The Uncanniness of The Shining

Abstract

Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film The Shining has been examined and analyzed countless times up until today. Even though 40 years have gone by since its release, the film’s full meaning and the events happening to the Torrance family are still unclear. The film unfolds in a limbo-like state, between dream and reality. While writing the script, Kubrick states that he was inspired by Sigmund Freud’s Das Unheimlich (1919) essay. According to Freud, things or people that arouse feelings of dread and horror belong to the realm of the uncanny. The uncanny is related to what is frightening, but more importantly it entails a duality, an ambiguity because it encompasses the familiar with the unfamiliar. This study aims to locate the uncanny elements in The Shining, while also examining how conflicting desires that have been repressed can come to the surface through the dream-like setting of the Overlook Hotel.