AP The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)

According to Entertainment Weekly, The Shining is the 9th scariest film ever. I personally find the open sequence terrifying as it is even though nothing scary actually happens. The Shining is about a family who become temporary landlords of a hotel in the middle of the mountains in Colorado. In their isolation, the family experience strange goings on. The father becomes possessed by a spirit who makes him believe that his family need to be 'corrected', this teamed with cabin fever basically drives the father to insanity and the film is based upon his crazed actions. An iconic moment in this film is when the father has his head through a door with a manic smile on his face, this mirrors other horror films of today and of yesteryear which uses this manic smile as a key element in the horror genre.

Camera

• The sequence starts with a panning long shot of a lake which then moves into a canted angle and soars over an empty landscape (apart from trees). Firstly, this sets an unsettling mood because the audience realises that the film is going to take place in the middle of nowhere which connotes a feeling of being trapped. We then see a bird's eye view tracking shot following a car through the rockies, this reinforces the idea that they are trapped and creates a sense of powerlessness  and vulnerbaility.