Mise-En-Scene of The Shining

The Shining was filmed in 1980 and was directed by Stanley Kubrick. The parts of Mis-En-Scene I’ll be analysing will be the; sound, costume, lighting and camera angles.
At the opening of this scene you immediately get a mid-shot of Jack by the bathroom door. He is wearing a red jacket and cheque shirt. The colour red connotes danger and death, red symbolising blood. He is singing the dialogue of the wolf when he is attacking the pig’s houses in turn. The story of this is associated with children’s stories so to contrast the innocence of children and the stories told to them against the horror of Jack about to cut the door down to kill his wife who is inside the door. There is also extra diegetic sound over the shot; it is of a high pitched sound but is coming in slowly so the audience doesn’t notice it until it gets louder over Jack. The use of this sound builds tension within the audience and hints that something bad is going to happen as the tempo of the music is slowly building up, like the mental illness of Jack. The lighting around Jack is coming from a single lamp to the left of him. The lamp is on the bedside table shining up into his face connoting danger.
On the other side of the door, is Jack’s wife in the film. She is wearing a dressing down, showing she has obviously just got out of bed. By her wearing a dressing gown, the audience can immediately tell that is night time and she has clearly got out of bed in a rush. The use of a dressing gown connotes the vulnerability of her, as we associate night time with eeriness, danger and it is when we feel most vulnerable. The camera tracks her to the sink, where she has placed a kitchen knife in the sink beforehand. Throughout this time the tempo of the music has started to get quicker and the pitch of the music is getting higher. The lighting in the bathroom is clinical, white and sharp. It illuminates her facial expression evidently, the main light is coming from above her from a ceiling light so therefore is not natural light.
When the shot goes back to Jack, the camera then is behind him as he raises the axe to crash into the door. You can see the mess the bed has been left in which signifies to the audience there has been a rush. The pitch of the music then gets higher still until Jack plunges the axe into the door, where it pauses and we hear the thud of the axe against the door and then the scream of Wendy. The scream denotes that Wendy is terrified and we don’t even need to see her face to understand that. A scream is associated with fear so it adds again to the heightening fear of Jack. The camera tracks the axe as it goes backwards and forwards into the door. This happens twice and on the third, the camera angle shifts to show the axe coming in the through the door. This makes the audience feel like they’re involved in the scene and are actually a part of the moving axe. The sound of the axe coming in through the door is diegetic but there is still the extra diegetic sound over the top. This has now suddenly turned to a high pitched, fast tempo sound to a low thrumming sound. We carry on watching the axe hack through the door sideways. The camera now progresses around so the audience are watching the axe come through the door face on and can see the hole that has ready been made. We can also see Jack’s facial expression, this adds to the dread we as an audience feel for Wendy as the look on his face is sheer malice. The music then goes back to its high pitch again from the beginning of the clip, it indicates that something bad is going to happen again as when the music was last used Jack started hacking the door.
The camera then moves back to the other side of the door again where there is a wide shot of Jack and the bedroom. Again, we see the bed and the bedside light that is just casting a light up the wall causing the rest of the room to look dim. We then watch him successfully cut the door and walk over to the hole created. The music then gets considerably noticeable and high pitched as the camera angle does a close up of Jack’s face looking into the door. The expression on his face is chilling and is even more manifest as he put his face into the directly bright light of the bathroom. We then close up on Jack reaching in to turn the key in the lock. Then we see Wendy cut Jacks hand in a close-up shot and then again on Jack’s face as he shouts in horror because of his hand. It leaves us wanting to know if Jack successfully got through the door or not, and if Wendy will escape and survive.