I watched Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining again. I’ve seen this movie a fair number of times but this is the first time I’ve seen a really good HD transfer of it. The richness of the colors was astonishing and the sound in 5.1? Way, way creepier than the terrible mixes I’ve heard in the past. I’ve always found the cinematography and the sound design impressive, but the vibrancy of the movie is stunning and you really should watch it on Blu-ray.
While I was watching the movie in my dimly-lit living room, I thought I saw something move in my peripheral vision. This is when I discovered that our television is now at exactly the right angle to reflect off of the glass doors of the bookcases that line the wall behind the couch. This discovery took several years off my life.
I backed up the movie and managed to get a fairly accurate photo of what I saw when i looked across the room. The demarcation of the television screen wasn’t as sharp in reality as it is in the picture so the effect was much creepier. You’ll just have to take my word for it.
Once, in grad school, I turned on the TV to discover that the Shining was on. I’d never seen it, but I knew it was scary. I called a friend to see if he would come over to watch it with me. He couldn’t and when I asked if I should watch it alone, he said, “Turn off the tv and just go to bed. You’ll thank me for it later.”
I still have never seen the whole movie.
Someone’s parents got a print to show for their birthday party when we were 11 I think – Rachel L, maybe? Or maybe it was Louis’s party? He was a year older than us. My parents wouldn’t let me see it. Every once in a while they were probably right about something and this was probably one of those times. It’s not the scariest thing ever unless you live in a big spooky building, but it’s definitely an intense movie. I don’t know that we could relate to the whole concept of being snowbound when we were kids – I’d never even seen snow. lol.
There was a recent “This American Life” episode
involving someone’s entire childhood being
ruined for being afraid of going to sleep from
having seen this at a tender age. On another
note, try watching the classic “Them” with a
fan on in the (darkened) viewing room.