The Shining 15.12.08

In today’s lesson (15.12.08) we watched the thriller film ‘The Shining’. The film uses camerawork, sound, editing and mise-en-scene to convey the conventions of a thriller film, the main convention being suspense. Throughout the movie the main technique used to create suspense and tension is sound. Mostly non-diegetic, however, on the other hand silence is used quite effectively to build up tension and suspense.

The task for the lesson was to pick out three scenes from the film that we thought was the most suspenseful and why.

During the opening sequence there is non-diegetic sound playing while we have a birds eye view (Ariel shot) of mountains. The camera follows the car up the mountains. The volume and pitch increase to create a tense atmosphere. The speed of the camera movement increases as the volume of the music increases also.

Throughout the film there is the theme of loneliness and isolation. This is shown in the opening sequence as the audience see the car travelling up lonely mountains to a big, empty isolated hotel in the middle of ‘no where’. This is quite suspenseful because as the audience we are made to believe something is going to happen because it is unusual for a person/family to stay in a big hotel, in the mountain sides alone, especially with a storm brewing.

As the audience we are given a hint about the events that will happen throughout the movie because the storyline is given during the interview with the hotel owner. From this, the audience start to think this is what is going to happen to this family. This is quite suspenseful because as the audience we know it is going to happen while the characters don’t and we are just waiting for it to happen. This is a well-known technique of Alfred Hitchcock (the ‘king’ of suspense) to create suspense. It’s his idea of letting the audience ‘play-god’. This basically means letting the audience know what’s going to happen before the characters do. For example, there is a man waiting at the end of a corridor for a girl. We know the man is waiting but the girl does not so we are seen as omniscient.

An example of this in the movie is when the head chef arrives near the end of the movie. We know the father is standing behind the column with an axe but the chef doesn’t. This gets the audience on the edge of their seats because there waiting for the action to take place.

However there are some scenes when the audience are left in the same suspense as the characters, for example, when we are following Danny through the corridors of the hotel on his bike. We are behind him so we don’t know what is around the corner either.

Another suspenseful moment in the movie is when the head chef and Danny are talking in the kitchen and the chef finds out Danny has the Shining also and Danny inquires about room 237. The chef gets frightened and frustrated and warns Danny never to enter that room. From his response the audience are aware that something is wrong with room 237 or something is in it. When Danny arrives outside room 237, he just sits there looking at the door. The music helps build up the suspense and tension because we are curious to see if he is going to enter the room after being forbidden.

Throughout the movie, sound is the most dominant technique used to create suspense. The volume increases when the audience are about to encounter a key part of the story line, the sound is used to make the audience identify with the situation about to take place. As the volume and pitch increases the suspense, curiosity and tension of the audience increases also.