In the horror genre, there are many concepts that can contribute to horrifying the audience. A common fear for most is the fear of the unknown or that of which cannot be seen such as what lies beyond the world people cannot see. It can raise question of what may cross the line into ghosts or “supernatural” territory. There could be tons of reasons as to why something could be portrayed as haunted. In the film The Shining by Stephen King, the Overlook Hotel calls to Jack Torrance to come back to the hotel and fulfill his duty as caretaker of that hotel. Jack’s son Danny even experiences extrasensory perception within the hotel. There are several tales of angry spirits coming back to reap havoc among those who have crossed it. A tale such as this is “The Queen of Spades” written by Aleksandr Pushkin, Hermann relentlessly searches for a way to make a quick buck, even goes as far as to pull a gun on an old woman ultimately killing her. The old Countess comes forth to wreak her revenge to a greedy person. Supernatural motif is everywhere in these tales because there comes a time where one can no longer just blame the psyche of one’s own mind.
In The Shining, the audience sees Jack Torrence’s almost instant attraction to the Overlook hotel evidently ignoring the fact that the previous caretaker went crazy and murdered his wife and children. Jack Torrence brushes the warning off because he “believes himself to be immune to such problems” (Russell 45). The Shining has a very House on Haunted Hill feel where the hotel is a place for paranormal energy attracting the residents like a magnet. The Overlook hotel is the brain behinds the operation in attracting the one true caretaker back where belongs. In Stephen King: A Critical Companion, S…
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Rosen, Nathan. “Up the down Staircase in “The Queen of Spades”” The Slavic and East European Journal 46.4 (2002): 711-26. JSTOR. Web. 22 Nov. 2013. .
Rosenshield, Gary. “Freud, Lacan, and Romantic Psychoanalysis: Three Psychoanalytic Approaches to Madness in Pushkin’s The Queen of Spades.” The Slavic and East European Journal 40.1 (1996): 1-23=6. JSTOR. Web. 22 Nov. 2013.Russell, Sharon A. “The Shining.” Stephen King : A Critical Companion. Wesport, CT: Greenwood, 1996. 45-61. Academic Complete. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
