The Shining #2

In The Shining the scene that stood out to me the most was the scene in which Jack encounters the gold room with hundreds of people in it (even though they really don't exist,) Lloyd the Bartender, and the "red bathroom" scene in which Jack meets Delbert Grady, the supposed previous caretaker of the 1920s who had violently killed his wife and two daughters using an ax.

In the "gold room" scene what I found most fascinating was the immense contrast between what the audience hears and sees and what the audience actually knows. As Jack is walking towards the ballroom, we hear a pleasant swing tune coming from the distance. Instantly, the audience is in a more pleasant mood. When he walks into the ballroom itself, there are many people, all drinking, talking, and having a good time. The setting of the scene tends to relieve the audience from what it has seen so far, but in fact actually makes the audience even more uneasy. The viewers know that the hotel is completely deserted - there is no one there except for Jack and his family. The fact that all the interactions that Jack has with people, the music, Lloyd, the drinks, everything is either paranormal or a figment of Jack's psychopathic imagination. Jack is completely alone, which makes the scene a lot more "creepy." By using pleasant music, a happy scene, and a warm color palette, Kubrick confuses the audience by showing them one thing but really meaning the polar opposite of that.

The bathroom scene immediately following the ballroom scene, where Jack Torrance first encounters Mr. Delbert Grady is perhaps the most interesting scene. In this scene, there is absolutely nothing horrifying that happens, in contrast with the rest of the film. There is no blood, decomposing bodies, dead people, or "shinings" happening. The mere discussion between Jack and Grady is what brings goosebumps to the audience. First of all, the audience knows that Delbert Grady (maybe another name for Charles Grady) was the man who so violently murdered his family years before. The viewers also know that Grady no longer exists, that because Jack is interacting with him he is either a ghost or part of Jack's imagination. What I found most captivating in these six minutes of the film is again the use of contrast that Kubrick uses. The fact that Grady uses such polite and calm language to suggest such horrifying and immoral things to Jack is terrifying. The way that Grady talks to Jack is very reserved - he says "sir" after every sentence he completes, he asks permission to talk about anything that crosses the border between smalltalk and serious discussion, and has impeccable manners. However, when he says that he "corrected" his wife and children is when the audience sees that by the word "correct" he really means "murder." The fact that he uses such proper language to speak about such improper actions makes the audience even more uneasy than before.

How else does Stanley Kubrick achieve fear and anxiety in the two scenes linked above?