A Color Story: The Shining (1980)

Title: The Shining
Year: 1980
Dir.: Stanley Kubrick
Producer(s): Stanley Kubrick
Writer(s): Stephen King (novel), Stanley Kubrick, Diane Johnson
Costume(s): Milena Canonero
Cinematography: John Alcott

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Scatman Crothers, Danny Lloyd

Imagine my surprise when I saw that I never did A Color Story post for The Shining. I swore I did… but the online proof said otherwise. WHAT. This is a reminder to also watch Doctor Sleep soon.

But The Shining is known for a lot of things. Visually should be at the top of that list. The color palette is dare I say, delicious and strategic. But I think color has just as a big role as the characters. From the top view of the maze, the patterns of the carpet that Danny drives on that creates a memorable sound design are soft to hard, loud to quiet, almost nonexistent. With the help of John Alcott and Milena Canonero alongside Kubrick, the Stanley Hotel is its own colorful character.

One thing I think we have all noticed is how pronounced the colors are, especially like… very powerful and strong or we have the opposite where its muted, calmer, but the calmness is around certain characters. For example, the character Scatman Crothers plays, his bedroom is a muted pink, some neutrals with a deep green cover. It’s so calming compared to the bathroom environment that’s red. Or even the elevator scene where red, red, red, gushing red invades the calm interior design. That’s a pattern to take note of for sure. When Danny encounters the Grady Twins, that hallway’s interior is very… “normal”, borderline boring. And that quick blink of their dead bodies on the ground, red blood everywhere, covering it up, it’s like the hotel says, nowhere is safe for how loud and alive the hotel is.

We can cover it up with simple colors, give our main characters the color reds or muted color schemes.

Oh we also can’t forget the iconic movie poster is YELLOW. Yellow, the color that represents the sun, happiness, optimism, joy, all the things this movie is NOT. But what it also represents is betrayal, jealousy, DANGER, illness, things that are prevalent in the movie. Now I have not personally read The Shining (I’d love to), and I’ve only read Carrie, Salem’s Lot and some of SK’s short stories and I wonder if color is a theme.

If it isn’t, I can see visually, you’d use it as a story. Now I want to test this theory but also look at the mini series (directed by Mick Garris, 1997) which… I’ve seen perhaps once. I do remember it being very different… maybe I’ll add that to the list.

But what is your favorite part or parts of The Shining? What aspect do you enjoy? Do you prefer the book over the films or vice versa? Leave a comment below!

Bye!