The Shining: Heavy Music

Throughout The Shining, the most influential aspect of the film was the music. Used to dramatize scenes, keep the audience alert and also to give the film the category of horror. The film takes off on a slow start plot wise, but it is met with certain intervals of sound that are creepy enough to startle your attention and make you scared. Like in, There Will be Blood, there are times in the film when the music seemed completely irrelevant to what was going on in the scene. Both films used creepy music, and in some parts of The Shining the music actually sounded like type of music played in There Will be Blood,   loud banging noises with screeching strings in the background. The music in a horror movie is arguably the most important aspect, it has to hold the attention of the audience and be sure to catch them when they weren't expecting it. For example, during the movie when it would transition to cuts of black screen with just text of what day it was, there would either be no music, or completely startling music that came out of no where. The starling music is what held your attention and made you think that something important was going to happen at that time. The director of Citizen Kane did something similar, but instead of a transition of a day it was a bird at the end of the film that squawked in your face and jumped you off your feet. This technique certainly works when it comes to getting the audience to pay attention. But apart from that, the heavy music in The Shining held thick with the viewers, it gave the film more suspense and a more dramatic feel.