Release, Reception and Cultural Legacy

This chapter looks at the release, reception, and cultural legacy of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980). When The Shining was released, it did not immediately receive the acclaim that many expected, and which it has since garnered. It was met with lukewarm reviews, disappointing many fans of the filmmaker's earlier work. As with much of Kubrick's work, however, the film has been critically reappraised over the decades since its release. The Shining is now celebrated, not only as one of the greatest horror movies ever made, but a contemporary classic in its own right. Its place in pop culture has been enshrined by endless homage and parody, and the film's influence on contemporary horror is ubiquitous. Revisiting The Shining's release and promotion strategies, and examining the reception, reappraisal, and ultimate canonisation of the film, illustrate a number of critical reservations about the horror genre and the film's place within it—even as it continues to inspire genre audiences and filmmakers almost forty years later.

Adapting The Shining

This chapter examines the process of adapting Stephen King's book The Shining. Looking at how and why parts of the book were adapted (rather than just focusing on what changed) allows for a coherent appreciation of Stanley Kubrick's film as a significant horror movie. Moreover, The Shining provides an ideal case study for more nuanced theories of adaptation which consider films ‘in relation to the history of generic conventions within which both the film and its source text are situated. In other words, a film participates in—and should therefore be conceptualized as part of—a sequence of adaptations of which the “original” text, in turn, constitutes a segment’. Changing the story's horrific nature does not result in it being less suited to the horror genre, it just offers a different take on its conventions. Comparing the film directly to its equally iconic source text results in inevitable competition in which the original will often ‘win’, even when then the two serve different functions. In addition to analysing adaptation, considering the film within the context of its production and its creators' filmmaking style, and looking at its position within the genre and its themes, offers a fuller picture of The Shining's effective approach to horror.

Genre and Themes

This chapter explores the themes of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980). The Shining, in its themes of family trauma and domestic violence, racial and class tension, all connected through the film's approach to the horror of history, has been criticised for seemingly reducing the supernatural focus of Stephen King's book and replacing it with a more human evil. Like these varied themes and any one of the potential alternative readings, however, the emphasis is ultimately left to the viewer's subjective interpretation. The result, as ever, is the uncertain tone which emphasises the film's horror. The Shining might not quite 'fit' with the independent, low-budget cycle of 1970s American horror cinema which saw the emergence of a new wave of genre auteurs, but it can nonetheless be aligned with a number of that cycle's social allusions, and it be would be remiss to remove the film from this context. Ultimately, Kubrick made The Shining with the intention of achieving commercial success, and looked to the horror genre to achieve this.

Kubrick and Horror

This chapter discusses Stanley Kubrick's relationship with the horror genre. The Shining (1980) is a clear example of Kubrick's status as ‘an artist of complex and popular work’—rather than being exclusively one or the other. Many approaches to understanding the film see it as a ‘serious’ work by a master filmmaker operating without commercial imperative, or elevated above a disreputable genre. This overlooks a number of important contextual considerations, not least the fact that Kubrick had been clear in asserting that he wanted to make a supernatural film and liked a number of horror films. Moreover, Kubrick, whose films ‘repeatedly mix the grotesque and the banal, the conventions of Gothic confessional morbidity and the self-conscious involutions of modernist parody’, was ideally placed to make a horror film. If The Shining is in many ways typical of the Kubrickian style, then it surely follows that the Kubrickian style was ideal for horror. His auteurist style—the use of black comedy, his artistic approach to mise-en-scène and cinematography, an interest in the uncanny—all lend themselves to the genre.

Introduction

This introductory chapter provides an overview of The Shining (1980), Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's bestselling novel of the same name. The Shining is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest horror movies ever made. However, it took time for the film to become recognised as the essential and effective horror movie it is regarded as today. For many critics, The Shining was simply not frightening. The re-evaluation that has taken place subsequently has, to some extent, sought beyond considerations of genre in highlighting the film's value, focusing on the adaptation of King's book, Kubrick's auteur status and filmmaking style, and analysis of its ‘deeper’ meanings, rather than situating it—as much of its audience has—in the context of horror cinema. These approaches are significant, and they offer useful frameworks for a closer look at the film, but it is important that they are considered in parallel with its position as a horror film. The book brings together these ideas to offer a study of The Shining in its rightful place. The chapter then presents the synopsis of the film and looks at considerations of The Shining in previous studies of the horror genre.