Shining reflections
A leftfield look at movies influenced by the Kubrick/King classic
Nearly 40 years after its release, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining gets a sequel with Doctor Sleep, an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, which sees an allgrown-up Danny Torrance facing alcoholism, psychic vampires and a painful revisit of the Overlook Hotel. The decades between the release of The Shining and its follow-up which is released in Thai cinemas today have given plenty of other would-be successors the opportunity to channel its accomplishments or pay homage to them. Here are seven films that reflect the influence of The Shining, whether in the form of narrative similarities or appreciative Easter eggs.
THE THING (1982)
Shapeshifting aliens from flying saucers may be far removed from the hauntings at the Overlook, but John Carpenter’s The Thing nonetheless stands as an early successor to The Shining. Its Antarctic research station setting provides a similar isolated snowed-in location where characters become unravelled. And its outdoor cinematography, casting the landscape in a dense melancholy blue, makes it feel as if a frozen Jack Nicholson could be stumbled upon at any moment.
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
Films like Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Exorcist (1973) had done their part to prove the dramatic legitimacy of horror, but The Shining boosted the cause with the same artistic ambition Kubrick used to elevate space movies with 2001. Without the prestige of The Shining, it’s hard to imagine that a movie like The Silence Of The Lambs — which explores serious themes alongside serial killers using human flesh as wardrobe — could one day sweep the Academy Awards.
TOY STORY (1995)
Most wouldn’t expect nods to Kubrick’s film in family-friendly Pixar movies, but because one of the studio’s filmmakers, Lee Unkrich, has a lifelong obsession with The Shining, references can be found as early as Toy Story, where the Overlook’s carpet pattern appears in the home of Sid, the toy terroriser. Since then, Easter eggs have continued to appear, whether in Toy Story 3, which nods to the hotel’s haunted room 237 in an instant messenger chat handle (Velocistar 237), or in a sequence from Coco, where Jack Nicholson’s “Here’s Johnny” axe can be seen in the background.
THE WITCH (2015)
Director Robert Eggers has joked that he’s “disgusted” with how much The Witch evokes The Shining, but he shouldn’t be, considering how well he wields that influence in a story about an exiled Puritan family facing threats of witchcraft. Both movies share the conceit of isolated families starting anew, but The Witch particularly amplifies the foreshadowing of tragedy from the moment it starts.
GET OUT (2017)
The Shining is layered into Jordan Peele’s directorial debut like a three-tier cake. There are surface nods, like a shared title card font colour and dialogue allusions (a character refers to getting lost in a hedge maze). There are deeper conceptual nods, like setting horror in broad daylight. But most of all, Get Out creates the same sense that something is very wrong without revealing the specifics until everything comes to a head.
HEREDITARY (2018)
Ari Aster’s slice of domestic horror wastes no time wearing its Shining influence on its sleeve, with an opening shot that evokes the moment where a model of the hedge maze comes to life with Danny and Wendy exploring it. But the influence extends deeper in its exploration of a grieving family eroding under pressure from natural and supernatural forces, while courting the type of narrative density and ambiguity that has resulted in infinite YouTube explainers about the ending, and clues along the way.
READY PLAYER ONE (2018)
Steven Spielberg became friends with Stanley Kubrick after meeting him on the set of The Shining. He would later honour his friend and influence by making A.I. Artificial Intelligence, a long gestating Kubrick project. But, in an unexpected surprise, Spielberg honoured him once more in Ready Player One, deviating from Ernest Cline’s novel to work in a sequence set in a loving recreation of the Overlook featuring playful returns to room 237, the hedge maze and the bloody elevator.