Overlooked! A detail in The Shining that you’ve never seen

This is a stunning video essay, I mean that so sincerely, the attention to detail, the work that has went into presenting it and, most especially, your humility regarding this hugely important find is really impressive and inspiring. I'm afraid I have no significant opinions to add as to what it might mean, I think my best guess would be to agree with your idea it was Kubrick trying to imperceptibly disturb the audience with the almost subliminal threats to themselves as audience members, William Friedkin done something vaguely similar in The Exorcist with creepy images only lasting a few frames but it was a bit cruder than what Kubrick is doing in your analysis.

There is a cheap contrarian in all of us and I did wonder whilst I was watching your essay if these glances at the camera happened in lots of films and we just don't spot them, if it was just a natural consequence of head and shoulders shots when the actor is moving their head to look in a different direction, some of the examples you use last literally a fraction of a second, I wondered if, with you incredible eye for detail, you had looked for it happening in other films which wouldn't be as intricately planned as a Kubrick film? An obvious counter argument for this is how deliberate some of the looks are when they're pointed out to you, the obviously deliberate one when Jack is stalking away angrily from Wendy (your slow motion footage of this is somehow even more alarming) and Kubrick being shown to ask Jack to find a way of looking down at the camera when he's been locked up by Wendy

So for what it's worth I think you're 100% correct in this and I think it's a major discovery, I think it's on a level of finding the reason for the Mona Lisa's smile, it's one of the most studied films in history and by finding this detail you've added significant understanding to a cultural artefact. I honestly think you should be awarded for this, it's a hugely impressive discovery. Thanks

Edit: Didn't read all the comments before I gave my input so I can see my middle paragraph point has been addressed

What about the rocket references?!

it was overlooked

I never comment on videos but bravo sir. ive seen just about every video on the subject. and this was possibly the best one. thank you. very original and very well presented. its something i feel i have subtly noticed but having seen this movie about a dozen or so times i didnt know he done it so often.

I have a theory. I think that since Jack is a writer...he is subtly aware that he himself is now in a story. Maybe the story he wrote while at the overlook.

I really do think you hit the nail on the head. We're stuck in the hotel with the Torrance family -- he may well come kill the viewer, that's how much he's snapped.

I like the idea of Jack knowing we're watching and that we might be next. I know that's not it, but I do like the idea.

Some of these examples you showed actually show him looking slightly off to the side of the camera. They didn't seem intentional either. But there was definitely a handful of him looking at the camera and they definitely looked intentional.

Very peculiar. Everyone notices the 4th wall break as he's angrily walking out of the hotel room, but I never really noticed the rest of the looks in every other scene. Great video.

Heavy Spoilers guy pointed this out (it could have been Collective Learning, I'll look)

To implicate us. We are ghouls, reveling in violence

From the opening shot of the film, it's clear that some presence (or presences) is watching Jack. At some point, perhaps he begins to sense it and unconsciously respond to it.

I spent years working in a casino hotel called Rincon Del Diablo.
It is riddled with spirit

Ok.. this has been out for 6 months... and I just got it now and it blew my mind...

Your theory is awesome.
Now if I may add(I have not read the comments below)

There has been a sequel to the shining.. and we learn that the OverLook Hotel feeds on those who have the "Shine"...
Jack Nicholson character.. has the gift of shining... he sees ghosts.. and can interact with them like his Son.
As an adult... he tries to ignore the gift. Which is why he glances.. at the camera. Because he "sees" something and acknowledges by a glance.. then as the movie progresses. He is smiling at the presence..

(us...the camera)
Now at the beginning of the movie the camera is flying behind the car on its way to the hotel.
Then we haunt Jack and his son though out the movie.

This is what I am getting from the movie now... real creepy

Isnt this called bad acting? Cant think jack would make that rookie error

Kubrick was always interested in making the adaptation of the book that became Eyes Wide Shut (__EWS). It could be Kubricks brain prepping us for more to come, which did. He's saying there are crazed predators always looking in.

Maybe he see's someone or something the other's can't see.

Breaking the 4th wall makes the viewer a collaborator. Makes you on the side of the perpetrator rather than the victims. And the fact you continue to watch ....
I've never seen the film because I've never been a fan of horror films. Obviously a lot of people are fans and most continue to watch through every horror until the end of the film because we are supposed to watch films to the end.

Just a subtle way to let the audience in on Jack playing to supernatural forces.

I agree that the effect is unsettling and unconsciously makes us feel unsafe. I also feel that this effect is foreshadowing the last couple of shots of the movie and that’s a major purpose, too.

"In the end, I don't know exactly what is going on in The Shining". Finally, an honest review. 😅

I think you're just showing that Jack Nicholson is actually not a good actor, at least in my opinion. Isn't the point of an act to bring the audience into the role(s)? Ah well, I guess you would have to look at other roles he plays.

This is really interesting. I get the feeling that we, as the viewers, are one of the ghosts in the Overlook that only Jack can see, but tries to ignore. We now get to see the events of the movie through the eyes of the Overlook

Such an irritating and thoughtless title for a considered and decent video

Much has been made of the applause at the end of the credits.

Could it be he's just taking direction from Kubrick considering how meticulous and uncompromising he is?

Jack Torrence is a mad person. As the eyes are the visualisation of his "internals" or even soul, the moments he looks straight to the camera make him more scary. That was the intended effect, there's nothing mysterious here. Basically the rule is that the best US actors are unmatched in playing the deranged men. Nicolson, De Niro, Pacino etc., etc. These can't play great roles from for example Shakespeare, but are the best in playing nuts. Nicolson in "Shining" is no difference at all.

I'm not convinced it was intentional. Maybe Jack just sucked at not looking at the camera.

I think you nailed it. We are in every scene with Jack, and he wants to remind us that we are involved and present in his spiral to madness.

As a longtime Shining fan who watched the movie over 100 times by now I never noticed this detail! It makes it so much more unsettling to know that he's watching back.

Wow. I always felt extra creeped out whenever those scenes came on, but never knew why. Now I do. Jack directly looking at the camera works for multiple reasons. The first one is. It's super creepy. As you pointed out, it's easily missed. So it ends up affecting the viewer subconsciously. It works the way first-person horror games work. The intentionality of it all reminds me of those paintings with The Mona Lisa effect . They are the ones with the eyes that appear to follow you.

What Kubrick IMO is trying to do is unnerve you to thinking that you yourself are in hell. Sort of like how the demon looked at the audience and Ethan Hawkes character from his computer screen when he turned his back in the movie Sinister. Except with Kubrick's version there is no Ethan Hawke. Its just you and the movie, and its Jack letting you know that you are part of the movie too and the evil in him is able to harm you even if the images are on celluloid. Since this movie came out many have tried hard just to capture that one aspect of the film. Whereas before that film it was never done before in any movie. Remember the picture pose at the end of the film. Its a human representation of Satan's pose. Satan is everywhere. There are no such things as 4th walls when it comes to the devil. Thats my interpretation anyway. Its also a very effective scare for viewers who have seen it multiple times.

You have noticed nothing new

I dunno, if the stories about the production are true, maybe it was Nicholson's way of giving the bird to Kubric. They had so many takes, maybe he just stopped caring at some point during that shoot and eyed the camera?

These moments are mainly the result of Kubrick insisting on too many takes. Nicholson becomes self conscious and distracted by whether "this" take is going to satisfy Stanley. He loses his discipline, resulting in the amateurish mistake of glancing at the camera. Let's not try to dress it up as some kind of performance or cinematic technique. A big star and a top director collaborated to make a home movie.

Love this opinion. Even if it was not exactly the intent or purpose of Kubrick for us, the audience to be ghosts. Looking at the movie under this theory explains the feeling these scenes give. Very excellent observation and theory. And it doesn’t cancel out all other theories while in play.

"Are you seeing why this is inevitable? They made me do this...if they just did what I told them, none of this would be necessary. NONE of IT!"
Every alcoholic, even the dry drunks- blames their behavior on everyone else. It is never their fault. If the world would just conform to their standards it would all be hunky-doory.

I will have to watch it again to see how it follows. I really do believe Kubrick liked the story of 'The Shining' because it illustrates this behavior, even with Wendy being the best co-dependant partner. It is a disease, a social disease. Every person has a role to play in it.

I watch the movie twice once when I was young and then 30 years later and in both it gave me the same thoughts and feelings so I ran from the thoughts and suppress the feelings the movie is quite effective and not very entertaining and I got it especially at the end with the maze and the snow and I'll leave it at that

I never once noticed this and I’ve watched this probably 20 times since the 80s. Amazing that could be one reason why the movie was so impactful. Jack was not an amateur at that point so I highly doubt this was unintentional.

The entire movie is Kubrick messing with the audience. Horror movies are meant to disturb peoples morals. Make them feel uncomfortable in one way or another. Kubrick did that but mostly on a subconsious level which most people and critics didn't get so they associated their uneasiness that they couldnt put a finger on with bad filmmaking.

Example: Typewriter changes color from white to black, furniture disappearing one moment and reapearing a few moments later during the conversation in front of the typewriter, the Maze sign moved between scenes, the hall doorways that if opened must open up on a one story drop to the great room, the corner apartment bathroom on a corner of the building shows later when they Danny climbs out of it that its not on a corner, The door to a room ajar in the background when Dany is looking at Room 237 doorway, the light switch in the kitchen disappearing, the impossible freezer and dry storage configuration in the kitchen, the manager's office has a window where the blood elevator is located, and on and on. It's all subconscious assault on the viewer.

"I'm used to the Shining now, nothing about it can scare me anymore"
Stills of Jack looking directly at the camera: Hi 👋

Great observation, sir

In Spellcasting, you must look at your victim in the eye.
(In this case, all the World is a Stage-Audiance)

This is Craft @ its finest,
by the finest ;)

I seen alot of these watching this film over the years. Honestly thought it was because i only watch horror movies stoned 😂

Very interesting, thank you for sharing

To which Bruce Dern says, "I could've done that."😊

the audience are ghosts at the hotel

I wonder if JN does this in other films too? It's either a subconscious look for approval towards Kubrick, or it's part of an almost endless list of subtle ways Kubrick wanted to unsettle the viewer. I guess the latter, because there's no way a control freak like Kubrick would have let his lead actor break the 4th wall so many times. It's a deeply weird film - just love it.