The Shining is a beloved and chilling 1980 American psychological thriller directed and produced by acclaimed director Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Closed). The film was adapted from the 1977 novel of the same name written by the ever-popular and illustrious author Stephen King. The film follows Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), a hard-working family man and aspiring writer, with a history of abuse and alcoholism that follows him into his hostile, shaky and impersonal relationship with his shy wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and the young and psychically gifted son Danny (Danny Lloyd). When Jack accepts a janitor position during the winter off-season at the secluded Overlook Hotel, Wendy and Danny follow suit with a false sense of optimism and spend their days traversing the daunting, imposing darkness of the disturbingly ordinary hotel ( or so it seems). ). As the hauntingly patterned carpets and harrowing cream corridors twist and turn, the viewer is primed to watch the Torrance family sink into the inviting arms of madness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Kubrick is known for his subtle yet recognizable cinematic form, which walks a fine line between order and disorder. "Kubrick's great obsessions were: the relationship between the artificial and the natural, the forced and the wild, the civilized and the cowardly, man and machine." However, visually, Kubrick's works tend to be self-contained examples of his cinematic brilliance: self-contained worlds, with no underlying features or aspects that unite them into a "Kubrick style." This is quite evident in The Shining, the greatest contribution to the meaning of the film (or any film) is the stylistic staging that Kubrick has formed. Mise-en-scène, simply put, encompasses the visual aspects of a film. It's everything that appears within a shot, all with a specific purpose that contributes to the film as a whole. “Staging includes those aspects of the film that overlap with theatrical art: the setting, the lights, the costumes and the behavior of the figures. In controlling the mise-en-scène, the director stages events for the camera.” In The Shining (1980), each scene implements elements of mise-en-scène in order to create a complete and distinct meaning for the audience to absorb and analyze. The mise-en-scène of The Shining (1980) is particularly unconventional compared to other horror films and aims to contradict the viewer's preconceived view of a horror film through mise-en-scène, and particularly through the distinct use of complementary color psychology which contributes significantly towards the magnificent integrity of the film. A spectacular example of the film's disturbing and infamous mise-en-scéne is found at the very beginning. The film begins with grand shots of the Colorado Rockies, isolated among icy peaks and jagged troughs of rich greens, cool blurry shades of blue, and the pure white of snow. The viewer is introduced to a display of deliberately placed tilted scenes and beauty: remote, bitter isolation masquerading as splendor – the blues engulfing the landscape reinforcing the aspects of detachment and estrangement we will later see in Jack's behavior. Torrance. Long shots pan over Jack Torrance's car as it curves further through the desolate mountain scene, a grim sense of complete unknown hanging heavy over the viewer as the frame looms over Jack Torrance. The audience looks down at the old machine, the Torrancesunaware of the malicious sense of danger that awaits them. From the beginning, the audience is intentionally positioned throughout the shots to watch the Torrances, such as the untapped sense of fear that resides in the stomachs of Wendy and Danny Torrance, and the deep, ticking anger within Jack Torrance. The foreboding and great music only reinforce this sense of pure terror. The deep notes are intended to sink into the viewer's hollow stomach and provoke a deep sense of unease. The music Kubrick chose for this scene is haunting and striking and can almost be described as animalistic at times. As Jack Torrance makes his way across the stage towards his anticipated interview at the Overlook Hotel, the music resonates with wild, daunting calls and echoed shrieks - and the viewer becomes increasingly aware of the hostile environment, of the macabre intentions of the imposing hotel and the unfortunate events that loom on the horizon. From the beginning, the viewer is positioned in a cat-mouse-like place, similar to the position of the wolf Jack Torrance. However, the dangerous and magnificent journey meets the juxtaposition of the warm and inviting hotel: dripping with softness and humble shades of red and gold, gentle music and a decorated lobby dotted with a few guests and bellhops. The Overlook Hotel, it seems, is the antithesis of the traditional horror movie cliché of the "haunted hotel." Kubrick himself said: “We wanted the hotel to feel authentic rather than a traditionally creepy movie hotel. I believed that the hotel's labyrinthine layout and enormous rooms could alone provide a sufficiently eerie atmosphere. This use of scenography and color scheme specifically and subtly reinforces the concept of the facade. The hotel is deceptive in its appearance and hides sinister intentions, just as Jack hides his dark underbelly of violence and anger beneath ice-thin subtleties and casual quips. The stunning use of the color red throughout the film is certainly what truly marks The Shining's staging is wonderful and relatable. The color red is clearly defined throughout the film, a pattern that unconsciously alludes to the viewer, seducing them with bright and surprising shades that are particularly aimed at alerting. Color is peppered throughout the film: from minor props and costumes to major scenes that use color as a tremendous wake-up call and can be recognized as an associative color scheme. According to Mary Risk, a well-known freelance writer and producer, an associative color scheme is “when a recurring color or pattern represents a theme or character in a film, thus creating a visual spectacle with an emotional narrative.” In The Shining, the color red is associated with danger, often a precursor to bouts of tension or violence. The use of the color red emerges so simply yet tremendously as a motif of menace: a subtle sign of the supernatural breathing down the Torrances' necks as they trudge for months at the Overlook Hotel. It is this consistent repetition of the color red that reveals to the viewer the slow changes affecting Wendy, Danny and especially Jack – the imposing darkness of the mysterious hotel peeling away their layers of sanity before our eyes. According to noted film theorists and authors David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, “repetition is central to our understanding of any film. For example, we need to be able to remember and identify characters and settings every time they reappear.” The repeated motif of the color red not only serves the narrative, but provides The Shining (1980) with exposition that is intended to leave the viewer in a state of terror, fear of what.