The Shining Head

I recently had a sleepover with my friend so we could catch up since we hadn't seen each other for a while and whilst reminiscing about the good old secondary school days (because it was sooo long ago) we remembered our favourite teacher kept telling us to watch The Shining and we just went, okay let's watch that. We opened up my laptop, muted Total Recall ( really old version) that was on the TV and pressed play. We of course had to change into PJ's, grab the sugary sweets and wrap ourselves in our duvets before hand.

At first the constant use of transitions annoyed me, I thought they were too long and unnecessary, even my friend noticed who hasn't done anything about films or media and doesn't even watch many films. We gradually got into it though and got sucked into to the brilliant use of music. The typical 'build up horror' music during normal situations like talking and gestures being made in time to the"DUNS" made our hearts race with the fear of "what going to happen next?" and then being let down when nothing happens apart from a title or a scene change. Another part of the film that did this to us was the child on his bike. We followed behind him, at a low angle turning corners into empty corridors and wondering which one will be the iconic girls scene.


Comedy is something me and my friend use to help when we get too sucked into the film ( as both of us can get way to emotionally drawn in) so near the beginning of the film when the man was trying the explain what the shining was, my friend just kept mentioning his shining head so for comedies sake, here's a picture I made quickly in photoshop for her.


















I must admit we found this much funnier at the time when we were hyped up on sugar and nervously trying to not get too scared so early on in the film.

There are things in this film that confuse me, such as the ghosts and his memory, so, to be fair I will continue with this post about my thoughts on the film after I've re-watched the film and discussed the film with other people. This way my understanding should be clearer and I will mention what other people liked or disliked and whether I agree or not and my reasons. That should also make this a bit more interesting.

I'll leave this part with a bit of trivia that my boyfriend told me:
Philip Stone, who played the part of Delbert Grad, the previous caretaker, was the only actor to ever appear in two Stanley Kubrick films, as he was also the Dad in A Clockwork Orange (which another film that confuses the hell at of me, but that's for moral reasons) I don't think the Dad's ever named in the film so that's what I'm going to call him.
Rain