- A film professor recently discovered a shocking new detail about the 1980 film
- He pointed out that Jack’s character looked directly at the camera a few times
- It was so subtle that many of the film’s most die-hard fans never noticed
A fan has discovered a new “really weird” detail about Jack Nicholson’s character in The Shining, more than 40 years after the beloved horror film premiered, and it has left even the film’s most devoted fans completely stunned.
The psychological thriller, directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on a novel of the same name written by Stephen King, followed a man who went insane while he, his wife and son were stuck in an abandoned – and haunted – hotel together. in the middle of a snowstorm.
The film has been hugely popular and has been watched by millions around the world in the four decades it’s been out, but now, a writer has claimed to have noticed something very interesting going on throughout the film – which he claims no one else has ever seen before.
Film professor and author Filippo Ulivieri, who has written two biographies about The Shining director, shared his discovery via Twitter last week, and many die-hard fans of the film couldn’t believe they hadn’t spotted it.
According to Filippo, there are some very subtle moments during the film where Jack’s character looks directly at the camera, almost as if he’s watching you through the screen.
“I’ve noticed something strange going on in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. It’s true that there are a lot of weird things that happen in The Shining, but this is really weird,” he wrote.
“I don’t think anyone has ever noticed it before, because I can’t find anything about it. No article, no video, nothing.
“I’m talking about Jack Nicholson looking straight into the camera, but I’m not talking about when he’s looking at the camera because he’s talking to someone else.
“This kind of shot is called subjective camera – a technique that puts the audience in the shoes of a character.
“I’m talking about all the times that [Jack’s character] Jack Torrance is looking at the camera but there’s no one to look at.’
Filippo added that it happens several times throughout the film, but explained that every time it’s so fast you can blink and miss it.
“They are all very brief moments, captured by a few frames of film. It’s basically just a look,” he continued.
“It can happen while the eyes are moving from one point in space to another. But usually it’s like he’s taking a brief look at something, like he’s peeking.
“And it only happens with Jack Nicholson – or Jack Torrance, that is. No other actor and no other character in the film does that. Only Jack.”
The professor added that everything in Stanley’s films “happens for a reason”, so he believes the creepy looks towards the camera were definitely “on purpose”.
“It’s hard to dismiss this detail as a mistake. It’s too many, it can’t be a coincidence,” he explained, sharing some GIFs showing Jack’s eye movements.
“When actors look directly into the camera, it’s said to break the fourth wall. The phrase comes from the theater: it means that the actors break the imaginary wall that separates them from the audience, thus breaking the illusion of the play’s reality.
“In movies it works the same way. It breaks the so-called suspension of the viewer’s disbelief: we look at fiction as if we were observing real events, until the actor breaks such an illusion by looking directly at us.”
The author described the method as a “powerful device” that can make the viewer feel “no longer watching a story” unfold, but rather “becoming a part of it.”
He added that most directors deliberately make eye contact “very noticeable” so that the audience “recognizes it immediately”, but what Jack does in The Shining is “totally different”.
“It doesn’t seem intentional and may well be beyond our grasp. In fact, as I said, I don’t know that anyone has noticed so far,” he concluded.
“If that look into the camera means anything, to me it means that *we* are not safe from Jack’s wrath.
“He knows where we are. He can come for us later. Now I’m scared – and amazed once again by Kubrick’s cinematic tricks.
“The Shining is an extreme film in many ways. It’s so over the top it’s somewhere between scary and ridiculous.
“Well, maybe that’s another overblown idea that Kubrick had. Like, why don’t we break the fourth wall, but we do it all the time?’
Philip’s Twitter thread has had more than six million views and received a number of responses from people who were in awe of his observation and interpretation.
“It’s awesome that this movie is so great that we’re still discovering things about it [43 years later],” one person wrote.
“Awesome thread, I’ve watched the Shining probably four or five times but never noticed this,” said another.
Another user added: “Never in my life have I noticed this and it requires immediate follow up. This is so disturbing and genius, how did I not see it?’
“I’ve seen it 100 times… I’ve never placed [this] together. This blew my mind,” read a fourth tweet.
“Falls down a lot. Unapologetic alcohol guru. Travel specialist. Amateur beer trailblazer. Award-winning tv advocate. Hipster-friendly twitter aficionado”