Room 237 presents a satisfyingly rousing look at the themes and hidden meanings of seminal horror flick The Shining, weaving film theory with a blood-pumpingly ethereal electronic score (not dissimilar to Drive and just as cool) and idiosyncratically retro visuals. Seemingly underlined by an obsessive want to look deeper into the spiritual sanctums of the late Stanley Kubrick’s cabalistic masterpiece, Room 237 is an interesting splice of subjective film theory and intoxicatingly hybrid delivery…
Room 237 (2012) documentary, 102 mins, USA; director and writer: Rodney Ascher. 9/10
Theories presented within Room 237 range from the sublime to the almost-ridiculous – the very admissible idea that The Shining symbolises the holocaust and the suppression of the indigenous American Indian peoples, represented by the juxtaposition of typewriters and food cans and native American symbology throughout; to the implausible but seductive theory that imagery found within The Shining points to a sort of secret confession by Stanley Kubrick for his (alleged) participation in (allegedly) faking the Apollo moon landings. It’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it fare at times, where everything seemingly has a hidden meaning – from paper trays to windows to misplaced chairs and cars and carpets and I could go on forever, and ever, and ever…
Crucially, the narrators of each segment are never noticeably shown on camera, giving the film a raw sense of purity – these arguments are the position of the narrators but not necessarily of the film itself. In this sense, Room 237 evolves into a lovingly exploitative treatise of The Shining and a tantalizing taster of the artistic intentions and idiosyncrasies of the enigmatic Kubrick; yet with something to say about the very subjective nature of film theory, as well as the occasionally credibility-stretching arguments and debates into which all film lovers have at one time or another found themselves debroiled; like the maze (literal, metaphysical) of The Shining, perhaps great films need no single answer because there is no single answer. Every reaction to every movie ever seen is personal and should be respected as such – whilst certain arguments may resonate strongly, art and beauty forever remain in the eye of the beholder. In the mean time, though, movies are a hell of a lot of fun to think about.
At a certain point in Room 237, we are given a quote – “The power of the genie is in its confinement” – which seems prescient for a film about a movie that tells a story so open to interpretation and full of brooding mystery. Maybe the ‘genie’ in this instance is our desire to discover meaning where it may or may not exist – but we’ll look anyway because it’s in our very nature, and we’ll find it forever (and ever) in the things we truly love, and those which terrify us. Room 237 is not to be overlooked…
Deryn Paul O'Sullivan 