R21 - The Shining (1980): Observation & Analysis with Target Audience

To find out the sort of reactions we should be receiving, I asked four friends to watch a clip from the The Shining as opposed to the whole film which unfortunately they wouldn't have time for. This allows me to have an insight into what scares them, what makes the jump and what they find interesting. The reason as to why I have chosen this film is because in this clip especially, it plays on the psychological aspects of the mind, which is what we also incorporate in our film. To get an idea on the effect it'll have on the audience, I chose this film to see my target audience's response.  

The clip starts off with the camera following a little boy on a small tricycle. As it is following him with the use of a mid shot, there is a slight high pitched sound which gets louder. However the suspense builds as the camera following him slows down and he gets further and further away. This got the audience ready for a shock which they didn't receive and therefore kept them on edge for the next part in case it appeared there. 

The setting also made the audience a little edgy as it looked like a old institution with flickering lights. The dirtiness of it made them wonder why a little boy was there in the first place and why he wasn't with anybody. With the camera behind the boy yet still following him through the passage, this long anticipated journey continued to add suspense to the audience.

As he turns the last corner, he comes to a dead end and a symbol crashes making a loud sound. Two girls are waiting at the end of the passage making them jump and laugh at their stupidity of the simplicity of the clip (and how it wasn't actually scary at all). The boy immediately comes to a halt and a close up shot is used on his face showing the dear in his eyes. Cut off's and establishing shots are used between the boy and the two eerie girls to show his fear and their sinister attributes. The camera then uses a point of view shot zooming into the girls with the music getting louder. 

With the shots going back and forth, it got the audience used to a rhythm that they were used to but were waiting for the moment it would change. Yet suddenly, the normal back and forth shots abruptly changed to the two girls murdered on the floor with blood all around them. As the audience were unaware of this happening, they had jumped at the sight of it. 

However this time, the back and forth shots were between the little boy, the dead twins and the normal twins. As the shots appeared in a random order, the audience were frightened at when the bloodied version appeared as well as the normal one as it was unexpected to them.    


Comments from the participant:
"I normally don't like horror films so I was already scared to watch it. The beginning of the extract was creepy because it felt like the camera was focused on the little boy riding on the bike for so long and then when he turned the corner, you was expecting something to jump out at you but it didn't. Even when he was still riding his bike, nothing was happening for a while so when the two girls appeared suddenly it made me jump because it was the last thing I expected. Even after that the music didn't help because it was so scary! When the clip was shifting with the boy and the twins on the floor with blood, it scared me because one minute the scene was so normal - well not normal but you know it was something you'd expect to see, and then without anything even happening they were dead and then back alive and then dead again. Even though it's from the 80s it still scared me" 

Second participant:
"When the clip started, it took a while for me to get into it. He was just going on for what felt like ages but to be honest that did build up some anticipation inside of me because it could've been any minute that something popped out at him or that he could just keep going for ages. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't as into the clip until the end, but even at the end it was just repetitive because he either saw the twins slashed up or they were fine. There was no plot to it, so I can't say it did make me excited to watch the next bit."

Third participant:
"That was weird you know! He was just riding for ages and then comes to a dead end with some scary looking twins. The building looked so creepy man, it looks like it's really old and that but it's actually not, it's just because the films old. Oh, that's why it so much more creepier for us. For an older film, I can get why it would scare people, but now, because we've seen so much more scarier films, we used to seeing all these special effects added in and loud music and that. But that film, it was so quiet and all you were watching was just him riding his little bike in these empty corridors. You didn't know why he was there, why why there was nobody else there, so you knew that you were going to be scared at some point. That's why you start get nervous, because anything can happen. When I first saw the twins, it didn't effect me, because I thought they'd just start walking towards him, but when they were all covered in blood and blood was on the wall, it was the last thing I was expecting so yeah, it did make me jump."