The Shining Opening Sequence Analysis

The opening sequence for Stanley Kubrick's 1980s Horror, The Shining is almost fully consisted of establishing shots, conveying the peaceful countryside and the yellow car driving along it. This connotes to the audience the isolation of where characters are staying, as well as setting the overall tone of the film as this idea of them being isolated is a major theme in this film. From the establishing shots the emphasis of the amount of isolation is strongly shown with the contrast of the small yellow car surrounded by all of the trees and mountains.

The only time where there was not a form of an establishing shot was when the camera zoomed in on the yellow car, where at this point 'Jack Nicholson' scrolls up on the screen, connoting to the audience that he is the person who is in the car as well as suggesting that he is the main character within the film as he is the first person to be introduced to the audience.

The typography used in the opening allows the audience to clearly see the companies and people who are involved with the film, the use of making the text a icy blue colour does this as well as also connote the Horror genre of the film as this colour could relate to the fact that sometimes death causes human bodies to turn blue, thus foreshadowing that there is probably going to be deaths in the film.


The use of the music with the shots help to produce an interesting contrast with the peaceful setting of the landscape and the use of the sinister music, where at first the two objects do not blend together. This helps for the music to set the tone for the film.

The transitions used are very sharp when showing a different location and symbolising one of the main themes in the film (Change), as the sharp cuts to a different location can convey the dramatic change in the main character.

The main focus throughout the opening is the car as this is the consistent object throughout the opening from the change of location the car is still evident in the shot which conveys a sense of time of how far he has travelled. The use of not including any actors in the opening helps to keep the audience interested, as it allows the audience to wonder why nobody has been introduced and adds to the suspense as this makes the opening more mysterious. The cameras main focus is this car as it is always tracking it, connoting its significance, as the audience may miss it at first. With the car being yellow it could connote that the character in the car is nervous as the colour yellow is associated as a warning colour as well as madness and fear, suggesting that this isn't going to be a 'normal' holiday. The colour yellow for the car is unusual as they are not very common conveying that the main character is not common and can suggest that he is quite abstract.

The lighting used throughout the opening is all from the natural sources suggesting that at this moment everything is fine and that nothing bad is going to happen yet due to the brightness of the lighting.