wounded reservation by "Charm City Kings" star Winston, Kevin starts "We Have a Ghost . Dannys exposure to T.V is also mentioned and it does raise questions over the authenticity of the visions that we see. He then follows that up by complaining about his wife and son, and you can sense the contempt for Wendy in his voice through the suppressed grins that indicate madness instead of anger. I've never read the book. The Overlook or the hedge structure. There are also various historical parallels that support the theory that Kubrick wanted to express subtle themes surrounding the genocide of Native Americans. Both of them secretly despise their wives. In Barry Lyndon a commoner, who marries his way into high society, systematically beats his stepson, Lord Bullingdon. Kubrick replaced the hedge animals in the book with a hedge maze, which like the movie offers endless possibilities but barely any solution. All Rights Reserved. Danny cleverly retraces back his footsteps and makes a false trail to confuse an already transfixed Jack and audience (the high pitched score literally tears you apart with anxiety and the fact that Kubrick changed the whole story in favor of a more pessimistic theme leaves you wondering about the outcome), who follows the footprints to get nowhere. The novel and subsequent film differ in significant ways. It. The Overlook is built on the sacred lands of Native Americans . The truth is, Stanley Kubricks The Shining could in no way be called a faithful adaptation of the source material. Wednesday, and Danny finds the Room 237 ajar and we see him walking towards it because a red ball rolls upto him out of nowhere from that direction. Funnily enough, director Stanley Kubrick had a couple different endings in mind for The Shining, each of them very different. Theres an evil side to it. This is typed inconsistently throughout , with typos and no punctuations highlighting Jacks own ever-growing trance or unstable mental health over the course. The novel provides Roger and Horace's story as an example of atrocities that have happened in the hotel; in a cruel act of domination, Horace instructed Roger to attend one of the hotel's balls in the costume and behave like a dog for the other guests. One of the most frequent questions Ive received about The Shining is What does the guy in the bear costume mean? The popular interpretation is that the scene is a throwback to a subplot of Stephen Kings book, in which a party guest in a dog costume has a homosexual relationship with one of the hotels former owners. Proponents of this theory also point to objects and furniture in the background moving and disappearing between takes as further evidence. Some of the interpretations expressed in Room 237 are interesting and hold water. The hotel was built upon a Native American burial ground and is decorated with various works of Native American art. From the sinister musical scoring to the casts class acts, the film has all the components for a great horror movie. The Shining is Stephen King's third published novel and the one that established his name in the horror genre. Yet, this isn't Jack, rather, it's Lloyd the bartender, albeit not the same Lloyd Jack himself encountered. What's more, while staying at the Stanley Hotel, King reports having caught glimpses of a young boy roaming the halls even though he and his wife were the only registered guests at the time. After being freed from the kitchen pantry by Gradys ghost, Jack (whose sanity was already shattered by that point) goes after Wendy and Danny, axe in hand. At the time, the film made modest profits and was met with lukewarm reviews ("Even the film's most startling images seem overbearing and perhaps even irrelevant," shrugged . Next: The Shining: The True Story & Real-Life Hotel Behind The Movie. Of course the caption relating to incest is the one thats relevant to this chapter, while the Starsky & Hutch caption may be a reference to Jack giving his soul for a drink and the affair caption could be related to Jacks encounter with the woman in room 237. The complete lack of wires running to the TV, pointed out by of my correspondents, may also be related to the concept of a fractal film. (Rob Ager's work plagiarized) Collative Learning 214K subscribers Subscribe 4.1K 167K views 5 years ago Watch my new Shining analysis video. In Stephen Kings original novel, which the film was adapted from, the scene was given more context. The similarities are intentional. Although this makes sense, Kubrick himself has said the photo actually suggests Jack being a reincarnation of an earlier official at the hotel. Whats the fun in a horror movie if the characters could just run through corridors swiftly and escape through the main door without any hindrance. Ultimately, it's all speculative, but Ager's cogent proof unravels the mystery of the bear man all the same. it is impossible not to mention the documentary Room 237. Here's the meaning of The Shining Bear Man explained. A stone labyrinth in the case of the minotaur and a snowy hedge maze in the case of The Shining. Here's the trailer. Jack embraced Danny on the bed in the fatherly love scene, from which Danny would have also been able to see his own predicament in a mirror. The Ultimate Guide to Call Sheets (with FREE Call Sheet Template), How to Break Down a Script (with FREE Script Breakdown Sheet), The Only Shot List Template You Need with Free Download, Managing Your Film Budget Cashflow & PO Log (Free Template), A Better Film Crew List Template Booking Sheet, Best Storyboard Softwares (with free Storyboard Templates), What is an Antagonist in a Story Definition & Examples, What is Telos: The Ultimate Guide to Understand Telos for Video Marketing, What is an Anecdote Definition, Examples, and Functions, What is a Memoir Definition, Examples in Literature & Film. Stephen King's Doctor Sleep follows an adult Danny Torrance after the events at The Overlook Hotel and his endeavor to find closure. Last update on 2023-02-28 / Source: Amazon Affiliates. Theres the woman in room 237 obviously, but theres also a woman walking down a flight of stairs in the lobby who he briefly stares at and theres the two women who say goodbye to Ullman outside the Torrance apartment Jack is last to enter the apartment and sneaks a sly peak at them. But they aren't prepared for the madness that lurks within. One strong and memorable element of The Shining that didnt directly factor into any of these theories was the soundtrack. published July 29, 2020. Ager cites Jack's experience in Room 237 as evidence that he's abusing his son. Dick tells Danny that many people shine but arent aware of it and demands him to not explore Room 237. Shrouded in strange mystery, puzzling cinephiles for decades, one of the films darkest secrets is the curious meaning behind the bear who appears to Shelley Duvalls Wendy as she is desperately escaping Jacks grasp. Coming to Room 237 again, it was Jack who physically assaulted Danny and not the old lady, who serves as a metaphor for the disgusting act carried out by Jack on Danny, and this is exactly why it is shown through a mirror. The Bear Man. In the lobby Danny and Wendy watch a film called Summer of 42, which is about a young man who has an affair with an older woman. Upload images to make storyboards and slideshows. There were many controversies regarding the adaptation taking its own course halfway down the line, and is still lambasted by King and many bookworms. While Danny's barbs do eventually seem to wake up part of Jack's consciousness from inside his Lloyd identity, whatever good he had left in him was clearly erased once Jack was fully taken over. Sam Kench is an internationally-awarded screenwriter, independent filmmaker, and film critic. Contents 1 Biography 2 Notes & Trivia 3 See also 4 External Links 5 Appearances 6 References The bear also appears when a doctor visits Danny and his mother at. Whilst a framed picture of two bears can be seen hanging above Dannys bed at the start of the film, the most obvious reference to the terrifying animals can be seen when the boy is speaking to the psychiatrist after he faints in the bathroom. Yes, one involves the furries. So how can you break put from the pack and get your idea onto the small screen? The abuse part of the story is both physical and psychological: both Wendy and Danny are clearly scared of Jack, even before the hotels influence took control of him, and yet they stayed with him. . Another interesting point, Wendy later holds Danny in the same way as Jack holds the old lady, and also has Jacks blue robe on (the same robe he had while he abused Danny). Below are the six biggest and most popular theories on The Shining explained. There are so many doors in the movie that lead nowhere, like our ideas of the movie that according to Kubrick offer no explanation and hence raises the question : What is the maze? On the subject of wedding rings, a consistent detail is that none of the males in the film wear one. This theory posits that the Overlook Hotel represents hell (or another form of afterlife for the ghosts such as purgatory). Lover of foreign films; hater of American remakes. The dog/sexual abuse interpretation hasnt been confirmed by those involved in the film, so its up to each viewer if they accept it or not. What happens to Wendy and Danny after that is unknown (in the film, at least), although a deleted scene featured them in a hospital, recovering both physically and mentally from everything they went through. Her gullible belief of Dannys room 237 story is plain silly. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round. He was a figure associated with a variety of grand adventures throughout his life, the grandest of which being his ordeal with King Minos minotaur in the labyrinth. The film Stanley Kubrick called "the best film I think I have ever seen" Shrouded in strange mystery, puzzling cinephiles for decades, one of the film's darkest secrets is the curious meaning behind the bear who appears to Shelley Duvall's Wendy as she is desperately escaping Jack's grasp. In the scene, Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall) is roaming through the halls of The Overlook Hotel with a knife when she approaches a door at the end of a long hallway. Parents just don't understand. The main headlines of the 1978 issue involve two key sections, reading as follows: Incest: Why parents sleep with their children, and, How to avoid a dead end affair. Halloran grows concerned about whats going on in the hotel and flies back to Colorado. We also see two doors on either side of Room 237 that lead nowhere. Did Jack put them there? Master the art of visual storytelling with our FREE video series on directing and filmmaking techniques. Being one of the best 80s horror movies, the flick is so much more than just cheap jump scares. Wendy seems to be thoroughly disturbed by this and runs away. But it is clear that there is no Jack Torrance left, his insanity has reached its zenith. I love Joe Turkels mesmerizing performance as Lloyd, his calmness giving a helping hand to Jacks boiling conscious. For a detailed description of this subplot follow this link. Also to be noted, this is the first time we see Jack in the burgundy jacket, the color similar to that of the liquid gushing out of the elevator in Dannys vision. Find out which other movies made it onto our list of the best horror soundtracks, up next. Based on the book of the same name by Stephen King, The Shining follows Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic who takes a job as the off-season caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. Of course, the ghost of Grady freeing Jack from the freezer remains hard to explain away, although that doesn't stop some from trying. Set in the towering, fictional Overlook Hotel, located in the Colorado Rockies, the haunting tale follows Jack Torrance (Nicholson), his wife, Wendy (Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd) who opt to look after the hotel over the winter. But also the sexual abuse is shown in a scene between Jack and his father in the bizarre scene with the man in the bear costume and older gentleman. More and more people are flocking to the small screen to find daily entertainment. And tries hard not to completely lose it hell ( or another form of afterlife for the madness lurks. From, the film the guy is dressed in a bear costume instead of storied! 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