# "The Shining", was Kubrick trying to scare us? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 10, 2011, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shining-was-kubrick-trying-to-scare-us/574158 "2011-03-10T12:11:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shining-was-kubrick-trying-to-scare-us/574158/41 "2013-02-14T17:08:34Z")
I’ve been looking forward to “Room 237” for a while. And I don’t know if it’s covered in R237, but there’s a documentary (I saw it maybe on YouTube) that goes into great detail ‘showing’ how scenes in the Shining are all embedded hints by Kubrick that he was the director on the faked moon landing. It’s gripping in a completely unhinged way. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shining-was-kubrick-trying-to-scare-us/574158/42 "2013-02-14T17:22:23Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > Not to mention that the dialog you hear in a movie scene is almost always dubbed into the film later, so you’d need to do that step multiple times as well. The musical score wouldn’t necessarily synch up right on different takes, either. Imagine a “horror” chord coming in a beat or two before the horrific moment. So you might wind up having to to score each variant individually. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shining-was-kubrick-trying-to-scare-us/574158/43 "2013-02-14T17:25:27Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > You could change around the soundtrack too, maybe some [Elvis Costello](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfout_rgPSA) . . . Peter Gabriel, that is. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shining-was-kubrick-trying-to-scare-us/574158/44 "2013-02-14T17:28:44Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > You could change around the soundtrack too, maybe some [Elvis Costello](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfout_rgPSA) . . . That’s Peter Gabriel. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shining-was-kubrick-trying-to-scare-us/574158/45 "2013-02-14T17:41:18Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > They make up for it with lots and lots of little girls reciting nursery rhymes. Maybe they could make an updated version, with Mary Kate and Ashley Olson as the twins. They wouldn’t need makeup. “Come with us Danny. And play with us for ever…and ever…and ever…” Scary and tempting at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shining-was-kubrick-trying-to-scare-us/574158/46 "2013-02-14T19:05:53Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > I’ve been looking forward to “Room 237” for a while. And I don’t know if it’s covered in R237, but there’s a documentary (I saw it maybe on YouTube) that goes into great detail ‘showing’ how scenes in the Shining are all embedded hints by Kubrick that he was the director on the faked moon landing. It’s gripping in a completely unhinged way. Yes, that is one of the theses examined. Never have (obvious) continuity errors been saddled with such enormous significance. Sometimes, a pipe is a pipe and accidents do happen. But the tortured, pretzel logic and cherry-picking in the analyses is perversely thrilling. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shining-was-kubrick-trying-to-scare-us/574158/47 "2013-02-14T20:15:50Z")
We looked into having our wedding at the Stanley hotel two days after Halloween this year. For some reason when I started to suggest tricycles and bloody axes as wedding presents it was decided we should get hitched elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shining-was-kubrick-trying-to-scare-us/574158/48 "2013-02-15T17:18:07Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > How can a movie be scary without cats jumping out of closets? redrum redrum REDRUM REDRUM **REDRUM** ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shining-was-kubrick-trying-to-scare-us/574158/49 "2013-02-15T19:25:05Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > We looked into having our wedding at the Stanley hotel two days after Halloween this year. For some reason when I started to suggest tricycles and bloody axes as wedding presents it was decided we should get hitched elsewhere. That would have been the best wedding ever. Oh! Twin flower girls in little blue dresses! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shining-was-kubrick-trying-to-scare-us/574158/50 "2013-02-15T19:45:36Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > redrum > > redrum > > REDRUM > > REDRUM > > **REDRUM** When my son was about 4 I taught him to say “redrum” and do the finger thing. Then I told him to go show his mom. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shining-was-kubrick-trying-to-scare-us/574158/51 "2013-02-15T19:47:33Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > When my son was about 4 I taught him to say “redrum” and do the finger thing. > > Then I told him to go show his mom. I hope you also chased her down the hall wielding an axe. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shining-was-kubrick-trying-to-scare-us/574158/52 "2013-02-15T20:35:38Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I am reading that, seeing him ascribe a level of intentional brilliance and order to the Shining, and it reminds me of an old Benny Hill skit. Benny Hill was a director being interviewed and the interviewer kept telling him how brilliant he is, but Benny Hill was saying he did XYZ due to laziness or lack of money. > > interviewer: I loved how the start of the movie was in color, then it switched to black and white. It really showed depth > Benny Hill: yes, we ran out of film and only had black and white to work with. I remember that sketch. The interviewer also praised the director for having the female lead character speak with a lisp. Director: No, she _has_ a lisp. Interviewer: You searched the world for an actress with a lisp? Director: Well, she was discovered by our producer… who was living with her at the time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-shining-was-kubrick-trying-to-scare-us/574158.md?page=2)