Scene analysis: The shinging-hallway scene

The film The Shining according to me is on the list of all time horror classics. Once again I first saw this film as a child and it totally freaked me out. There are many scenes in this film that are absolutely horrifying but there are ones that are especially horrifying to me. Several scenes in the film involve the son Danny riding around the hotel or adventuring the hotel by himself. These films scared me as a young child because I could relate to the fear Danny must have been feeling. A young boy, separated from the protective watch of his mother, in an extremely large and supposedly haunted hotel are all reason which I could relate to because if I were him in those moments I would be scared too.

            One particular scene called the Hallway Scene begins by following Danny. Danny is riding his big wheel through halls of the hotel and the camera is following him from a distance. The camera follows at a distance for quite sometime giving you the sense that you are stalking him. The only sound you can hear is the tires of the bicycle grinding against the tile floors. Even as Danny turns right all the way at the end of the corridor the camera continues to follow him even for a few more seconds reiterating this feeling of following prey. The camera suddenly jumps right behind Danny on his big wheel and follows him through a smaller corridor and then as he turns the corner. As he turns the corner he slams on his breaks suddenly. At the end of this long hallway are two young, identical twins standing and holding hands. These twins have been a reoccurring vision for Danny. Back to the shot, this gives us an over the shoulder perspective view of Danny’s perspective. The camera flips to a portrait of Danny from his shoulders up. All you can see is Danny starting frightened, not blinking, breathing heavily, and obviously shocked at what he is seeing. The camera moves back to the perspective shot as the girls begin to speak in unison in a deathly monotone voice. They encourage Danny to come and play forever and ever and ever etc. As they begin to say ever and ever the camera flashes from looking down the hall at two young girls standing perfectly fine to two mutilated female bodies in a blood soaked hallway, with an axe laying on the floor next to them. This alternates for a few seconds as Danny is having these wickedly fast visions of what happened in the hotel. The camera goes back to Danny as he immediately covers his eyes for a few seconds breathing with a sense of panic. He then peeks out of his fingers and sees nothing left. He then talks with his imaginary friend Tony who assures Danny what he saw was not real.

            This scene is scary for a few reasons. The first I previously mentioned, the camera stalking Danny through the hallways as if it were some sort of hunter stalking prey. Next the scene brings you into the terror Danny is feeling at the moment by giving the close up. Third the camera flashes the visions which Danny is subject to throughout the film which is brutal at its simplest sense: seeing mutilated little girls on a hallway floor.

            Again this film has always been a classic in my book. The use of shots and editing throughout the story help to submerge the audience into the world of constant fear and fantasy which they are subject to in the film.  The youtube link below will bring you the scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFVyAjj3Bs0