It is directed by Jeff Buhler, who has also recently done The Midnight Meat Train, the cast are amazing and plot sensational. I have seen some ratings for this movie are quite poor, but i don't think so at all.

The cast features: Jesse Metcalfe who plays Jack, Kiele Sanchez ( played Nikki Fernandez in Lost) who plays Lily, Peter Stormare ( Prison Break and CSI) plays Dr Gianetti and Kevin Sussman ( Ugly Betty, CSI and My Name is Earl). They are the four most frequent characters.

Metcalfe plays a character that intentionally gets himself locked up inside a psychiatric hospital, Jack, as he wants to release his sister Lily( Sanchez) from there. She has been in there after attempting suicide after their mothers' death. Jack tries to find his sister but to no avail. He eventually finds her and promises he will get them out of there. He enlists the help of a fellow "patient" Dave ( Sussman) to help him. He finds that Dr Gianetti is using the patients as "guinea pigs". He has developed a drug that he gives to people on maximum and it turns them into flesh eating psychos!

It is really creepy, i think. I think both Metcalfe and Sanchez play their roles incredibly and deserve recognition. It's quite a bit different to other films that have Zombies in it but at the same time it is a very fresh feeling movie. Something different, quite different.

Watch the movie, if you haven't already, and let me know your opinions. Thank You.

 The Shining is about Jack Torrence a man travelling to a hotel for a job interview with his wife Wendy and son Danny.Through the film the family has strange encounters with ghosts and weird things happen to the characters and they see strange things. Tension builds between the characters and finally Jack goes mad which is showed in the maze scene at the end of the film.

 We see Jack deteriorate through the film slowly from as soon as enters the hotel. Jack began to change in his character; we noticed this by the change in his voice because it becomes deeper and he starts to shout at Wendy when she talks to him. Jack represents a monster by the end of the maze scene as we see him froth at the mouth and his voice sounds un-human like because he wheezes when he shouts Danny’s name. Jack also slogs when he is in the maze which shows he has lost the ability to walk like a human being.

The audience see the maze scene is going to be a significant place as in the hotel lobby room it shows Jack sitting down and observing a small model of a maze. When the camera zooms down into the smaller model of the maze you see two ant-sized figures representing Danny and Wendy. The model is a replica of the model outside in the hotel garden.

The lighting and colours used in the scene were dark to symbolise the horror, fear and tension in different scenes. The contrasting lighting in the hotel was light and by that we know that Wendy was safe. Red is a ‘danger’ colour but it also a ‘warm’ colour. These colours are different from what we saw at the beginning of the film because the lighting at the end of the scene was low-key lighting but the scenes leading from the beginning of the scenes were high-key lighting.

The shining film uses dark colours to portray the tension in scenes and create fear which fits into the horror genre. Kubrick’s uses dark blue in the maze scene to represent how cold it is in the maze and Kubrick makes Jack’s face shaded dark which makes him more mysterious and seem more evil. Kubrick shades Danny face black which created a different effect because we felt sympathy for Danny and worry. Kubrick then changed the light on Danny’s face when he took control of the situation it was lighter and the audience felt more hopeful for him and the audience could see his face which had meant he had succeeded.

Kubrick’s use of lighting and colour plays an important role in the scenes because it determines the audience feelings and emotions.

Kubrick’s use of the ‘mis-en-scene’ is a technique he used to create tension at the last scene. Kubrick made Jack’s facial expression to be cold and almost un-human to show that he has gone mad. The audience can feel Jack’s anger and see it on his face because the camera has a zoom shot on Jack’s face so the audience can see him clearly. The axe in Jack’s hand tells the audience that he is serious which makes them fearful because if he catches Danny he will hurt him. Jack trudges in the snow which makes it clear that he has lost the ability to walk normally. Wendy’s facial expressions show horror in her face and fear. The difference from Jack wielding a weapon to Wendy wielding a weapon is that Jack looks like he is prepared to use it because he is angry but Wendy has more of a weak character and although she attacked Jack with the knife we see by her body language and continuous shaking she is unlikely to use the knife again.

Mis-en-scene has a big effect on creating tension at the end of the film because it the character’s emotions in more detail and it builds tension.

The maze scene used Diagetic sounds and non-diagetic sounds to help create tension. Diagetic sounds are sounds that belong naturally with what can be seen in the picture. Kubrick uses diagetic sounds in the film when Jack is shouting Danny’s name whilst he is chasing him in the maze, another diagetic sound used by Kubrick is the blowing of the wind in the maze scene. These are diagetic sounds because they can me been throughout the scene and the audience know why and how the noises are their.

        Non-Diagetic sounds arte sounds that do not come from anything that can not be seen in a scene. Kubrick uses Non-diagetic sounds as the high-pitches orchestra music in the maze scene, Kubrick uses a high tempo for the music which increases the tension because we feel Jack will catch Danny. Kubrick then lowers the tempo of the music when Danny takes control of the situation in the scene and the audience feel hope for him. This is particularly effective because the sounds that are placed in the scene can determine the mood of the scene and in this particular film it was used to create fear and build tension.

Kubrick is trying to show that Jack has finally become mad and that he is not actually Jack anymore but somebody else. Kubrick has Jack use a deep voice in the Maze scene and when Jack tries to talk we see that it is no longer words but noises which shows he has lost the ability to talk. By this point the audience can see that he has completely lost himself which makes him even more dangerous because he can now do anything. The audience see anger in his face  and Jack froths at the mouth which makes him look monster like.

      At the beginning of the maze scene the music is at a high pitched and Jack is clutching the weapon with aggression which is when the audience feel Jack is at his scariest point. However when Danny takes more control of the situation the music begins to quiet down and turn into a heartbeat which is when the audience feel tense but as Jack falls to the floor the audience feel relief that Danny is safe.

Kubrick uses different camera angles to create affect in the maze scene. Kubrick uses a tracking camera when Danny is running through the maze, this makes the audience feel like they are Jack in his madness and that he will catch Danny. The tracking affect feels like Jack is right behind Danny and the audience feel hopeless for him.

Kubrick uses a close-up camera in the maze scene, the camera effect is used to show Jack’s facial expression and the persistence of aggression on is face.

In the last scene the camera uses ‘cutting scenes’ between the hotel and the maze. Danny and Jack have fast cutting scenes which make them look in the most danger and it creates tension. When the camera cuts to Wendy in the hotel we know that she is safe because the tempo of the music is low and the volume is low. The camera angle shows her in perfect view and her surroundings and the audience see that there is nothing in view that can hurt her so we know that she is safe.

The shots and editing techniques Kubrick uses builds up tension because it shows everything moving really fast and it makes the audience’s feel the pressure because they are unexpected to what will happen next which puts them at the edge of the film.

The uses of Kubrick’s techniques have been crucial to the final scene in the film. Kubrick brought the techniques in a sequence which was proportional to how the audience felt at each effect Kubrick used because it brought in more tension.

The maze scene is the final breakdown in Jack’s madness. The maze scene helped show madness because a maze is confusing places which can make somebody go mad especially when they are lost. The maze scene represented Jack being confused and ‘lost’ in his mind. Jack’s frozen face in the ice symbolises that he is dead and will never come back to life. By the end of the film we are left with an idea that this has happened to many other families that have visited the hotel as we see Jack’s face appear in a photo, however the audience feel that this is not the end and it will happen again to other people who stay at the hotel and that it will be a continuous sequence.

Tashan Edwards

Johnny Depp is a man true to his own art. He is a man who does not allow himself to be paraded about other than his true colors. He does not hide away his feelings for the sake of being politically correct. He does not allow the society to corrupt him into being the man, father, husband, or star that Hollywood demands. For example, when he does an interview for Rolling Stone, a magazine that focuses mainly on music, movies, and the people behind them, he does not spend hours on end posing in different outfits and expressing his emotional range by glaring with sadness or donning a face that doesn't show exactly what he feels at that exact moment. In every one of his issues, it is made clear in the article that he shows up, takes his picture, and has a conversation with the reporter more than an interview. Other artists, like Billie Joe Armstrong, the front-man of the punk-rocking Green Day, or Kiefer Sutherland, the star of Fox's terrorist drama “24,” take pictures that always have a look that isn't trustworthy or believable. Looking at it is like looking at a character. It does not feel real. Johnny Depp refuses to be anyone but himself and hopes his fan will love him for it. If not, I doubt he uses much sleep.

The children of the new century have the wool pulled deep over their eyes, believing that becoming skeletally thin makes women acceptable to society or that all rich, young men must be unhappy and rebellious to the point if two inch rims of black makeup around their eyes, or are convinced by countless advertisements and billboards that Bud Light makes you pretty. All in all, we don concealing masks in order to fit in with all those that wear the expensive concealing masks. Since most children also believe bonding with and listening to their parents is also “un-cool” in the eyes of their peers, the least they can do is find a model that has no mask. Johnny Depp has no mask other than his face.

Depp has created an image that our children should consider following. He is in fact the most modest actor in the business and looked upon as a hero for his extraordinary talent as an actor, writer, and musician. But, the fact that he is modest about it makes him a kind of rebel. He goes against the majority and the grain by having a little thing called manners. It's funny how only last decade having manners and modesty was not the kind of idol that teens had. Children of the nineties looked up to the likes of Kurt Cobain, the lead guitar player of the grunge band Nirvana. His early and untimely death left him with an immortal image of an angry young man that hated corporations and governments and didn't care for much of anyone. But today, the greatest hero is a man who chooses to show respect to his fans and workmates. When did respect become part of rebellion? Better yet, when did punk rock teens find respect impressive and not the way of the nerds?

Bob Dylan once said, “The times, they are a changin',” in 1963. I find it sad that it took almost fifty years for anyone to come to terms with that. Who better than Johnny Depp.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest revolves around a man named Randle P. McMurphey, who has come to the mental institution, pretending to have mental problems, in an attempt to avoid jail time, and the hard labor that goes with it. While in the mental institution, McMurphey befriends the patients and tries to entertain himself by irritating the head nurse, nurse Ratched. His antics are for fun at first, but when the institute becomes more authoritarian via nurse Ratched, he begins to take it upon himself to challenge the authority of the system and pesters nurse Ratched to her breaking point. McMurphey takes the patients through many adventures while in the hospital, leading to the patients getting caught having a late night party in the hospital. The resulting emotional distress brought on by nurse Ratched's threats cause the suicide of a fellow patient and friend and the eventual lobotomy and death of Randle P. McMurphey.

As we are introduced to the characters and the surroundings within the first 10 minutes of the movie, mise en scene shows us lots about them. As we are first introduced to nurse Ratched, we see her walk into the institute, wearing a black over coat and a black hat, contrasting against the white walls and gowns of the patients and her co workers. When she walks down the halls, the security and maintenance people all seem timid when the say “Good morning Mrs. Ratched” and the step back as she passes by (One Flew Over). This gives the viewer the idea that she is some how dark, and sinister, enough to frighten the staff, foreshadowing her actions later in the movie. When nurse Ratchet is walking into the institution, she unlocks and proceeds through several metal doors, and passes under a bright red security light, showing the heavy security that keeps the patients held inside. We get the impression from this that this is not just a mental hospital, but it is a prison, meant to keep the patients locked inside, this shows us that this is not a place people want to be, it is like a prison.

The first shot we see of an animated patient is when one of the guards goes into a small dimly lit room to undo the restraints holding the patient to his bed, as he turns the keys to unlock the harnesses restraining him, the patient stares with a lost look as his hand quivers. These actions give us an idea of the mental state that the patients are in, the fact that the patient is restrained in this manor, and that he is the only person in the room reminds us of solitary confinement such as a where rowdy prisoner would be placed in. As the patients line up to take their medicines, we see more of the lost looks that were seen in the first patient. Every patient stands in line, then with almost the same motion they take their pill and then their juice out of small paper cups, as they take their pills and juice, the camera moves in close to emphasize their expressions, some patients just star blankly, one patient closes his eyes and sticks out his tongue as a nurse places his pill on his tongue, like a mother would do for a child.

Enter McMurphey; he arrives in a grey car, showing us the outside world, McMurphey's black leather jacket, merging with the white walls and gowns of the institute and its patients. McMurphy's attire, a black leather jacket, black knit cap and Jeans, this reminds the viewer of other rebels in our culture like James dean and the Fonz. This attire contrast against the outfits of the patients white gowns, it shows the sharp, literally black and white separation between him and the other patients. He is dressed this way, to show how different from the other patients he is. He is not crazy; he is just as sane as the nurses and other staff of the institute.

This information that we gather from the first segment of the movie can help us to better understand the later parts of the movie. When we see that nurse Ratchet is feared by the security people, we know that is a bad person, so we can keep a close eye on her as the movie progresses. This lets us see through her sometimes calming demeanor to her controlling personality, preparing us for her outrageously cruel behavior towards the later parts of the film. The fact that McMurphey is dressed so much differently than the other patients, and that he is as sane as any of the nurses or staff is so important to the entire story line of the movie. His sanity makes him the leader to the patients, and he makes it his job to rise against nurse Ratchet. We see this when McMurphey takes the group out on a fishing expedition, none of the other patients would have ever thought or attempted to do this, but McMurphey takes the opportunity to give the patients and enjoyable break from the confining walls of the institute and the overbearing nurse Ratched. When Charlie Cheswick starts to make a scene over wanting his cigarettes which nurse Ratched has decided to keep behind the counter. McMurphey takes the situation into his own hands and ends the escalating situation by breaking the glass to the nurse's station and grabs Charlie's cigarettes.

The first moments in this movie help us to get a great understanding for what will happen in the movie. We get to see who the characters are before they really develop, giving us a better chance to fully understand the events that unfold. This preemptive glimpse at the characters makes the movie more understandable and enjoyable to watch.