Thursday 30 April 2015

YOU'LL WANT TO STAY FOREVER











































THE SHINING, d. Stanley Kubrick (1980)

As chaos takes over at The Overlook Hotel, the past begins to give up its secrets, and Wendy finds herself in a world of horror. Almost comically so, in some ways, as every corner she turns seems to provide another nightmarish vision, and another variation on screaming whilst maintaining a goggle eyed expression of terror.

This sequence, cut from the original British release,  perhaps takes it one step too far. It's scary, certainly, but it doesn't make any sense. Who are these people? We know they didn't die here like this, so why would they appear in these ghoulish tableaux? Why would their skeletons still be on the phone, or serving drinks? It's all a bit gratuitous, and it doesn't feel right. This is a Stanley Kubrick film, after all, not a ghost train. 

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