The Shining Analysis

The Shining Analysis

The first scene that I am going to analyse from the film is the come play with us scene. In this scene you see Danny riding his tricycle around the corridors of the hotel. Danny is riding the tricycle because after the film “The Omen” was made children riding tricycles has became a convention of the horror genre. The establishing shot if the scene is an extreme long shot of Danny on his tricycle riding from one room to another. In the room that Danny rides into the lighting is red. This signifies danger and blood because you know something is going to happen to him. During this scene you can also hear some very high pitched non diagetic music. This is a convention of the horror genre. The camera in this shot is an extreme tracking long shot from behind Danny. This is used to make you feel like something is stalking Danny and following him. In the next part of the scene you see Danny go around a corner, on his tricycle, to see the two girls. This part of the scene starts with a tracking mid shot of Danny on his tricycle. In this shot you can see that Danny is wearing a red the jumper. This is the mise en scene again showing the colour red to mean danger, death and blood. The blood aspect of this is foreshadowing later events in the film. The colour red and blood are also conventions of the horror genre.  When Danny sees the two girls the music becomes louder. This is to try to shock, scare and build suspense. Personally I felt that this was not scary because it wasn’t loud enough to shock me and i was expecting it because this is a famous scene from the film. You then see a close up of Danny’s face. You see this so you can see the shock on Danny’s face. This is to show that Danny is scared of the two girls because no one else is supposed to be in the hotel. In this scene you hear the two girls say “come and play with us Danny” when the girls say this line their voices are echoed this is done to try and build suspense and creep the viewers out. In the next part of the scene you see it jump cut between the two girls standing in front of Danny and the two girls lying dead on the floor soaked in blood with an axe next to their bodies. Each time it cuts back to the girl the camera is closer each time. It goes from an extreme long shot to a long shot and then to a mid shot. This is used to scare the viewer. Feast paced editing is also a convention of the horror genre. At the end of this scene you see another close up of Danny’s face which then cuts to the shot from behind Danny so you see that the two girls are gone. When you see these two shots the non diagetic music is very high pitched. This is used to create suspense and to shock the viewer.

The next scene I am going to analyse is the all work and no play makes jack a dull boy scene. In the beginning of this scene you see Wendy, Jacks wife, looking through jacks book that he has been writing but every single page says “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. The first shot of this scene is a low angle shot from behind the typewriter looking at Wendy’s face. Then it cuts to a close up of the typewriter with the words “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” written on it. This shot is used to show you how jack has gone crazy and lost his mind. The next shot is of a stack of paper in a box with even more of the writing on it. In this shot the camera uses a quick zoom to get closer to the paper. This zoom is used to emphasise the madness. While this is going on you can here high pitched non diagetic music. The music is very high pitched because it builds up tension and suspense. The music in this scene also picks up tempo as Wendy starts to look through the papers quicker. This is also used to create suspense. You then see Wendy going through all of the papers and they are all exactly the same. This is shot is a very long take because it makes you feel that something is going to happen. In this scene you can also see that Wendy is dressed very much like a Native American Indian. This is done because the film has a very strong underlying meaning about America and how it treats the natives, which is also why the hotel in the film is built on an ancient Native American Indian burial site. You can also see later in the scene that jack is wearing the colours of the American flag (red, white and blue) which emphasises the underlying message of the Americans killing the Native Americans. After this you see a panning shot from a wall to behind Wendy. This shot is used to make you think that someone, possibly Jack, is coming up behind her. Also on the wall you can see that the gaps in between the picture frames on the wall make a cross shape. This is a recurring motif in the mise en scene of film because of the powers that their son Danny posses. After the panning shot this is when jack appears at the entrance to the room where Wendy is. When Jack walks into the room they used a mid tracking shot until he stops and then they use eye line match editing during the conversation. This is used to show how Jack and Wendy are equals. Also in this part of the scene you can once again see the recurring motif in the mise en scene of the crosses in the window behind Jack. Jack the walks over to the stack of paper and starts flicking through it. When he does this the non diagetic music matches his actions and is in time with what he is doing. This is done to add emphasis to what he is doing. The next shot is of Jack trying to get closer to Wendy the shot switches between a forwards mid tracking shot of Wendy and a backwards mid tracking shot of Jack. This is done so that you see both characters perspectives and so that you feel intimidated and scared by Jack. While this is happening you also get parallel editing between this Wendy and Jacks conversation and Danny sitting in his room. While Danny is sitting in his room you he is having visions which foreshadow later events. You can also still hear Wendy and Jacks conversation but Jacks voice is echoed. This is done to make jack sound sinister and to make the viewer scared of him. Eventually Jack and Wendy get onto the stair case in the room. When this happens the camera is tilted so that when you are looking from Jacks perspective you are at a low angle and when you are at Wendy’s perspective you are at a high angle. This is done to show that Wendy is going to hit jack with the baseball bat because she is more dominant. This shocked me personally because Jack is supposed to be the killer so you would expect it to be the other way around. This is not following the conventions of the horror genre