The Shining (1980)

Figure 1

The Shining directed by Stanley Kubrick follows Jack Torrance in his application for a new job as care taker of the isolated and empty Overlook hotel in Colorado during closure season in hopes to coax himself into writing more whilst in solitude. With a warning that a previous care taker developed Cabin Fever from the isolation resulted in him killing his family and finally himself, Jack is given the job. As the film begins to progress the Torrance family begin to feel the isolation of the Overlook and changes begin to occur within all of the family, especially Jack after his encounter with 'Charles Grady' "Torrance finally throws off the shackles of sanity" (Ian Nathan) and also the hotel itself. 

Figure 2

The setting of the film is perfect as it creates a eerily creepy atmosphere with its large rooms and clean patterns and clean rooms, making it appear a little too perfect - which could suggest the hotel itself is possibly covering up its own horrors and poltergeists. "every frame of the film brims with Kubrick's genius for implying psychological purpose in setting: the hotel's tight, sinister labyrinth of corridors; its cold, sterile bathrooms; the lavish, illusionary ballroom. This was horror of the mind transposed to place" (Ian Nathan)

Figure 3

With Kubricks perspective shots which he creates, he achieves the feel of the hotel and also the tension of the scene, the exaggeration of cleanliness within the overlook, the labyrinth of corridors which don't seem physically possible to fit within the hotels interior, the patterns and the claustrophobia of the hallways where tension suggests something may have happened there. With perspective shots Kubrick draws in the viewers to the feeling of insanity and isolation, the shots capture you into thinking/wanting to be within this state of insanity that the characters are in and the feeling of being trapped with them with no escape. "Luckhurst admits, bravely: "I, too, have been tempted to stay in the Overlook for ever and ever." (Roger Luckhurst)

Bibliography 

• Ian Nathan http://www.empireonline.com/movies/shining-2/review/ 29/11/15
• Ian Nathan http://www.empireonline.com/movies/shining-2/review/ 29/11/15
• Roger Luckhurst http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/15/shining-roger-luckhurst-review 29/11/15

Illustrations 

• Fig  1  http://pjhoover.blogspot.co.uk/2011_10_01_archive.html 29/11/15
• Fig 2 http://yipster.tumblr.com/post/41388065679/interior-design-inspiration-via-the-shining-also 29/11/15
• Fig  3 http://www.focusfeatures.com/slideshow/jane_eyre_and_10_other_scary_houses_movies?film=jane_eyre 29/11/15