Author and Setting of The Shinning

As the story begins, the author describes the setting as being very isolated. The Overlook Hotel is located on a mountain in Colorado. The season in which the hotel is open for tourists is May through October, and for winter they close down because of harsh winter condition such as huge amount of snow and freezing temperatures. However, the Overlook Hotel hires someone for the winter to take care of it, so the pipes do not freeze and the hotel is maintained for next tourist season. This shows how isolated the hotel is and how far up the mountain it is located. The fact that during the winter the roads are crushed under the snow give this location a dreadful feel. The location of the hotel is sketchy because it looks like there might be something wrong with this place. It is very well described in the story when Mr. Ullman explains to Jack Torrance how isolated that place is during the winter. He uses an anecdote to over exaggerate how it looks over the winter. Ullman tells Jack that if his son perhaps falls down the stairs and breaks his leg, there will be no easy way to the hospital. Roads will be covered in a about twenty feet of snow, there will be a blizzard with freezing temperatures and closest hospital thirty miles away. At this point in the story the reader gets the sense of how isolated the Overlook is.

                Stephen King is playing mind games with the reader because he sets the hotel in this isolated place and the tension just keeps building because it is not clear what might happen next.  As the story progresses we find out some important things about the main character—Jack Torrance. We learn that he is a teacher who lost his job because he lost his temper with one of the students. Also, he is an alcoholic and he did not treat his family in the best manner over the past few years. The reason why the author chooses a character like that might symbolize his own personality in some way. Stephen King while writing The Shining, had a drinking problem, and even though he never physically abused his family, he had thoughts in his mind that were very wrong and he imagined what would happen if he could take physical action against his loved ones. Just like the Jack Torrance, Stephen King was a teacher at a local high school, and he was trying to become a full time writer. The author by portraying Jack Torrance the way he is also reveals his own character and lifestyle. With every sentence as we learn things about Jack, we also learn things about Stephen. Before King wrote The Shinning he went on vacation with his wife to a hotel like Overlook, also in Colorado. He got the inspiration and the idea of the hotel from the setting he was in. The rest of the story of course is made up, but he puts so much detail and tells such a great story, while including parts of his personal life in there.

                The Shinning tells a lot of things about Stephen King. It shows that he love writing, and he likes to drink but cannot control it. It shows that he did not enjoy teaching but he did enjoy making up his own work and hoped to make a living from it. The book and the character of Jack Torrance, shows that King even though loved his family, he could get frustrated with them. Personally, I believe that Stephen King intentionally wrote that book not only to tell a great story, but so the fans could get a peak into his life without him telling them directly how it looks like. Other books by King, are also very fascinating and they tell a great story, but The Shinning is special because of how the characters reflect on the author.

The Exorcist Still has the Potential to Scare

The Exorcist is a phenomenal movie. Personally I believe it is one of the scariest films I have ever seen. Even though, the special effects are not as sophisticated as they get today, it still has the ability to scare. The whole plot of the movie is put together so well that the viewer at the beginning wonders how such a normal family can be a victim to a demon.

At the beginning of the movie we get introduced to the family that seems perfectly normal and happy, even though it’s not complete since the father of Regan is living somewhere else. Still, the little girl has a good connection with her mother and she seems joyful. The trouble and strange behavior starts when Regan finds the Ouija Board and begins playing with it. She shows her mother how it works and as she put her fingers on a pointer it slipped to the side as if someone pushed it. After that Regan starts acting strange. She has the occasional flashes of the devil like creature which is really creepy, and it scared the viewer because they are really unexpected.

Later on in the movie when the demon gets comfortable in Regan’s body, the movie became really scary. The special effects are not the best but the make up done on the actors is extremely well done. Green contacts and scratches all over the face as well as yellow teeth make the little girl look very evil. Another thing that works really well is the meanly voice and how she speaks make her even more devilish. The picture below is a great example of the look that is frightening.

Another scene that looks very bizarre is when the girl is getting an exorcism and she suddenly flips her eye and she begins to float and go up from the bed like she was able to fly. Her body was positioned like a cross which made an ironic connection since she was a demon and her body was floating like a cross which is a symbol of Christianity. This scene looked really realistic even though the computer generated animation was not as sophisticated as it is today.

However, there were some scenes that were not considered scary today. The scene where the mother walks into the room and Regan slaps her and than starts to move furniture and do all those unnatural things does not really work. Later she sits on the bed and her head turns all the way around which looks unrealistic and funny in some way.

Another thing that did not fit into the movie and did not make it scarier was the green vomit. It was unrealistic and more disgusting than frightening. Still, it did give the feel of how insulting the demon was, but the special effects today would do a better job with creating a vomit more realistic.

After all, The Exorcist did a good job with scaring people. The whole concept and plot of the movie seemed scarier then some special effects that were used. Still, the movie was done very well and it still has a potential to scare people even in today’s world where computer animation is astounding.

My Opinion About Supernatural Concept

I love horror movies, however, supernatural horror movies are really frightening. Stories about ghosts, demons and all that paranormal activity going on around the world are really freaky. Just a few years ago, I did not believe in supernatural, I thought that it is just a bunch of stories that are made up by people with great imagination. I changed my mind a year ago when I had a chance to hear a story from my friend about her experience playing with the Ouija Board. She claimed that she and her friends set down in the park by a local school and begin playing around with Ouija Board—game that is for kids that are eight years old or older; at least that is what is written on the box. They had good luck because the little pointer on the board begin moving and answering their questions. What they found out is that the spirit’s name was Emma and that she died in a fire. As they kept asking questions they were learning more about the spirit, but later they decided to ask questions about themselves and their future and past. Surprisingly, the spirit answered questions that no one around the table would know, because those things were too personal to share with friends. At the end of the conversation when they asked if they can speak to Emma again, she answered “no,” when they asked why she answered, “dangerous.” That was the whole conversation. When my friend told me about it, I got goose bumps, because of how incredibly creepy and unbelievable it was. Myself, I would never try my luck with the Ouija Board, I am too scared that the spirit would stay with me.

After that story, I decided to do some more research about ghosts because it seemed like a fascinating topic. I had a chance to talk to a family’s friend, who was a detective investigating murder cases. He told us that they used to induce spirits to help solve investigations. They had good luck with some but the trick was that everyone that participated had to believe in spirits and their credibility. This made me believe in spirits and their power. The supernatural can be scary, but there are some things that prove that there are some positive things that come from ghosts.

Still, supernatural horror movies are way too scary, and I just do not enjoy watching them. The give me nightmares and later my imagination works everywhere and I feel like I see demons all around. So for most of the time I stay away from the supernatural movies. However, I do believe that it is a fascinating concept.

Beginning of My Fascination of Horror Genre

When I was a little kid, I used to watch tons of movies. I guess that is how parents keep their kids quiet so they can rest for a while. Most of the movies I watched were Disney movies about princesses and beautiful world where good always wins over the evil. However, one day my father fell asleep in front of television and he did not realize that I came in to the room and begin watching a scary movie. I can’t really remember what movie it was but I have a theory that it was one of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movies.  Anyway, the character in that movie really frightened me and I had a couple of nightmares but finally I forgot about that movie. As I grew older I noticed my sisters buying lots of Stephen King books and literally finishing them in 2 days. It was surprising because my sisters were not big fans of books. A couple of years later as I begin to mature, I picked up a book with the most interesting cover; it was called Carrie written by Stephen King. The first scene in the book was so disturbing, that I immediately got hooked on it. I could not put it down. As I read more I begin to think about the character of Carrie. She was a daughter of a religious fanatic, and she also had a special power of telekinesis. Carrie was such a powerful character because of her strangeness that it really made me realize that horror genre is not sadistic but interesting. Carrie was really fascinating to me because she never meant to do evil things, all she wanted was to be accepted in her school. Unfortunately, her classmates did not have any compassion towards here and she was a constant target to bullying and jokes. The last scene in the novel really freaked me out because it showed what a human being is able to do as a result of mistreating. Of course her power of telekinesis was made up and it was a fantasy, but it made me wonder about people’s minds and what sometimes we fantasize about and wish we could do to punish a person who did bad things to us. That was the whole power of Carrie, because it revealed the twisted mind of people and what we are able to do to seek revenge. After I read the book I saw a movie that was based on this novel. Even though it was pretty powerful I still thought that the book was more impressive. For some reason I love to imagine the characters my own way and the movie ruined that for me. Well, after my experience with Carrie, I begin to read other books of Stephen King’s such as Cujo, The Shinning, and Salem’s Lot. I enjoyed all of them. And to this day, sometimes I have an urge to reread some of them.