The Shining: Generating Intrigue Through Editing Techniques
The Shining disturbs and hypnotizes. It creates an urge for the viewer to look over their shoulder with the feeling that someone or something is in the room with them. Co-writers, Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson, approached writing the film with the intention to set it apart from conventional horror films of that period. Their unique approach was to establish an interaction between the viewer and the plot, where the viewer would feel as if they were also descending into madness along with the characters on screen. The end product was intended to be an experience when hallucinations/figments/apparitions were indistinguishable from reality.
All throughout the pre-production phase, the screenplay was still being written out and reworked constantly. Co-writer Diane Johnson said she even toured the sets prior to writing certain scenes in order to figure out the staging of dialogue and action for each character within the script. Rewrites continued all the way through filming as well, and Nicholson is even quoted for having said in an on-set interview, “I quit using my script. I just take the ones they type up each day”, which further illustrates the scripted scenes and the overall design of the film were both created simultaneously, each with the other element in mind. Fortunately, there is a lot of documentation on the writing process from Johnson’s accounts of working with Kubrick. She recounted that Kubrick's approach was to conceive the plot in terms of time segments in relation to the entirety of the film. By the end of production, ten discernable segments existed, each marked with a title card at the beginning of the film. In order they are:
- The Interview
- Closing Day
- A Month Later
- Tuesday
- Thursday
- Saturday
- Monday
- Wednesday
- 8 AM (Final Day)
- 4 PM (Final Day).
These titles refer to the subjects of each section, but as the film moves on the time intervals increase from a month later, to days of the week, to specific times during the final day at the Overlook Hotel. The increasing passage of time (within the plot) in relation to the screen-time dedicated to each of those segments works to create a sense of momentum and suspense for the viewer. It’s almost as if there is an ever-present feeling that, as the viewer, we’re getting closer to the impending horror that awaits, and we’re powerless to stop its approach. The setup to the film directly indicates the dangers will appear earlier rather than later. Instead of giving the viewer reasons to doubt that Jack would even consider hurting his family, we’re promptly told that he has a history as an alcoholic, having injured Danny previously.
The dialogue from the first time segment, “The Interview” that a previous caretaker went mad and ended up murdering his family with an axe. This setup describes the very thing Jack will later attempt to do. The film gives us every reason to dislike Jack and suspect him capable of such horrendous actions. Along with the establishment of characters, the film (very early on) reveals and explains a great deal of the supernatural elements, this removes most of the potential mystery of the story because the viewer is essentially told how the plot will unfold, despite this, the film remains frightening because the core of the film’s plot isn't what will happen but rather how it will happen. Kubrick did not intend to produce a conventional horror film, instead, he & Johnson aimed to hold themselves to a higher standard. Johnson said the film must: be plausible use no cheap tricks have no plot holes have no failures of motivation exude creepiness. So what distinguishes creepiness from other types of fear? In a 2013 study, published by Francis T McAndrew and Sarah S Koehnke, it was stated that “it is [their] belief … creepiness is anxiety aroused by the ambiguity of whether there is something to fear or not and/or by the ambiguity of the precise nature of the threat”. Certain articles of clothing such as masks, hooded coats, or any garb with deep pockets are all typically associated with the sensation of being “creeped-out” because they obscure the hands and face, and thus make ambiguous the intentions of the individual wearing them. It’s this theory which helps explain why most individuals, upon viewing The Shining, consider the apparition of the identical twin girls to be so frightening. When they first appear, it is a brief cut, from the blood filled elevator to the twins, that lasts a second at most. It’s not long enough for the viewer to make any clear judgments or come to a conclusion of how they should feel.
The elevator scene primes the viewer to be apprehensive about the following visuals because the brain is already unsettled and in a guarded state. Their next scene allows for a more extended appearance, but at a distance, it is difficult to read their faces or make out the subtle signals of their body language. Once the film cuts from the long shot, back to the close up of Danny’s reaction, it repeats this sequence (holding on the long shot and the close up respectively) as the twins give their monotone, unnerving, synchronized dialogue. The sequence is broken when the scene cuts to a full shot the bloodied corpses of the twins lying in the hallway with an axe lying next to them, but as quickly as it appears, the film abruptly cuts back to the shot of the twins standing together again, but the long shot has become a full shot. This cut to the scene of the twins, dead, and cut back to the twins standing together occurs again with the full shot becoming a medium shot. Even as the sequence of shots bring the twins into more detail for the viewer, their presence and dialogue indicate they want something, but the twins remain perfectly still and their expressions betray nothing, leaving the viewer to struggle with the unease produced from their indiscernible intentions. As mentioned before, the brain, once shocked or frightened by such sequences, remains in a chronic state of alertness for some duration after the event. This is why quick cuts to confusing and disturbing imagery prime the viewer’s mind to perceive the following scene(s) as unnerving and creepy.
Across most species, the brain has evolved to assume danger in ambiguous situations, the filmmaking in the shining activates these same primal reactions in a few ways. The music, composed by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind, is best described as unsettling and unpredictable. It pairs perfectly with the editing and pacing of the film because the score will often suddenly spike in volume and tempo, startling the viewer (often when nothing much is occurring in the scene), other times the music, despite visual changes, remains unresponsive during high tension scenes. These combined elements make the film play out in an atypical and unpredictable manner which adds to the creeping tension it subtly signals the viewer to be alert throughout every scene. Similarly to the example of the mask creating ambiguity and thus unease, the Overlook Hotel utilizes a bright, colorful facade to mask the underlying horror and suspense. These layers of information being delivered to the viewer through visual, auditory, narrative, and implied queues creates unease, as there is a conflict of assessments being made concerning the appropriate reaction to the scenarios portrayed in each scene of the film.
The Shining exists as a great example of how film, as a medium, is capable of accessing and manipulating or twisting the viewer’s psyche. Kubrick and Johnson demonstrate that the most powerful and lingering type of fear doesn't reside in the threat or even portrayal of a monster on the screen but from the apprehensive and anxious imaginations of the viewer. As an audience, they create tension from uncertainty as they try to resolve their interpretation of disjointed chunks of information. Within that process, the viewer will panic and wallow in unease as their mind creates rationalizations that they might not want to even consider, which only frightens them further. Kubrick displays how great filmmaking can access and provoke our primal fears while telling a deceptively simple narrative. As Kubrick described it, “It's just the story of one man's family quietly going insane together”.
References
- McAndrew, Francis T. , and Koehnke, Sara S. “(On the Nature of) Creepiness. ” Knox College, Society for Personality and Social Psychology [SPSP] (2013): 22. Academia. Web. 20th Feb. 2019. https://www. academia. edu/2465121/Creepiness
