*Spoilers for the whole of The Shining*
The Shining is a psychological horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick, that was released in 1980. The film stars Jack Nicholson (as Jack) and Shelley Duvall (as Wendy). In the film Jack takes his wife and son to a hotel in the Rocky Mountains for a 5-month stay over the winter where they are supposed to be the caretakers of the hotel. Over the stay Jack starts to lose his sanity and tries to kill his family. We learn during the film that a previous temporary caretaker murdered his family and then committed suicide, we find out in a hallucination that jack has where he is at a ballroom party, while in the bathroom at this party where he talks to the butler. The butler states that “You’ve always been the caretaker. I should know, sir. I’ve always been here.” Meaning that Jack was the caretaker, and that the spirit has never left the hotel. This is a perfect summary of the concept of Hauntology which is the concept of the past haunting the future.
One of the best parts of The Shining is the soundtrack, mostly comprised of prerecorded Krzysztof Penderecki pieces, the film also utilises 1920s ballroom music, primarily that of Al Bowlley. The ballroom music is used in the scene where Jack hallucinates that he is at a ballroom party, and at the end of the film. The film was a big inspiration for The Caretaker (his name comes from the film) and the ballroom music has been sampled by him in his music. For example, the final piece heard in the film is a song titled ‘Midnight, the stars, and you” by Al Bowlley. The Caretaker sampled this song on the closing tack of his debut record ‘Selected Memories from the Haunted Ballroom.’
The Shining and its use of ballroom music, and its overall very distressing atmosphere was a big inspiration on me and my piece ‘Stella Dancing into the Starlight.’ The use of ballroom music in this film is very smart, as the music inherently was not supposed to be scary and or uncomfortable, but if used in the right context it can be rather unsettling. I was originally going to sample the ballroom music used in this film, but every track bar from one had already been used by The Caretaker, so I thought it would be best to search for samples elsewhere. But the sheer atmosphere in this movie alone was enough to inspire me to use sampled ballroom music in my piece.
Bibliography
www.youtube.com. (n.d.). The Caretaker – Selected Memories From The Haunted Ballroom | Midnight, the stars, and you. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXz3MCplr6E [Accessed 17 May 2023].