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  • Dunkey: The Shining is one of cinema's most mysterious and haunting experiences.

  • It's a film that plays so well to wild, speculative theories

  • because it never shows its full hand.

  • Many horror movies feature these seemingly unstoppable monsters

  • but then there always comes that scene where they explain what it is-

  • You know, why it's killing people, how do you beat it?

  • and once they become this tangible thing-

  • They're never as scary anymore.

  • Though The Shining is meticulously littered with hints and clues towards the true nature of its intentions,

  • It can never be fully explained or understood.

  • "And you always fear, what you don't understand."

  • Dunkey: On the surface level, this film is about a writer and his family who move into this remote hotel

  • located in the mountains to take care of it over the winter.

  • Except-! Some time during their stay, he snaps and he tries to kill them.

  • Oh boy! Sounds simple, but it's not at all presented in such a clear-cut manner.

  • Did Jack Torrance plan to murder his family all along?

  • Or was he possessed by some evil force within the hotel?

  • When does he actually snap?

  • Is this movie about European settlers, slaughtering the Native Americans?

  • Is this movie about how Kubrick faked the moon landing?

  • Is this movie about Hitler's final solution?

  • Are the events witnessed in the film actually the events of Jack's novel that he successfully publishes?

  • There are so many paths and threads to follow-

  • that you've just become lost in this hypnotic maze of thoughts and ideas.

  • [Haunting, melodic music plays]

  • One of the most terrifying elements of this movie is how it so realistically envelops

  • the viewer into this scenario of domestic abuse.

  • Wendy and Danny are snowbound in this isolated location with Jack-

  • just as many women and children are trapped in these horrible abusive relationships.

  • As a spectator, of course you say, "What are you doing?"

  • You know, "Get out of there! Get out!", but in real life things are never that simple.

  • "You've had your whole FUCKING LIFE to think things over!"

  • "What good's a few minutes more gonna do you now!?"

  • Dunkey: The Holocaust. The Native American genocide. Slavery.

  • All of this wickedness is in the past,

  • Yet we still feel its reverberations today.

  • "White man's burden, Lloyd my man, white man's burden."

  • Just as horror movies provide this thrill-ride sense of escapism,

  • Perhaps the apparitions Danny sees in the hotel are simply figments of his imagination

  • To distract him from the very real things happening all around him.

  • This concept of an invisible, looming evil is deeply disturbing.

  • You have the scene where he's typing his novel, which is unbearably tense,

  • when you actually know what Jack is typing there and you see Wendy walking towards him.

  • And she's so sweet in this movie, and so oblivious to what's happening right in front of her.

  • Jack: "Hi."

  • The Shining is more interested in concepts and images than flimsy jump scares.

  • The camera sticks to Danny, as he explores the Overlook Hotel's labyrinthine design.

  • Allowing your mind to wander as you gaze into this impenetrable, supernatural place.

  • You start building this familiarity with the hotel's cryptic layout,

  • while your imagination fills its empty rooms with dark foreboding thoughts.

  • Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Joe Terkel, Phillip Stone.

  • Every single role, it's just perfectly casted here.

  • "You don't try and photograph the reality."

  • "You try and photograph the photograph of the reality."

  • Dunkey: Everything the characters are going through is internalized.

  • You know, it's psychological,

  • So to balance this, you have this maniacally expressive performance by Jack Nicholson.

  • He's able to convey so much with his face alone,

  • that you can't take your eyes off him for a second.

  • We can't always see this faceless evil manipulating Jack,

  • but... maybe, we can hear it.

  • [Droning organ music]

  • Right from the opening scene, this creepy electronic organ suggests a sinister force

  • lurking above us microscopic humans who are helpless to fight back,

  • almost as if the trees themselves are scheming against us.

  • Kubrick, having been a huge fan of David Lynch's "Eraserhead"

  • employs a similar technique of a droning, ominous soundtrack.

  • Filling the air with dread, never allowing the audience to breathe.

  • The hotel seduces Jack with a relieving melody, while transforming the image of his loving family

  • into this horrible oppressive noise.

  • Then, this fucking avant-garde nightmare orchestra starts stabbing at you with violins.

  • Jus-

  • J-Just get out!

  • WHAT'RE YOU DOING!?

  • GET OUTTA HERE!

  • C'MON

  • GET OUT!

  • Dunkey: And then it's over.

  • You're left with this final lingering shot of the hallway leading to the Gold Room,

  • which we've gone past so many times in the film.

  • and you see a wall, populated with black and white photographs from a different time.

  • and in the center of them...

  • A lively party.

  • And in the front of a sea of people...

  • Jack Torrance, inviting us in. Dated July 4th, 1921.

  • The answer to the riddle, hidden in plain sight.

  • [Outro music]

Dunkey: The Shining is one of cinema's most mysterious and haunting experiences.

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