Familial Abuse and Masculinity in The Shining

Though The Shining is an extremely popular and acclaimed horror film--I personally do not find much in it that makes for interesting analysis, especially in relation to the week's reading. I suppose one of the most interesting aspects of the film, at least for our purposes, is its portrayal of masculinity and of the American family unit. Like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, this film is essentially about the meltdown of the nuclear family, though via a different route. Where The Texas Chain Saw Massacre centers on a family perverted by the lack women, The Shining centers on a family perverted by the presence of extreme, dangerous masculinity--in the case, the abusive father. Nowhere is this clearer than in the scene wherein Jack talks to Grady in the bathroom, wherein Grady convinces Jack that he must assert dominance over his own family through violence in order to keep them in check (of course, the exchange is spiced with misogyny and, interestingly, racism as well).

As they both are about abusive parents, The Babadook also makes an interesting comparison with The Shining. I think comparison further reveals the problems present in The Babadook. In each film, the monstrous, "other" presence is in some way correlated to the parental abuse, but in The Babdook, it is the abuser who is ultimately vindicated and redeemed, while The Shining ends the abuser being destroyed and the family unit persisting on without the abusive figure. Furthermore, Sam and Danny are interesting foils as well. Sam only exists to be a nuance to Amelia, an obstacle to be overcome. Danny, on the other hand, is perhaps the most fully-fleshed out character in The Shining, a character who we sympathize with rather than be annoyed at.

There probably is something interesting to be said about the way in which the typical point of identification in a film about family (the father) is twisted into the villainous and even monstrous here, while the child and the wife becomes the story's "heroes"--but I'm not quite sure what it is exactly.