Kubrick, King, and the Ultimate Scare Tactic
by Michael Dare
When Stephen King saw the film version of Carrie, he couldn't help
but notice that the single most terrifying moment -- the one that made
all audiences jump -- wasn't even in his book. After Carrie's death and
the climactic destruction of the high school, director Brian DePalma
added a little epilogue where one of Carrie's chums visits her grave.
Just as she bends down to place some roses, a hand comes shooting out of
the gravel and grabs her arm. A second later she wakes up in bed,
screaming. The epilogue was a nightmare. The end.
A cheap shot? Yep. Effective? You bet, and a perfect example of the
Ultimate Scare Tactic in film: build an atmosphere of tension, release
it, and just as the audience gets relaxed and is sure that nothing else
is going to happen, hit them with the real punchline. Close Encounters
of the Third Kind, The Omen, Alien, Deliverance, and Jaws are
but a few of the films that exploit this technique, and they're all
worth studying. It works so well that Stephen King has incorporated the
Ultimate Scare Tactic into his novel writing. It's in The Shining, one
of the most frightening books ever written, and a perfect property for
film, that he first succeeded in brilliantly combining cinematic and
novelistic scare tactics. Any director could have shot it exactly as
written and come up with a terrifying film of phantasmagorical
proportions.
Of course Stanley Kubrick is not just any director, and The Shining
might appear to be his most ambiguous work. By asking more questions
than it answers, the film entices you into its world just as the
Overlook Hotel lures Jack Torrence into its maze. Alien makes less
sense the more you think about it, but the closer you look at The
Shining, the more the pieces fit, the more hidden meanings reveal
themselves.
Most horror films aren't very suspenseful on second viewing; you know
where all the surprises are. But in refusing to rely on any of the
cinematic shock effects currently in vogue, Kubrick has made a film that
gets more frightening every time you see it. This, combined with the
fact that he twisted King's sardonic tale of possession into a comment
on American television, makes The Shining a perfect home video horror
show.
Take the scene where Wendy Torrence (Shelley Duvall) is crouching in
the corner of the bathroom as an ax comes crashing through the door. Any
filmmaker on earth could have guaranteed a scream from the audience with
that scene by using the old Ultimate Scare Tactic: Build the suspense
until Wendy finds sanctuary in the bathroom; have her relax a moment
till both she and the audience feel safe; then suddenly, without
warning, have an ax come crashing through the door. Surprise! Everybody
jumps. Big deal.
But Kubrick is not after any cheap rush of adrenaline. In his version,
we see Jack Torrence outside with the ax. He takes a mighty swing. Cut
to the inside of the bathroom where the ax comes crashing through the
door. Wendy screams, but the audience doesn't because they knew it was
coming.
In this same way, Kubrick deliberately undermines all the most
frightening moments in the book. He's still trying to scare you, but not
the way it's usually done. Jack Torrence is trying to kill his wife with
an ax. Isn't that frightening enough? Isn't violence terrifying all by
itself? Kubrick feels no need to cheat you by not showing what's on the
other side of the door.
To Kubrick, Ozzie and Harriet is the ultimate snow job, and a man,
woman and child trapped alone together is the most horrifying prospect
imaginable. Since no one was expecting The Shining to be an incisive
commentary on the effects of television on the nuclear family, most
viewers who saw it in theaters were disappointed. Kubrick seemed to
deliberately change things from the book for no other reason than to
irritate Stephen King fans. He also inserted images like the blood in
the elevator or the final picture on the wall. If you search the book
looking for an explanation, you won't find one.
The Shining is chock full of details you couldn't possibly notice on
first viewing, things that might appear to be mistakes. So once again,
here's a film that's much better as a home video. Rent it or buy it, and
watch for the following items you probably didn't notice the first time
through: