Line #44 WMG/TheShining


1	[[WMG: The apparent flaws (like Ulman's impossible window) in the hotel are merely artifacts of extensive use of the Steadicam and lengthy shots]]
2
3	A lot is made of seemingly impossible parts of the Overlook, such as Ulman's office window, doors to rooms that couldn't possibly actually contain a room, etc.
4
5	However, this one was one of the first movies to use the Steadicam, and uses it extensively and with some very long shots, such as following Danny around.
6
7	Before this, there would usually be shorter shots with cuts to transition to things like the office, and the real physical location of room sets would be hidden, thus the set flaws would never be visible.
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9	Kubrick was no doubt aware of this and either didn't care, or maybe even left it in to provide false clues because of how over analyzed his movies were. Similar to how John Lennon wrote I Am The Man to frustrate people reading too much into lyrics.
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11	It's easily possible he just didn't care, considering there is a shot of the helicopter's shadow and its actually blades in the opening.
12	[[WMG: There are no ghosts at the Overlook.]]
13
14	The book is far more ambiguous about the Overlook Hotel and its ghosts than is immediately apparent (and far more subtle than most of King's books). The overwhelming majority of the events are passive, and it is trivial to chalk these events up to hallucinations or a child's runaway imagination.
15
16	Firstly, Danny starts to have his 'visions' once he is aware of the hotel, and before he is anywhere near it. This is an example of his precognition at work, but Dr. Edmonds points out that their family, and Danny in particular, has gone through a lot of trauma and upheaval that this small, intelligent boy is having a hard time coping with.
17
18	As time goes on, Danny sees violent and disturbing visions that start to occur with greater frequency and higher intensity. This understandably makes him scared and upset, and his inability to cope with this isolation and the increasing tension between family members only worsens Danny's situation. Convinced that there really is something spooky and dangerous happening, he finally snaps and chokes himself almost to death while in the midst of a panic attack.
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20	Wendy has been somewhat more perceptive of Danny's state, and though skeptical at first, fear for her child makes her take Danny too seriously, to the point where she starts to believe in Danny's imaginative delusions of evil ghosts.
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22	This is also exacerbated by the fact that Jack has been coping with sobriety and always aware of the failures in his life that have placed him in this situation. Once his son's hallucinations become disruptive and his wife starts to buy into it, all of Jack's problems become powerfully exacerbated by his fear that his family will be doomed if they abandon the hotel. It is this struggle, and not ghosts, which eventually drive him over the edge and become homicidal.
23	* There is one serious issue with this theory: Grady letting Jack out of the pantry. Wendy or Danny certainly didn't do it, they were nowhere near at the time and have no reason to let him out anyways, and the door is locked from the outside. This is more or less the only thing that cannot be explained away as hallucination or imagination, and instead does imply supernatural interference.
24	* Also, Doctor Sleep explicitly confirms that all the ghosts that haunted Danny, Wendy, and Jack in the Overlook were real spirits, which thoroughly disproves this popular fan theory.
25
26	[[WMG: In the novel, the picture window never breaks.]]
27	The window that has all the FauxShadowing towards being broken survives [[spoiler: the boiler explosion]]. It is shielded from shattering by a miraculous confluence of events and a heavily faulty frame, and the pane itself ends up slicing into a dense snow drift some ways away completely undamaged.
28
29	[[WMG: The Overlook Hotel is an entity like [[Film/FourteenOhEight 1408]]...]]
30	... only all grown up.
31	* It probably started as just room 217, but as it grew older and more powerful it took over the entire hotel. Likewise, the 1408 creature could eventually take over the entire Hotel Dolphin. The original room would remain the hub of the creature's consciousness, but as it grew it would get smarter and use subtler tricks to claim its victims so that people don't realize the whole structure is now evil instead of just the one haunted room.
32
33	[[WMG: Ulman and Watson knew the Overlook was haunted.]]
34	The way they talked to Jack about it was like they were hiding something. Scandals are one thing, but they seemed frightened by what they are hiding.
35
36	[[WMG: Ulman not only knows about the hauntings, he has made a deal with the entity and all it's ghostly representations.]]
37	He feeds it souls and psychic energy and they don't bother his guests for the summer season, save for a few glimpses. Why else would the hotel be somewhat normal in the summer, but [[BringMyBrownPants piss your pants scary]] in the winter?
38	* That might also explain why the Overlook did not become profitable until after Ulman took over as the manager, despite already having been around for decades at that point.
39	* Or, the hauntings only made themselves known to certain people, especially those who has a family member that has the Shining.
40
41	[[WMG: The Overlook is the nesting site of a powerful [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse Bane spirit]].]]
42	The "burial ground" explanation was a mistranslation by the white settlers. Unfortunately when the hotel was built, the native protesters who were killed included the Uktena Bane Tender who was keeping the... ''thing'' sleeping under the earth.
43
44	[[WMG: The Overlook was built by the [[Literature/DoctorSleep True Knot]] ]]
45	They wanted to make a conduit that could harvest as much Shining Steam as possible. However, somewhere along the line the energy from the Shining somehow gave the Overlook a mind of its own. Not that it mattered to the True Knot. However [[spoiler: after the boiler blew]], they had to find other means of harvesting it.
46	* This would help explain the hotel's intense interest in Danny, who presumably had some very strong steam.
47
48	[[WMG: Redrum could have a literal supernatural meaning apart from just being "Murder" spelled backwards.]]
49	It could mean "Red ''Rum''", rum meaning alcohol; as in the bloodshed of at least two winter caretakers who went insane under CabinFever and several hotel guests over the years somehow fuels and/or 'intoxicates' the massive paranormal force of the hotel.
50	* I think the symbolism is really much simpler then that. Red rum. Blood.
51
52	[[WMG: One of the earliest guests of the Overlook was [[Literature/TheStand Randall Flagg]]]]
53
54	When the Overlook was first opened one Randall Flagg, perhaps under a different name, stayed at the hotel. Whether it was by his design or his simple presence there, he left a scar on the hotel which took up a life of its own and eventually became the enitity that tormented the Torrance family.
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56	[[WMG: In the film, Danny is not Jack's son.]]
57
58	In the movie, Jack's lack of warmth toward Danny, rare displays of awkward affection, and seeming contempt are due to his jealousy that Danny - a child from Wendy's previous relationship - gets attention before him from Wendy.
59
60	[[WMG: Jack is subconsciously racist [[spoiler: as a carryover from his previous life]]]]
61
62	I know it's kind of a minor one, but every time that he looks at Dick Hallorann it's either extremely brief (split-second) or he looks like he's pissed at the guy for a reason that even he doesn't realize. And then, of course, there's [[spoiler: his encounter with Grady, and the bit of dialogue that he repeats regarding Dick.]]
63
64	[[WMG: All members of the Torrence family have the Shine ability in the film.]]
65	Think about it like this: Jack went nuts because he has the ability, but he never truly realizes he has it, which as a result, he ends up going insane because he's in tuned to the horrors of the Overlook. But his abilities don't awaken until he goes to the Overlook and stays there for a long period of time, whereas Danny's ability seems to have been with him for a longer timeframe.
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67	Now, Wendy may have it, but it's much more suppressed than Jack or Danny's level of reading. But what sets it off and for her to be able to see the ghosts in the third act is the amount of fear she was suffering at that moment. Fear can cause the body to have certain biological reactions. Maybe the fact that the fear level caused by Jack finally going nuts and trying to kill her wakes up the Shine in her, even if it was just for that one particular moment.
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69	That's just a hypothesis, but it would explain how Danny's ability is more apparent while both his parents seem to not have this ability (maybe because both parents aren't aware they have it).
70
71	* The book states that most mothers usually have some small amount of shine to them.
72	* The director's cut of ''Film/DoctorSleep'' has Dick tell Danny that his father "had a little light in him", indicating that Jack may have in fact had some Shine in him.
73	* Dick talks about his grandmother having the shine and teaching him of it. This alone may imply that it is a somewhat hereditary trait. [[spoiler:This could also be supported by ''Literature/DoctorSleep'' character Abra, who is Jack's granddaughter via an extramarital affair, having even stronger powers than her uncle Dan did at the same age.]]
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75	[[WMG: The Shine is actually just another name for [[VisualNovel/ZeroEscape the Morphogenetic Field]]]]
76	In the novel, Tony is revealed to be [[spoiler: Danny's fifteen-year-old self]], and it is through the precognitions he offers that Danny manages to survive. Much like in ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'', Tony realized that [[spoiler: his past self was in mortal danger]] and connected with Hallorann through the Morphogenetic Field to prevent Danny's death. Danny's deteriorating condition is the result of things not going according to plan (or at least, in a way that would ensure a stable time loop); once Wendy's esper abilities were activated through exposure to mortal danger, Danny's symptoms subsided because Tony could link with her instead.
77	** Likewise, it's entirely possible Jack didn't actually [[spoiler: die from frostbite/hypothermia - he merely SHIFTed to a timeline where he had access to a Pod, then sent a copy of himself back to 1921]].
78
79	[[WMG: The Overlook's hauntings occur mostly off-season because people with The Shine charge it, and no one with a high enough Shine stays at the Overlook long enough during the on-season to charge it.]]
80	Now, this will seem odd concept, but seeing the movie is based on Stephen King's novel, it is another Stephen King story that help explains why no,ghost attacks occur during the on-season and only seem to happen mostly off season. The work that explains this idea is the long forgotten TV mini-series ''Rose Red''. In the mini-series, the titular haunted mansion at the start of the story is classified as a "dead cell", meaning that there were regular hauntings that occurred, but over time they eventually slowed down to a stop. Think of it like a battery in a tape player for example. When you listen to a cassette for a long time, eventually, the battery loses it's juice to where the tape slows down to an eventual stop. In the mini-series, what started off the haunting activity again was one young psychic girl (ala Carrie White psychic powers). This is like pressing stop on a tape player, waiting for a bit and then pressing play again, for which the tape plays normally for a brief moment before slowing down and dying out again. Essentially, the potential for the hauntings is still there, but it needs something to charge it up until it is at somewhat potential to be noticed.
81
82	Now, how does this apply to the Overlook? We only hear of one tragic event similar to what happens to the Torrence family: the Grady family. Other than the deaths of patrons at the hotel over the years, there are no indications of any other off-season murders in the same regard as we see with the Grady family and the Torrences, let alone any on-season hauntings of the magnitude that we see towards the end of the film. That may be because, much like the on-season, there's barely many people who have a high enough Shine that would charge up the ghost activity during that was hired previously. During the on-season, we know Dick Hallorann worked at the Overlook for years, but we don't know for certain if his Shine ability is as strong as Danny's. And anyone else who comes to the hotel who might have a strong enough Shine may not stay long enough for the supernatural activity to get strong enough to make itself noticeable and may have been rather limited to one area (something like a single hotel room with the number 237 on the door). However, for the Gradys, they may have had a pair of strong Shine users and not realize it: their twin daughters. Before that, the Overlook's hauntings may have been limited to one room. But when the Grady twins are staying inside the hotel for months during the off-season, it inadvertently charged up the hotel's supernatural abilities enough for ghosts to start appearing, first as simple visions until they got to th point they could physically manipulate things if they so choose, and eventually exceeding the limitations of Room 237. After Grady murdered his family and himself, the charge stayed for a little bit until it eventually died back down again to where it was limited to one room.
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84	And like the Gradys, the Torrences brought Danny to the Overlook. The moment they moved in for the off-season was when the spiritual cell of the Overlook began to charge again. Like before, starting with visions. Eventually, it reached the point where Danny got attacked by the woman in 237, causing actual physical harm. And this explains how a ghost could let Jack out of the food locker: the Overlook's supernatural charge was at full enough at that moment that it allowed ghosts to be able to manipulate objects once again, and even allowed people without the Shine ability to see the horrors (this would explain how Wendy didn't see any ghosts or visions before the final act of the film).
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86	So, that means they after Danny and Wendy escape in the snowcat, the strong charge the Overlook had slowly died out again. As for if management knew that strong Shine users could cause their hotel to become a massive Spook Central by staying in the hotel for months is hard to say. But it explains why there's no noted hauntings at the hotel in the film that occur during the on-season, other than what is limited to Room 237.
87	* Combine that with the theory above about the entire Torrence family having certain levels of Shine, it'd make sense that the combined abilities slowly woke the hotel's supernatural center up.
88	* In the Director's Cut of the follow-up adaptation of ''Film/DoctorSleep'', Dick Hallorann slightly confirms this possibility as being true in ''Chapter 1: Old Ghosts''. He attributes what Danny went through being due to his shine alone, however. Dick even states that when he told Danny that the visions in the Overlook were just like "pictures in a book", he clarified it was only for him like pictures in a book because his shine wasn't powerful enough to be anything than a minor issue, but Danny's shine was powerful enough to allow for it to do what it did in the first film (confirming a bit of the "dead cell" hypothesis presented above).
89	** However, Dick in the above mentioned scene also mentions that Jack had a little light in him, suggesting that Jack may have had some Shine in him.
90	* Also, any on-season guest with enough Shine to start seeing the ghosts and so on might well have just decided to [=GTFO=] when they realized they were staying in an EldritchLocation.
91	* But Dick Halloran, a shining individual, is the cook of the hotel during the high season. Shouldn't his shine activate/feed the Overlook then?
92	** Dick's shining ability isn't as large as Danny's clearly is. That's like comparing a match to a lighthouse. Even Dick acknowledges that his shining wasn't as powerful as Danny's, which is why his description of "pictures in a book" with his experiences at the Overlook is drastically different from the assault that Danny and his family encountered. Not to mention, Danny and his family stayed mostly inside the hotel for months during the off-season, with them occasionally stepping outside to visit the maze (for example). Dick, being the chef of the Overlook, probably spent a minimum of 8 hours/12 at most, at the hotel preparing the meals for guests. There's no indication that the all of the workers of the hotel stay, and it was a short drive into town when the roads weren't iced over like they were in the winter months. And considering that Dick knew at least one person in town to be able to get a Snow Cat to drive up to the hotel, it indicates that he may have a residence in town that he stays in when he's in Colorado due to being able to know who to call and is a Snow Bird during the winter months (which explains why he has a place in Florida). In the months that Danny and his family was at the hotel, Danny was mostly inside the hotel for 24 hours a day (during his waking hours and when he was asleep). Factor in Danny's Shine, the Hotel had more than enough power to do the things it did to Danny and his family, whereas during the on season, Dick's Shine wasn't as powerful and his time inside the hotel was limited to just during the shift he worked, thus not allowing the Overlook enough of a chance to charge up the hotel to make the hauntings as noticeable as it was for Danny and his family.
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94	[[WMG: The being under the hotel is a Great Old One, an EldritchAbomination similar to Cthulhu.]]
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96	King would go on to explore the concept in far greater depth in {{Literature/It}}; the hotel isn't just an EldritchLocation, it was built above a full-blown EldritchAbomination, one that (like It) feeds on fear and savagery, It slowly drives ordinary people insane and for those unlucky enough to "Shine" (have psychic abilities), it can open direct conduits to them. Hallorann could put up mental shields against it through long exposure, but a ''little kid?'' That he doesn't GoMadFromTheRevelation speaks to both iron willpower and a major miracle. "REDRUM" is him channeling the Eldritch horror that infests the hotel. And those that go mad within its walls are like the victims of It and Its Deadlights; they are ''consumed'' by the hotel, to live within its walls forever more.
97	* Additionally, I think the IndianBurialGround the hotel was built on wasn't actually one: it was a containment effort by the native americans that managed to successfully seal its power. However, with the collapse of most native tribes and the weakening of the seal, it might have managed to influence the planners of the hotel into destroying it. Why else would have they built a hotel far from any civilization?
98
99	[[WMG: The man in the photo at the end of the film isn't Jack. It's Jack's father.]]
100	* This is only for the film adaptation. But when it comes to the end, we see a photo that shows it was taken in 1921 and it shows someone who appears to be Jack. However, it might not actually be Jack, but his father. We don't know anything about Jack's father in the film, but the book states he himself was an alcoholic and abused his son Jack, which lead to Jack becoming an alcoholic. Maybe when Grady says, "You've always been the caretaker", he means that the Torrence bloodline has always been the caretaker. Maybe Jack's father spent time as a caretaker up at the Overlook, but eventually retired from it, having passed away outside of the confines of the hotel, thus not showing up as a ghost in the hotel itself.

Context WMG / TheShining