The Shining

---

“A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.”

If there is one thing Stephen King does well, it’s taking his own fears and finding an extravagant and horrific way to share it. The hotel in this movie is based on King’s experiences in the Stanley Hotel. It also holds a special place in my hear as it was filmed with the help if the Timberline Lodge here in my believed Pacific Northwest.

From the start, you can almost feel the tension rise just from the pressure Jack starts to pt on himself. He’s not even a year sober and going to attempt to write his great American novel in almost complete isolation. Pressure with no real release will always find a way to explode.

Little Danny, gifed with what he is told is the “Shining” seems to be caught in the middle of the fact that he himself is plagued by his exposure to the paranormal and his father’s exposure which drives him into madness.

Or is it supernatural at all?

Kubrick toys with the notion that it may be supernatural or possibly the effect of cabin fever. Oddly, after the pandemic lockdown in 2020, I can see why this may be a question.

When alone with out own thoughts, do we become who we really are? Or, do we instead lose that binding connection to the “real” world and see that which is beyond?

You’ll have to ask Tony.