Ghosts Aren't The Scariest Part Of The Shining

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

One of the most discussed shots in the film comes at the very end, after Jack has frozen to death and Wendy and Danny have escaped, when the camera slowly zooms in on a photograph from a July 4 party from 1921, which clearly shows Jack among the revelers in the ballroom. On the one hand, this could simply be a symptom of the fact that, as Kubrick said many times about the film, it's a ghost movie and not everything in a ghost movie needs to make sense. On the other hand, Kubrick also said quite clearly about this shot, "The ballroom photograph at the very end suggests the reincarnation of Jack." The idea of reincarnation is not isolated to Jack. There's also the implication that Charles Grady, the previous caretaker of the Overlook who murdered his family, is the reincarnation of Delbert Grady, the butler who tells Jack that he's always been the caretaker.

The idea of reincarnation not only reinforces the motif of doubles seen throughout the film, it also bears the symbolic weight of the cycle of abuse. Violence is often (but by no means always) passed down from one generation to the next, as our parents and others close to us are the ones who teach us how to behave and interact with others, even if only subconsciously. If the idea of The Shining is that the Overlook calls out to past inhabitants to test their moral mettle, we likewise have the decision between listening to our better angels, or, like Jack, giving license to our baser instincts.

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