Page 209 - Student: dazed And Confused

To leave the film rooted in this real world would have been a mistake as the trick to any
horror of value is to launch everyone that is both bizarre and starkly genuine. The

suspension of disbelief between the familiar and unpredictable worlds is key - audience

need to believe that what is happening on screen could happen to them the moment they
leave the cinema.

One of the most chilling horror films in a long time is The Shining (1980).

'Another trend that started tentatively in the Seventies and
continues to the present day is that of the Stephen King
adaptation. His prolific body of work and commercial success
has led to anything he has penned turning up in some form on
cinema and television screens.'
(Leblanc and Odell, 2001, p39)

Perhaps it is because the workings of Kings mind are so well mined that audiences accepted

corridors awash with blood and creepy silent girls at every turn. But Danny although the

one with the titular Shining, was not the true focus of the film. That honour goes to Jack

Torrance.

He first claims to relish the eternal peace and tranquillity the Overlook Hotel brings. He is
working on a book and wants no distractions. A form of insanity grows within him. He

starts snapping at his family, typing the same sentence over and over on his typewriter and

sabotages all communication with the outside world. Jacks behaviour is growing slightly
more unhinged moment by moment and we can see his psyche unravelling. Attempting to

brutally murder his own family is a touch extreme at first glance but having witnessed the

above events leading up to it, the act is perfectly plausible and nobody dares question it.

Rational minds struggle to find other reasons for his behaviour although an exquisite

balance has been struck between driving madness and stark normality.

Nobody can truly deny that they would go mad if trapped in a snowbound hotel with
nothing to do but write and listen. The core of reality lies in horror - in accepting that

anything on the screen could happen to you. Obviously it would take a huge coincidence for

it to happen but audiences need to emerge from the cinema imagining that a hook-handed
zombie is lying in wait in the backseat of their car. The Shining, like all of Kings good work, is