"The Shining" Essay: Scene 2

2: In this clip we see Danny driving round the hotel on his trike. This clip starts with a tracking show of Danny riding his trike, with only the sound of his wheels, this makes the audience relax and feel as though everything is normal. It slows down to a long shot that seems to be still slowly tracking Danny from a distance, making the viewer feel as though they themselves are distant, or maybe suggesting the distance between the family and civilization. 

 

As Danny reaches the end of the hall, there is the famous high pitch scratching, this slowly gets louder until just before Danny turns the corner, this is when the sound gets lower and stops, and then sounds again maybe making some viewers jump. The high pitch sound is non diegetic and is used to create tension which slowly rises, along with the volume. 

 

It then cuts to the hallway Danny turned into and a lower screeching sound is heard, as though something is about to happen. The camera tracks Danny around the corner to reveal the two twins, seen several times before in the film. As the twins are revealed there is a low pitched, non diegetic gong sound, followed by another low pitched thud when it cuts to a close up of Danny, showing his shock and horror at these mysterious twins.

It then cuts again back to the initial shot of the twins in front of Danny. This shot showcases a regularly used show by the director (Stanley Kubrick) named the one point perspective shot. This show is almost perfectly symmetrical, emphasising the twins and maybe suggesting that they are one as there is a use of mirrors and symmetry throughout the film. 

 

This twins then begin to talk, followed by a low pitch drone. As the twins talk, there are constant cuts from Danny, to the twins, and to Danny again. It then cuts one last time to the twins, but this time they have been murdered with an axe and there is blood everywhere. When this shot is revealed, there is a high pitched piano noise, as though someone has just hit some keys randomly.

The shot of the two dead girls is interesting, at a first glance it looks like they have just been killed and have fell randomly, but at closer inspection the twins again are symmetrical but not down the centre of the shot. The girl in front is laying face up with her head on the far right, where as girl 2 is face down, head to the left, but both of them are in the same body positions. This again may suggest that they are one person as it almost again, looks as though they have been mirrored.

When the twins are initially shown, it is a long shot, but after the shot of their corpses is show, the shot of the twins goes from a long shot, to a closer shot, and then to a mid shot. This may make the viewer feel as though they are getting closer to the danger. As this is happening though, you see Danny’s growing horror in the for of a close up, until he eventually covers his face. This is when the low pitched noise goes from low to high until Danny moves his hands to see again then the sound stop and it cuts to an empty hall, showing that the twins are no longer there.

This scene for me is one of the best in the film, it is unexpected at that point and then even more unexpected when it shows the two twins deaths, the sound matches the clip very well as it really builds the tension, and retains this throughout the scene. The first time I watched it it was a little scary and a shock to me and most other viewers.