Foreshadowing in THE SHINING - film analysis

well Halloran and Danny have their private conversation in the hotel kitchen we are given the following explanation of what there is this simple description applies not just to Danny's experience but also to the actual film structure repeatedly throughout the shining Kubrick bombards us with visual auditory and conceptual hints of what is about to happen next it's a common psychological device in film sometimes referred to as foreshadowing and has been used by suspense masters going all the way back to Alfred Hitchcock in the shining however the use of foreshadowing fits in as a narrative device it makes the audience share Danny's psychic traumas of the hotel his anticipation of the horror to come during the conversation with Halloran Danny asks and immediately we cut to our first wide shot of their conversation which shows a set of knives in the background pointing directly at Danny's head a hints of the murderous danger that awaits the family now you might automatically think coincidental but I'm gonna call it and say no that's deliberate and perhaps when you've seen the rest of the examples in this video you might agree Jack's knowledge of a former caretaker murdering his family is also a foreknowledge for the audience of the film's coming events but at some point during the wonder he must have suffered some kind of a complete mental breakdown he ran amuck killed his family with an axe aside from the obvious on-screen flashes of the twin ghost gales prior to Danny seeing their dead bodies we are subliminally hinted of their presence several times when the tolerances are being shown around the hotel at least three times we see women in pairs carrying luggage about two of these pairs are head wishing goodbye to mr. almond and the most prominent link between these women and the twin girls is that the pair we see outside of Jack's apartments have seen with a portion of hallway in the background the features the same blue and white flowered wallpaper that we see when the twins dead bodies are revealed later this wallpaper appears that no other points in the film besides here and the two dead twins in the first tricycle seen the red floors of the hallway maybe a subliminal foresight of the river of blood which Wendy sees in the film's climax and the red painted hold that she walks down just prior to seeing the river of blood also appears to be a subliminal to this effect nowhere else in the movie do we see a red hallway Danny being chased playfully by his mother into the hotel maze this anticipates him being chased by his kill-crazy father near the end of the film heads he's in dialog here and also mimics the close proximity with which the camera chases dummy later she even reaches out with head arms as if about to strangle him which is what Danny will later claim happened to him in room 237 the sound of the tricycle wheels alternating between the carpets and floorboards this sounds uncannily like the music when Danny is chased through the freezing maze by his father [Music] [Music] now sure some of you are gonna completely disagree with that it's definitely one that's open to interpretation I can't say with certainty there it's still a reply but I do believe it was but this video isn't dependent on it being deliberate because I've got plenty of other examples of foreshadowing to show you when Jack is chopping his way through the bathroom door we see a shot on which Wendy is crying and screaming in the background on the right portion of the screen on the left of the screen we see the tip of the axe repeatedly smashing through the wood of the door this visual Arrangements almost looks like wendy is actually being killed with the axe all were missing is the blood in Danny's vision of the murdered twins Kubrick very shortly uses this device again we begin with a shot of Danny riding off into the distance in the green hallway and taking a right turn the sudden introduction of the scary music is quite jarring considering the scene that went before it by over and out [Music] but also this dramatic music letters know right away that we're about to see something scary as Danny then turns a left corner the musical drum of surprise kicks in a second before the ghost girls actually appear on screen it's as if the music was anticipating what was around the corner do you think about it there was different ways this could have been played out it could have been played it's just a normal bike ride in the scene like the other ones that came before it and then turn the corner and then the shock music that would have been the standard way of doing it but Kubrick lets us know in advance what's around the corner around every corner the scene of the dead girls may also be foreshadowing Wendy's discovery of Halloran's body both she and Danny in their separate scenes take a right turn and then are left before seeing blood-soaked corpses and in both scenes the camera takes us in for a close-up one with the series of visual cuts and one with fast zoom the overwhelming red and white the core of the Gold Room lavatory may also be a subliminal representation of the historic bloodbath that has been and is yet to come again the lavatory scene in which Danny has his first chaning episode features a shower care and draped over a bathtub with Danny looking into a mirror on the right wall this composition is very similar to that of Jack's encounter with the naked woman later in the story in room 237 and both scenes feature variations on the same piece of music [Music] also both of these shots begin in a bedroom this one begins in Danny's bedroom and goes through to the bathroom and the other one begins in the room 237 bedroom and goes through to the bathroom again bedroom in the bathroom in both scenes and in both instances they see something horrible in a mirror as Wendy wheels a tray with Jack's breakfast through the lobby she walks the exact same path that Halloran does in his death scene and that's when Dee is about to reach the same pillar that Jack will later hide behind before he kills Halloran the scene ends and we caught to a different part of the hotel Jack's repeated throwing of a tennis ball at the wall above the fireplace is our fourth sight that he will later be chopping through doors with an axe in pursuit of his family note the loud echoing bang of the ball and compared it with the slamming third as Jack chops through doors [Music] and he's throwing the ball at human fakers above the fireplace we could take those as twins or we could take it as Danny and Wendy who he will later try and kill with an axe [Music] an additional reinforcement of tennis ball throwing doesn't matter for for AK swinging is that jack slams the ball against the floor just a few metres away from where he later kills Halloran he then throws the ball toward the position where Wendy stands when she sees Halloran's body notice also that there are toys scattered the boughs on the floor here including two Jack's left a small black teddy bear with its torso clothed in red a foresight of Halloran's death the black chef and this all links up with Jack's comment that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy which I think basically translates us all where and no matter I think this scene is also a subliminal links to the deaths of the twin girls they ask Danny to come and play with them and Jack slams the balls to the floor where Danny has been playing this is a good example of Kubrick weaving multiple metaphors into a single shot another example of playful ball throwing as a foreshadow of AK swinging is that Danny and Wendy are shown throwing snowballs at each other outside this happens as jack stands staring with madness out of the Colorado lounge windows perhaps suggesting that he's already thinking about killing his family with an axe some other interesting was slightly less conclusive examples are the psychiatrist telling Wendy that lion obviously anticipates the vision of the dead twins often cited as the film scariest moment the wet stove in turn on Jack's t-shirt when he's eaten breakfast this is viewed backwards through the very same mirror that Wendy sees Danny's Red Room graffiti later and a man who stand staring go over the tabletop maze and the same stance that Jack does he can be seen in the Far background here as Jack tells his wife that he's got the job as a la caretaker the position of this ghost-like man in the background he is on the opposite side of the table to where jack stands later on and so he may be conceptually tied into the mirror-image maze that Jack sees in the tabletop model himself and the guy is examining the maze closely I think that's a clue about the fact that the actual tabletop maze changes between shots the top-down shot itself shows a much bigger and more complex maze than the one that Jack was looking at in the first shot and this guy looking closely at it in the background I think that's a hint that we should be paying attention to the changing layout of this maze and of course when Jack talks in the car about settlers who got snowbound in the mountains and had to eat each other up and kill each other that's a foreshadow of the family themselves in the hotel being trapped throughout the winter and trying to kill each other - there are many many examples of the film using subliminal associations of forces into experiencing little Danny's terrible shining visions mostly done in the form of visual foreshadowing perhaps this simulated psychic vision is another route of the film sense of unseen menace what could be more frightening than being a solitary child with psychic foresight and an overactive imagination running away from a murderous adults in an endless maze that's plays spatial tricks on the mind and knowing that the horror is coming well in advance that's the power of foreshadowing in horror and these kinds of foreshadowing techniques are not actually that unusual in horror films loads and loads of classic horror films use them and The Shining not only does a lot more of it in much more clever ways than most horror movies but it actually ties in with the narrative regarding psychic shining abilities where characters can see horror common in the future you've been listened to Rebecca if you want to know more about the shining do check out my website correlative landing comm will you'll find my extensive written analysis of the shining and also on my website I've got a ton of digital downloads of film analysis videos and quite a few on the shining there too so go and check them out bye for now

Channel: Rob Ager

Views: 104,927

Keywords: the shining, stanley kubrick, foreshadowing, subliminal, film analysis, rob ager

Id: gJvE4QyBEOg

Length: 14min 46sec (886 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 21 2019