0. INTRODUCTION
Horror film is a big genre in Hollywood movies. It often uses a tense and weird plot, a gloomy atmosphere, and one or a group of terrifying monsters to bring strong stimulation to the audience, thereby inspiring the inherent fear of death, violence and other unknown worlds in the audiences. Affection.
American film theorist Cha & S226; Delhi once divided horror films into three basic types based on the content involved: horror films about people, horror films about demons, and horror films about apocalyptic battles between good and evil. .
According to this classification, Kubrick's "The Shining" should be a combination of the first type and the second type. If you look more closely, you will find that the film can be divided into two related parts. The first is the evil power that the little protagonist has seen and actually felt with his own eyes with the special function of SHINING. This part can be classified as a horror movie about demons. The second is that the male protagonist is infected by the suppressed and gloomy atmosphere of the Hotel, which induces a mental illness that he has, but is only in the incubation period, and gradually develops hallucinations and mental breakdown. In the end, he goes completely mad and slaughters his wife and son. This part The content can be classified as a type of horror film that writes people.
Below, the author will make a simple analysis of "The Shining" from several aspects.
1. SETTING
Another American film theorist Robin & S226; Wood once summed up a basic formula for horror films, that is, normal order is threatened by monsters, and it also lies in the questioning of this order itself.
This horror genre film, which inherits the classic Hollywood drama model, is closed from the beginning to the end, and is fully integrated, and of course also follows the above formula.
The story of "The Shining" tells the story of the undead in the hotel destroying the life order of a normal family. In the beginning of the film, an aerial shot, a car driving on a highway deep into the clouds, brings the protagonist and the audience into the isolated snow-capped mountains where the story takes place. On the surface, the isolated snow-capped mountains and the empty hotels above the snow-capped mountains are perfect locations for horror stories. In fact, the film sets mankind in a holy and remote snow-capped mountain, which is a metaphor that mankind has violated a certain degree of supernatural power. At the beginning of the film, the hotel manager introduced that the address of the hotel was originally the residence of the Indian people. The hotel was established after the Indian people were massacred. Therefore, we can regard it as a film about genocide. The film exposes the truth about the massacre of Indians by the Americans, and at the same time shows us the evil results it brings. Director Kubrick is actually condemning the cruel and barbaric act of the early Americans using what they call "modern civilization" to expel and slaughter the Indian people living in the natural state, which is a blasphemy of human nature. And this is also the rational thinking that the director hides behind the film and brings to the audience. Towards the end of the film, the crazy male protagonist swung an axe and brutally killed a chef of black descent. His body fell on the floor painted with Indians, which is a faithful reproduction of this history.
Hollywood films often involve some social or historical issues. But not all social issues can enter the cinema. It should be universal in society and difficult to solve for a while. It has formed a kind of depression in the hearts of the people, but society has not yet discussed it on a large scale through media such as newspapers, radio, television and news, so that there is no such depression in the hearts of the people. Vent everywhere, backlog in the subconscious. Hollywood movies use this to package themselves and attract audiences.
This film is based on the historical issue of the massacre of Indians, so that people naturally face this issue while watching the film for entertainment. When this issue in the film is solved or transformed, the audience's depression is also Get resolved or vent. The audience's psychology is satisfied, and Hollywood's desire for the box office will be satisfied.
The question that follows is how can the historical issue of the massacre of Indians be resolved? As we all know, if society cannot find a solution to the problem, the film cannot provide a standard answer. Movies only use social or historical issues to attract audiences. But just asking questions without answering them will increase the audience's sense of depression. Therefore, the usual practice of Hollywood movies is to gradually transform the social problems in the advancement of the plot, so that the audience's attention gradually changes accordingly.
So how is the problem transformed in this film?
2. PLOT
because the location of the story in the film is exactly where the Americans slaughtered the Indians. Moreover, the binary oppositional world formed by the male protagonist and the other two characters in the film is very similar to the binary oppositional world formed by the Americans and Indians back then. So we have reasons to compare the male protagonist in the film to the Americans of the year, and compare the other two weaker characters in the film to the Indians of the year.
The main plot of this film is the process of the male protagonist's gradual schizophrenia and madness, as well as his killing behavior. At the beginning of the film, the protagonist appears in a rational, gentle, and loving face. He represents a normal American image. Director Kubrick is telling us that Americans are originally innocent, even cute.
It was only with the development of the film that the male protagonist was gradually affected by both the pressure of work and the gloomy and lonely atmosphere of the hotel, which induced his mental illness and even made the cruel act of killing. But before the male protagonist went crazy, he had been struggling intensely and painfully between "good" and "evil".
In other words, the Americans represented by the male protagonist did so under the circumstance of interference from the outside world, after violent soul struggle, and when they were powerless and compelled to kill the Indians.
Moreover, at the end of the film, the male protagonist died in the wind and snow, which also implies that the crazy and abnormal Americans finally disappeared, and they will no longer threaten and disrupt the normal social order. The history of sin will not repeat itself.
In this regard, the last question of the first paragraph has been answered. The way to transform the question is to avoid the essence of the question and transform the historical question into a personal question.
3. The
success of CHARACTER horror movies mainly depends on the success of the MONSTER image. Because the film wins in the creation of a terrifying mood, rather than just relying on the specific monster image to scare people. Therefore, the focus of this article is on the other two factors that make the MONSTER image successful in addition to the external shape of the MONSTER. Of course, without Jack Nicholson's brilliant performance, the film would never be successful.
Factor one. Can this MONSTER become an accurate and discoverable representation of the horror (anxiety) of the contemporary public? Specifically, this includes the roots of human psychological terror, such as death, violence, and the horror of potential desire for oneself (the happiness principle in FLOYD theory). Including the fear of a specific culture, such as vampires in German folklore, false Jesus in Western culture, and ghosts in Eastern culture. It also includes the horror (anxiety) focus of humans in specific history and society. For example, the conflict between scientific progress and ethics in modern society has created a series of horror movies with similar themes such as "Dr. Incarnation" and "Flinkenstein".
In this film, apart from the short-lived horror images such as ghost twins, the main character that appears as the MONSTER image is the male protagonist. As mentioned earlier, this terrifying role represents contemporary Americans' regrets over the historical mistakes made by their ancestors. In addition, the male protagonist also shows other concerns of contemporary Americans in the film, such as anxiety about domestic violence, anxiety about work pressure, and anxiety about communication disorders. Due to the limitation of the length of this article, the author will stop here and will not discuss it in detail.
Factor two. Can this MONSTER gain the psychological recognition and sympathy of the audience? This is another characteristic required for the monster image in horror movies. A sense of identification with MONSTER can not only make MONSTER more realistic and convincing, thereby enhancing its horror effect; more importantly, this is an important means to relieve the audience’s horror psychology and form a catharsis of horror. After a horror film has successfully created a horror effect, it must be correspondingly relieved and appeased, so as to treat the anxiety of the audience, which is also an important psychological and social function of a horror film.
Any role that can accurately represent the inner anxiety of the contemporary public will always make the audience sigh in their hearts. Just as when people feel terrified for the hero, they sympathize with him deeply and feel sorry for his tragedy. Because the tragedy of the male protagonist is not only his personal, but the entire American society. The contemporary American people not only generally bear more and more endless work pressure, but also face the danger of family breakdown due to neglect of communication. The story of the protagonist in the film is just the epitome of countless stories that took place in contemporary America. It is worth pointing out that in many cases of family breakdown, the wife and children who are in a disadvantaged position are often hurt by the husband. The same is true for this film. The male protagonist, like his previous winter caretaker, will harm their family for no reason after being disturbed by some outside world. Wives and children were placed as victims. The director of the film also made the husband's persecution of his wife and children constitute the main content of the film. It’s just that Kubrick has shown more humanistic care through his films—I would rather lose part of the horror effect, but also make women (and her children) take up arms and fight against fate (her husband). Finally won the struggle. And this ending is the second factor in the success of the aforementioned terrorist image. The male protagonist who symbolizes abnormality and evil finally died, while the mother and son who symbolized justice and kindness finally escaped from the clutches. The audience who has been nervous for a long time can finally breathe a long sigh of relief, and at the same time alleviate all the anxiety in the audience's heart. Give people the revelation that justice will defeat evil.
4. STYLE AND ATMOSPHERE
The artistic style of this film is quite unique. Director Kubrick didn't intend to attract the audience with his nauseating, bloodthirsty appearance, but used almost all advanced art and technology to create a gloomy atmosphere.
Unlike our viewing experience, this film does not take place in a small and dark environment like usual horror films, but is set in a large hotel, and most of the plot also takes place under normal light. This is the director's challenge to the audience as well as himself.
The successful creation of the atmosphere of horror firstly benefits from the perspective given by the camera. The camera always follows behind the characters in the middle and close range, giving people the feeling of being constantly monitored and controlled without knowing it. In particular, the low-angle perspective adopted when following the little protagonist exaggerates an unknowable emotion of mysterious power to the extreme. Secondly, a large number of sports lenses and hand-held shooting, the instability of the composition of the picture, as well as the shaking and slanting lines all put strong psychological pressure on people. Finally, the sense of closed space in The Shining is also extremely strong, and its external visual form has two similar juxtapositions: one is a hotel full of blood and violence, and the other is always let A maze of people feeling claustrophobic. The psychological fear caused by this juxtaposition in space is driven by the continuous compression and imminence of the passage of time. The audience can see this careful arrangement of the time structure from the subtitles of the paragraphs that appear in "The Shining". The first subtitle of the film is "Interview", then "Day off" and "One month later", then "Tuesday", "Thursday", "Saturday"... and finally "Eight o'clock in the morning". The film’s pursuit of spatial setting and styling makes people see the aesthetic interest that Kubrick has always had
. CONCLUSION
shows how people face the supernatural power of the soul from a micro perspective, once again challenging the boundaries of human knowledge, and thus discussing people's potential magic and fantasy power. As Kubrick said in response to the interview: "The world's greatest good and greatest evil come from people, but the problem is that people cannot distinguish their differences in order to meet their goals." The film focuses on the psychological confusion of humans facing the maze. , The enclosed hotel and garden maze in the film are just symbols of human subconsciousness.
This film, filmed 25 years ago, has become a milestone in the history of horror films and is recognized as the most artistic horror film in film history. So far, some of the methods of creating atmosphere and creating horror in the film are still used for reference by many horror films. I believe that this is a well-deserved classic.
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