The Shining evaluation - 15/12/08

In today’s lesson, we watched a suspenseful nerve-wracking creepy film called “The Shining” starring Jack Nicholson. This lesson was mainly done for us to have an idea of what a thriller is all about, what makes a good thriller movie, and how to make a movie suspenseful. The Shining was mainly about a man with a wife and a kid who he takes to a lonely hotel, in a deserted surrounding, which he is looking after, as a janitor/caretaker. The setting alone was very creepy, thrilling and strange, not to talk about the actors and the storyline. Slowly during the film, us audience are showed a different personality from what the family sees, and based on that sinister, weird devilish look/appearance of the man During watching the thriller, we are expecting something alarming and gripping to happen. In the end the janitor becomes disturbed in the head, out of control, and is officially evil. In result of this, he attempts to kill his wife and child, who unfortunately are unable to escape from this nightmarish hotel, due to this horrible weather, containing heavy snow. While this is all taking place, suspense is building up, making us viewers tense, anxious, and nervous, unsure of what is going to happen. This is done through various ways, example, through different camera angles, shots types, different types/genres of music, and also the blank screen totally black, only stating a date and time in pure white. This was done in such a way, making the audience think the mother and child do not escape; however, they end up just about escaping. Towards the end, their was a sense of suspenseful alarming constant feeling, making it nail biting and nerve wrecking for us audience to watch, making it impossible for us to loose interest. (As from the start of the film to the end was pure suspense) Towards the end, it shows a little boy (son) running in a maze away from his father. This was shot from a birds eye view showing us how far away the father is from catching the son, how big the maze is, and the speed which all of this is going in. In addition to all this, the music gradually became louder, more thrilling, and more suspenseful, making the audience panicky not knowing whether the father will catch him or not. The music has had a great effect on the overall film, as the music has also contributed to the movie making it more thrilling, exciting, suspenseful, and unsettling. The different pitch, and tone, and also level of volume all gave the movie the overall thriller effect. Different camera shots built up the suspense as well. A prime example is the scene where the child (son) is playing on his tricycle in the deserted hallway of the hotel. The camera focuses (medium close up) on his foot as he is peddling; there was an over the shoulder shot, showing us what is in front of him, and a birds eye view following him, and tracking him, every turn he makes in every corridor he drives through (which creates suspense for the audience, not knowing what’s round the corner). At the same time while all this is happening, all we can hear is the noise coming from his tricycle wheels, creating a tense, spooky atmosphere, making the audience feel unsettled and anxious, as they can tell by the way the camera is following the tricycle and the hallway which is deserted, containing only him in it, something bad is going to happen.
While watching the thriller, we were expected to take notes, detailed focusing on the important aspects of the film, and the most suspenseful scene, which was mainly throughout the movie. As a viewer, I must say that was the best thriller I have ever seen, as throughout I constantly felt tense, unsettled, nervous, anxious, there are so many words I could mention just to describe the thrilling feeling I got. I was quite pleased and thankful I watched that film. I felt like the lesson time was used efficiently, as by watching the movie helped me open my eyes and understand what I need to do in order to get the audience how I felt, and what to do to make a thriller movie extremely thrilling. After watching it, I felt experienced and motivated, ready to start my actual filming.