I can remember the first time that I tried to watch The Shining.
But first, a little history: I never liked horror films. They just weren’t my thing. There were (and are) exceptions to that rule, as always, and I can appreciate them for what they are. But they’re just not my preferred genre of cinema.
The work of Stanley Kubrick had a profound and important impact on me. His films were the first that, for whatever reason, made me really understand what a director did. I can only presume it is Kubrick’s bold style and artistry that provides a through line of sorts, connecting one movie to the next, that gave me an insight into what a filmmaker could and should do. Not all filmmakers work like this, but Stanley Kubrick did, and once I realized that simple fact, I knew that I wanted to work that way, too.
So, after discovering, in sheer jaw-dropping amazement to a 15 year old budding cinephile, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, Dr. Strangelove…, and re-discovering 2001: A Space Odyssey, I immediately made it my mission to find every film in the Kubrick oeuvre. This, of course, was long before the ease and immediacy of the internet, so I had to find film books and encyclopedias in order to get the information I so desperately needed.
I was really quite surprised when I discovered that Kubrick had directed an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining. It seemed out of character for him. Surely the genius behind Paths of Glory and A Clockwork Orange wouldn’t stoop to making a slasher film? There had to be more to it. Plus, it starred Jack Nicholson, so it couldn’t be all bad, right?
A trip to the video store yielded Strangelove (again) and The Shining. I watched Strangelove first because I was eager to see if there were any crucial details I had missed the first time around. Plus, it was an easy hour and a half that would get me ready for the film I had yet to see, The Shining.
Around 9 in the evening, I started the movie.
Incredible opening shot. Creepy-ass music. Credits rolling backwards. A STANLEY KUBRICK FILM.
Wow…okay…here we go.
I got as far as Danny’s first vision, the blood pouring through the elevator doors, not even a half hour into the movie, and I turned it off. And I stared at the blank television screen, scared to death. The movie had shaken me to my core, in just that little bit, and I couldn’t watch anymore of it.
But, the next day, in the interest of cinema, and trying to man up (or some teenage, macho shit), I started to film over and forced myself to watch it all the way through.
And I hated it. Because it scared the shit out of me.
No other film had ever done that to me. No other movie had gotten under my skin so deeply that I was afraid and disturbed. And this was from watching it on 14″ television! I couldn’t believe it. Every other film I had seen by this director I had loved without question, some more than others. But this! This film! Why, Stanley? Why did you have to put me through this?!
It would be a long while until I would attempt to revisit the picture again. And I’m not even sure why I did. Perhaps something in that film stuck with me, something beyond the obvious tension and horror, and I had to see it again to figure it out. By the time I had gotten back to it, I had discovered Barry Lyndon, Lolita, and The Killing. So maybe it was me just trying to wash the bad taste out of my mouth.
So I watched The Shining again. And I enjoyed it. It still wasn’t my favorite film in his canon (and still isn’t; that would probably be Clockwork or Strangelove) but it was gaining traction. And then, later still, I saw it again, and I enjoyed it even more.
After a couple of years, it had made its way into my list of films I would re-watch on a fairly regular basis. I would recommend it to people. Visually, it’s one of Kubrick’s most stunning films. Thematically, I can’t even grasp all the things that he was getting at. The more that you delve intoThe Shining, the more perplexing it can become.
Now, what does all this mean in the context of my film Dark of Winter?
The obvious connection is that Dark of Winter is, on the surface, a psychological horror thriller. If you decide to immerse yourself further into the picture, you find a lot of things open to interpretation, including the possibility of supernatural forces at work.
I had already acknowledged the important influence of David Lynch’s dreamlike cinema, specifically Lost Highway, on the writing of our film, but as we got into production, I found myself thinking more and more about The Shining. Kubrick’s style, camera placement and movement, and approach to the medium are always rattling around in my head when I shoot, but this time it was more specific. It wasn’t as if I was trying to ape his film or borrow from it, consciously anyway. But there were little things that felt like impressions of The Shining: the blood (obviously), the mystery and the unexplainable, even something about the architecture in the bathroom of my apartment that we were shooting in. No matter where Dark of Winter was headed, The Shining was always there.
I can’t directly compare the two films, nor should anyone, but it was important for me to share where the inspiration came from. Even though cinema is the most recent of the fine arts in terms of history, we are still drawing upon 100+ years of filmmaking that has established a standard and grammar that is inescapable for narrative film. So the influence of other pictures is a given; sometimes it’s obvious, sometimes it’s not.
And even though I have accepted The Shining as one of Stanley Kubrick’s most important films, it still creeps me out a little…
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