Suspense in the Shinning

Suspense is created in the film Shinning though sound, editing, mise en scene and camera movement.

The first scene that I am going to analyse is the scene where, Danny is riding around the hotel on his tricycle.  The very steady tracking shot and the balance with in the frame and the fact that the camera is behind Danny makes us feel very uncomfortable. We can only see what Danny can see and as he turns the corners we are waiting to find something that will make us jump. We are following him but very inhumanely just observing him not being able to see his face, also adds to the suspense. But in a sense we feel protected by Danny as he is the one to see what might give us a fright before we see it, like sending your best friend first into the darkness to check if the coast is clear. The balance in the frame is done well as I had mentioned before this balance adds to feeling uncomforted, it creates the atmosphere because the frame determines what we see and what we see to us as an audience is the most important thing. When looking at this scene we can see an even amount of  the floor, the carpet pattern, what's ahead of Danny and Danny who is placed in the middle of the frame. The type of shot this whole scene is in dose not change either, this makes us feel involved and claustrophobic. We can really feel like we are in a dim narrow long corridor, having to look at the continuos pattern of the carpet in turn.  The music that sounds like screams with a echoey effect which is used though out the film this scene makes viewers feel tense and uneasy.

In this scene Jack is hitting the door with the axe, the camera movement in this scene is very well known in the  world of film as it shows the amount of power and effort that is being put into Jack using the axe against the door. It really shows us how determined Jack is to kill Wendy. This adds to how much suspense we feel within just this scene, the transformation of the character from being calm and normal to being full of rage and violence is a shock to us. Wendy is  trapped in the brightly lit bathroom it makes us feel that for her to escape from Jack is going to be impossible and we rely on her to figure out a way where she can survive. We can see that she hasn't got much to defend her self with just a small kitchen knife, which is going to be useless against the huge axe that Jack has with him. The lighting  in the bathroom helps us to see the facial expressions that Wendy is pulling and it makes us realize how scared she is and how scary the situation must be for her. As well as this it shows the damage that Jack is causing, this is when the daunting realization that the door that Wendy is relying on to hold up for her is going to be taken away in a matter of seconds. The way that Wendy is framed while she is leaning against the door begging Jack to stop, shows that she is very close to the axe which is being hurled at and through the door. The sound track that is used in this scene becomes very annoying and aggravating as all we want is to help her figure out a way out of the bathroom, it makes it very hard to concentrate on what she could do to escape.

 In this scene Danny is being chased in the dark maze the maze it's self shows and makes the viewers feel that they and the character have no sense of direction and no control over the situation. The camera is again following behind Danny when he is running away from the threat in the maze this also relates back to the very first scene when the car is been look over and followed by the camera in the mountain that scene and this  maze scene shows that the characters are like the pray and us viewers are the predators. The blue lighting makes us unable to see this scene in detail and the foot prints in the snow makes us feel the Danny with be defiantly caught. The maze makes us feel this scene will be never ending or ending in dead end. The framing in this scene is similar to the framing in the first scene that I analysed a steady tracking shot with Danny back in  view the only facial expression we see in when he looks back to check if Jack is coming because this is the only facial expression we see we feel panicky.