Kubrick's The Shining

Kubrick’s The Shining explores all of the typical patterns in a psychological horror. The film explores fears that are very easy for the audience to relate to, and that is what allowed the film to twist our minds so.

As a woman, its particularly easy to relate to Wendy’s fears, however I can also apply some of the fears Jack has to a man’s perspective as well. Wendy had her fears for Danny, normal mother fears, and fears about his mental and physical health and well being. She also had fears of her own spouse-every woman’s worst nightmare really. She was the main outlet through which fears were expressed on a surface level. She was the most vocal character about her fears, for instance when she brought up the Donner Party on the drive up to the motel. 

Jack has a common male fear of not being able to provide for his family, hence his agreement to maintain the hotel, and work on a new book in the process. He later seems to show a slight fear of hurting his family, based on the fact he had previously injured his own son in a drunken rage.

Danny explores the world of fear through a child’s eyes, which is probably the most frightening viewpoint, because children are young, unknowing, and vulnerable. He fears a new home (the hotel), and he fears his father, for obvious reasons. At the same time, he explores the hotel with what seems to a fearless curious attitude. At first, it seemed like Danny’s premonitions if you will could be chocked up to nightmares, which is another fear that is especially tangible when the audience puts themselves in a child’s shoes.

Altogether, the film takes the worst fears of an American family and combines them into what could feel like the eighth level of domestic hell, one abusive parent, one powerless parent, a child with what appears to be mental illness, living in a gargantuan hotel on an isolated mountain, alone, over winter. Throw in that the hotel was scene to a murder, theoretically haunted, and the viewer is served with a hell-ish thoughts sundae with the cherry on top. I do not have much experience with horror movies, most definitely my least favorite genre, so I really don’t have anything I can compare it to.