TIFF 2012: ‘Room 237′ – Conspiracy Theorist’s take on Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’

Room 237

Directed by Rodney Ascher

2012, USA

In Rodney Ascher’s documentary Room 237, the subject in question is Stanley Kubrick’s beloved The Shining. It explores the numerous theories and alleged hidden meanings lurking deep within the film conceptualized by devoted non-casual observers, theorists and scholars. The film may be over three decades old but it continues to spark debate and speculation. For many, the film is just another horror pic, an auteur trying his hand at the genre. But to some, it is so much more. Subtitled Being an inquiry into The Shining in 9 parts, Room 237 focuses on five very unique points of view, broken into nine sections and told entirely via voiceover. There are no talking head interviews. His interview subjects never appear on film. The documentary is made up entirely of stock footage, animation, dramatic reenactments, digitally altered images and scenes from various movies – sometimes in slow motion, or sped up – with frame-by-frame analysis, sequences superimposed, manipulated and so on. The doc itself is structured much like the movie’s hedge maze, drawing the audience into endless detours. This is best seen in an explanation of the Overlook Hotel’s “synchronous space”, detailed in 3-D illustrations of the set layout. Yes a devoted fan took the time to create a map of the hotel’s geography. There’s one spectacular sequence in which two celluloid strips of The Shining are superimposed backward and forward over one another to illustrate a famous comment made by a blogger named MSTRMIND, who once said that “The Shining was meant to be watched both forwards and backwards.” Just think REDRUM! Ascher’s cutting and assembly is entertaining but without a face to the names, the film leaves us a lot to be desired. These theorists are, much like Wendy and Danny, trapped inside the Overlook Hotel. But exactly who are these people? All we are told about this breakfast club of jokers, is that they are a journalist, a playwright, a professor, a musician and a conspiracy theorist. Apart from that, we know little else. Room 237 quickly becomes something alike a PowerPoint presentation. The ubiquitous tagline reads “Look Again” – but the theories are as old as the film itself, shedding little light on anyone already familiar with them. At best Room 237 works as study on obsession and delusion, and these ghostly figures are as frightening as Jack Torrance himself.

Much like Jack, the film or interviewees put an axe to film criticism – in the limelight, the line between the insightful and the ridiculous is thin. Ascher’s playful montage tries its best to back up some of the wildest theories, but with little hope. The conspiracies don’t always relate directly to room 237; the majority often focus on mundane details and aesthetic choices. Why is Jack reading a Playgirl in the hotel lobby? Is that Kubrick’s God-like image airbrushed within the clouds? Is the film a metaphor for the murder of Native Americans? Why did Kubrick change the room number from 217 (as read in the novel) to 237? Was Kubrick dropping clues that he faked the footage of the Moon landing? Is that why NASA allowed him to use their special camera for the filming of Barry Lyndon? What is the meaning behind the film’s occasional use of the number 42 and what is the significance of the German typewriter? It there a deeply-laid subtext that takes on the Holocaust?

CLICK HERE TO EXPAND THE ARTICLE