So our three main characters are in the thick of it now. The snows have really started and Danny, Jack and Wendy are confined to the Overlook.
But enough about that. I wanted to point out how struck I am with the depth and the layers to the horrifying things that King is setting up.
So much of what passes for "horror" these days amounts to little more than cheap scares and shallow terror. Hell, "jump scares" are part of any good horror movie, but it seems like these days, most horror movies have little more to offer than a combination of jump scares and gore.
What King is doing here is presenting us with an onion of horror...and slowly peeling back the layers for us. Okay, horrible analogy, but I'm sticking with it.
The horror isn't just physical. It's also spiritual and psychological. And it's multi-dimensional: each character has their own personal terrors they're bringing with them to the Overlook. And the Overlook is hungry.
Danny is afraid his parents will get DIVORCE. And that his daddy is contemplating SUICIDE. And that if he talks too much about the Shining and the things "he just knows" he'll be declared to have "LOSTHISMARBLES" and sent to the SANNYTARIUM.
He's got this incredible gift of reading thoughts and sometimes seeing the future (or is it the past? Or nothing?) but it is proving to be a double edged sword. Because of the Shining, he's seeing things in the hotel most people wouldn't see. But also, because of the same Shining, he's afraid to tell his parents what he's seeing.
Jack is afraid of being a failure, afraid of losing his wife and his son. And he is afraid of becoming his father.
Likewise, Wendy. Her mother was a daunting figure in her childhood and they hardly speak now. And it bothers her how much of her mother she sees in herself.
And the Overlook is feeding off of all these fears, amplifying them, and adding a few of its own.
It's really fun to watch King work in this one. It's a psychological horror story as much as anything else.
And I'm loving it.
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