Ephemera related to The Shining
March 20, 2012 1:30 PM   Subscribe

The Overlook Hotel: "Ephemera related to Stanley Kubrick's Masterpiece of Modern Horror, The Shining."
posted by kirkaracha (44 comments total) 33 users marked this as a favorite
 
Nice. Do they actually think this is really a "long-forgotten" Atari game?
posted by Admiral Haddock at 1:35 PM on March 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


You call this a Shining FPP? This website has absolutely zero overly-extrapolated paranoid theories about the film. Not a single word about how minute changes in prop placement are actually messages sent to the Illuminati. And I can't find a trace of reference to how the architecture of the Overlook is a fourth-dimensional hyper-pentagram.

The text isn't even a neon color on a black background. Come on

This is pretty cool.
posted by griphus at 1:36 PM on March 20, 2012 [19 favorites]


I bet they had fun working on that set.
posted by Meatafoecure at 1:37 PM on March 20, 2012


some mood music
posted by The Whelk at 1:38 PM on March 20, 2012


Crap, I think that I have to buy this tie.
posted by octothorpe at 1:40 PM on March 20, 2012 [8 favorites]


Okay JUST FOR THE RECORD I want to EXPLICITLY STATE that I don't NECESSARILY THINK that it was actually Chuck Colson in the bear suit in that scene near the end, but it DOES fit perfectly with what we know to be true about Watergate as proxy coverup for the JFK assassination and Kubrick's obsessive research into the moon landing as furthering a Napoleonic scheme.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:42 PM on March 20, 2012 [5 favorites]


I would be legit worried to wear that tie.
posted by The Whelk at 1:43 PM on March 20, 2012


What the hell is with all of the "cryptic backward messages and secrets revealed" sites devoted to The Shining all of a sudden? Did it suddenly just hit every college's cinema studies programs or something?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:45 PM on March 20, 2012


I know, wait until they find out about The Holy Mountain.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:47 PM on March 20, 2012 [7 favorites]


I think that it spoils a great deal of the pleasure of the film for anyone who happens to have been unfortunate enough to have read what the filmmaker ‘has in mind.’

Yeah, you just go on thinking that way, Stan. We will be over here counting how many cast members have double letters in their names.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:48 PM on March 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


octothorpe: "Crap, I think that I have to buy this tie."

Just happened on my end: "Please be under $20, please be under... dang. Wait, maybe I could organize a MeFi bulk buy."

(because, you know, saving $10 would so be worth that effort.)

I think The Shining has officially crossed over into that strange space where I appreciate the bizarre fandom more than the thing that inspires it.

(Before you scoff, keep in mind this is almost wholly Metafilter's fault)

EmpressCallipygos: "What the hell is with all of the "cryptic backward messages and secrets revealed" sites devoted to The Shining all of a sudden? Did it suddenly just hit every college's cinema studies programs or something?"

I like to think there's a waiting period for this -- like declaring someone dead or putting somebody on a stamp -- but I'm pretty sure it's just 'I've been thinking this crazy stuff for years, somebody else's thoughts are popular, let me share mine." Which pretty much describes, I'd estimate, 57% of the non-porn content on the Internet.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:50 PM on March 20, 2012


43% of the non-porn content is porn.
posted by griphus at 1:51 PM on March 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


buy only fresh, unadulterated porn.
posted by The Whelk at 1:52 PM on March 20, 2012


"Danny desperately tries to elude the murderous Halloran, by now an appalling figure of savagery...snarling, shrieking, foaming and choking...grunting, frenzied, animal-like...panting maniacally..."

Wow. This would have been a very different, much clumsier take on race, privilege, genocide, etc. than what actually ended up on screen.
posted by StopMakingSense at 1:52 PM on March 20, 2012


This is flat out awesome. I particularly like this, which is pretty much a replica of a portion of Timberline Lodge built on a different continent. The chimeric nature of the hotel, composed of an actual building, an exterior set and various soundstages that could never really fit inside either is endlessly fascinating to me.

Caretaker: Lee Unkrich

He's ALWAYS been the caretaker.
posted by Artw at 1:52 PM on March 20, 2012 [2 favorites]


Nicholson is even scarier out of character than in.
posted by Trurl at 1:52 PM on March 20, 2012 [3 favorites]


Well, guess I'll never sleep soundly ever again.
posted by pyrex at 1:53 PM on March 20, 2012


I'm fairly sure that if they took all the porn off the Internet, there'd only be 1 website left, and it would be called Bring Back The Porn.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:53 PM on March 20, 2012 [5 favorites]


Nicholson is even scarier out of character than in.

I suspect that much of the reason why two of the three best performances that Nicholson has given in the last forty years are Jack Torrance and The Joker are because these are the rare occasions when the character has a larger personality than the actor.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:56 PM on March 20, 2012 [4 favorites]


I think this is as good a place as any to link to an awesome Shining-themed bathroom, which I'm almost positive I originally found at the site we're discussing.
posted by triggerfinger at 1:56 PM on March 20, 2012


Well, "classic Atari game" or not, that kart bit made me laugh.
posted by Trochanter at 1:58 PM on March 20, 2012


I prefer the Muppet version
posted by dubold at 2:03 PM on March 20, 2012


I like this, mostly because I lurve this exchange:

Danny: You wouldn't ever hurt Mommy and me, wouldja?
Jack: What do you mean?

There's only one right answer to that question, and that ain't it.





Oh, and the Lite Brite is pretty cool too.
posted by scratch at 2:08 PM on March 20, 2012 [2 favorites]


Huh, why did I never notice that Jack has almost the same VW that I do? Cool.
posted by octothorpe at 2:09 PM on March 20, 2012


I suspect that much of the reason why two of the three best performances that Nicholson has given in the last forty years are Jack Torrance and The Joker are because these are the rare occasions when the character has a larger personality than the actor.

You forgot Bad Ass Buddusky in The Last Detail, who IS THE FUCKING SHORE PATROL.
posted by scratch at 2:11 PM on March 20, 2012


Wow. That was a delicious 30 minutes. Now if only there was a web app that would remind me to revisit this site in a year to take in another 20 or so pages of ephemera. This is EXACTLY the kind of (over)detailed love of a thing that appeals to the deep OCD movie fan in me.
posted by asavage at 2:11 PM on March 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


I suspect that much of the reason why two of the three best performances that Nicholson has given in the last forty years are Jack Torrance and The Joker are because these are the rare occasions when the character has a larger personality than the actor.

*checks calendar year*

Okay so you either had a problem with Chinatown or About Schmidt and either way I'm gonna have to cut you.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:13 PM on March 20, 2012 [2 favorites]


Now if only there was a web app that would remind me to revisit this site in a year to take in another 20 or so pages of ephemera

I think you just described the killer app which would get me to finally use (or at least appreciate) Tumblr.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:14 PM on March 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


I found this via the webcomics thread from the other day, and now I am returning it here.
posted by chaff at 2:26 PM on March 20, 2012 [3 favorites]




Just FYI, this blog is maintained by Lee Unkrich, director of Toy Story 3 and co-director of Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., and Finding Nemo.
posted by ooga_booga at 2:41 PM on March 20, 2012 [2 favorites]


Whoops, or what Artw said.
posted by ooga_booga at 2:42 PM on March 20, 2012



In case anyone is interested, King has written a sequel called "Dr. Sleep."

Here he is reading an excerpt a the Savannah Book Festival.
posted by trixare4kids at 2:55 PM on March 20, 2012


It would be so cool if you could buy one of those talking fingers that the kid actor had.
posted by perhapses at 3:25 PM on March 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


Okay so you either had a problem with Chinatown or About Schmidt and either way I'm gonna have to cut you.

Dammit. Forgot Chinatown (but The Two Jakes retroactively colored my impression of it.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:54 PM on March 20, 2012


I think this is as good a place as any to link to an awesome Shining-themed bathroom, which I'm almost positive I originally found at the site we're discussing.

If he doesn't have an axe hole in the door, I won't be impressed.
posted by jimmythefish at 3:56 PM on March 20, 2012




Damn right I just made the rug from the Overlook the wallpaper on my phone!.
posted by P.o.B. at 10:52 PM on March 20, 2012


If he doesn't have an axe hole in the door, I won't be impressed

There are at least THREE other bathrooms featured in the Shining, and at least two of them were way more interesting than the one with the axe holes in the door.

1. Danny brushing his teeth
2. Room 237
3. The men's room adjoining the Gold Room
posted by ShutterBun at 3:15 AM on March 21, 2012 [1 favorite]


Dammit. Forgot Chinatown

And lord knows that throwaway character he played in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was anything but "larger than life."
posted by ShutterBun at 3:19 AM on March 21, 2012


Kubrick liked bathrooms, there are toilet scenes in a most of his movies.
posted by octothorpe at 5:49 AM on March 21, 2012


Every time I see behind the scenes pictures of the set of The Shining, it always blows my mind because THE OVERLOOK HOTEL IS REAL GODDAMMIT EVERY INCH OF IT IS REAL!!!
posted by slogger at 7:56 AM on March 21, 2012


And lord knows that throwaway character he played in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was anything but "larger than life."

I did not use the words "larger than life."

I have seen Cuckoo's Nest three or four times, and for all its virtues, there is never one second of it that I am not aware that I am watching Jack Nicholson playing Randle P. McMurphy.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:05 AM on March 21, 2012 [1 favorite]


This is EXACTLY the kind of (over)detailed love of a thing that appeals to the deep OCD movie fan in me.

When it comes to "The Shining" however, you'd best stick to props & sets, as opposed to deciding whether the film is a metaphor for the Gold Standard, or a secret message from the Illuminati, or "Kubrick faked the moon landing, here's why."

That being said, if you need help pruning the hedge maze, holler.
posted by ShutterBun at 2:03 AM on March 24, 2012


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