The Shining Analysis

Bat scene

The scene starts with a medium shot tracking Jack in the centre. He puts his arm over the chair showing his dominance. There is a window in the background showing light coming through.Jack is staring at the camera menacingly.

The next shot is a medium shot of Wendy she clearly looks anxious and frightened clutching on to her bat in fear she may have to use it. Her eyes are wide and watering as she speaks in a load whining voice to show her fear.

It goes back to another medium shot of Jack this time he moves from the chair over to his typewriter and work as he flicks through the pages quickly while smiling  and knocking his fist on to it show how much of a pointless waste it is. He looks at her knowing what she is worried about as he gives off a smug smile.

Next medium shot of Wendy shows her stuttering and not being sure to react because she fears Jacks reaction. She moves around lost for words looking confused.

It then tracks Jack around the room for a few seconds looking very threatening while he strokes the table. He remains in the centre of the shot.

It then to cuts to a medium shot of Danny looking shocked and disturbed. It zooms in on Danny's face as he doesn't move looks completely blank and traumatised. There is dissonant music and Jacks voice speaking to him, this creates a disturbing effect.

The next shot is a long shot with the screen red showing blood covering the screen symbolising death. There is as sea of blood flowing at the bottom. It then cuts to as shot of a door with the words "Redrum" written in red on it this is murder backwards and also shows death. This foreshadows what happens later in the film.

It then shows Wendy walking backwards away from Jack scared.  It then shows Jack getting aggressive and shouting at Wendy asking her questions he is pointing at himself whilst moving his head back to show his anger and selfishness. It cuts between Jack and Wendy making the violence and drama more effective

He refers to Wendy as “Wendy? Darling? Light of my life” in a sarcastic angry this a reference to Peter Pan and shows Wendy’s innocence comparing her to the character of Wendy Darling who was an ordinary girl pulled into a supernatural world like this Wendy.

 He switches his facial expression from smiling to frowning showing how angry he is. He moves more as he talks getting madder waving his arms around. The camera pans around him.

Then there is a shot of Wendy walking backward up the stairs still facing Jack. The back of Jacks head comes on screen as he is shouting and she is waving the bat. Even though she has the upper hand as she is a weapon Jack is very much the stronger and more dominant character in this situation. Wendy doesn't have much of an effect scaring Jack while Jack terrifies Wendy.

Jack is now dark in silhouette while Wendy is surrounded by light. This shows the characters role in the story of Wendy being good as a protagonist and Jack being bad as an antagonist.

Bathtub scene

The scene starts with a close up shot of the chief looking shocked making the audience wonder what he is seeing. It zooms on his face having a piercing high pitch noise in the background showing it is uncomfortable and getting worse. You can see he is shaking slightly.

It then shows a close up shot of the door key for room 237 which is important in the plot.

It then cuts to a medium Danny who is shaking and foaming at the mouth make the audience feel how awful it is for him to be experiencing this. It is similar to the first shot used showing both Danny and the cook are experiencing the same thing.

It then cuts to a wide shot carrying on with the same non-diegetic sound this a first person shot that pans around the room and walks down with Jack. This puts you in the place of the character and makes more frightening as it is more personal. It doesn’t show Jack in the shot until handing opening the door building to the reveal of the bathroom.

The bathroom has similar shapes and colours with bright light showing it. The light green, white and yellow colours create an unusual feel as it looks different to all the other rooms. The shot is split directly in the middle with the end of the shower parting it in the centre. It is still a handheld shot as you can see the camera moving slightly.

It then cuts a medium close up shot of Jack looking scared of what he might see. This is one of the only times we see Jack looking worried as he is mostly seen as a threat.

There is then another shot of the room where we see a hand pull the curtain this tricks the audience into thinking there will be something horrible behind the curtain but in actuality there’s an attractive naked women.

Jack’s expression changes letting out a slight smile still he is seen as perverted.

You see the women walk out of the fully naked this would be very shocking for the audience because of how revealing it is.

There is a then a two shot of both Jack and the women shown to be sexual but the music still implies something sinister is going on. They slowly touch and hold each other. Before they stare at each other before the women reaches out to Jack. Jack knows that this wrong but goes along.

There is then an over the shoulder close up shot of shot of them kissing this shows intimacy and makes the audience uncomfortable. You can see Jack stops and widens his eyes seeing something is wrong before pulling away from her face.

The camera the whip pans to a medium shot of the mirror seeing the disgusting body of the women this would immediately shot the audience.

It then cuts back to Danny who has seen all of this and there is a disturbing laugh in the background from the women.

You see the women’s old decaying body in the bathtub to shock the audience.

Jack is very frightened as you see him with his mouth and eyes wide open hurrying away backwards.

You then see a medium shot of the women’s entire body chases Jack while laughing manically. This is horrifying image that would stay with the audience traumatising them.

Then shows an extreme close up of Danny as over the course off the scene he is getting more and more frightened so the camera got closer and closer.

It then shows her body rising up out of the bathtub indicating her rising from the dead.

You then see a long shot of the corridor now in darkness with Jack becoming a silhouette as he hastily gets away questioning if what he just saw was real. You can still hear the women laughing in the background.