Stanley Kubrick’s Gothic Labyrinth

The article examines Stanley Kubrick's horror film "The Shining", showing how the director took Stephen King's storyline, then considerably developed the plot by introducing other material. These include: (1) reworking the storyline with reference to gothic tales by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Henry James, and Shirley Jackson, as well as taking signature horror themes from Gothic literature generally; (2) deliberately employing Sigmund Freud's and Bruno Betelheim's theories of "the uncanny"; (3) using motifs suggested by the French film "Last Year at Marienbad" to construct the "The Shining" visually as a set of interlocking labyrinths. The article separates developments Kubrick made pre-production, when shaping the script with his co-author Diane Johnson, from a later set of creative decisions taken by the director alone during shooting, then editing the film. 8pp.