Narrative Theorists

Todorov.
In relation to 'The Shining' i felt that most of his theories appeared to fit. For example Todorov says that general horror films have an equilibrium where everything seems perfectly fine at the bigining until something disrupts this and causing a chain of events to go wrong. He also then says that by the end of the horror, the equilibrium is restored and everything goes back to normal. I felt that this was true for this film in theory that there is an equilibrium to begin with; jack goes for a job interview while his wife and son wait at home for the good news. They seem like a perfectly happy family as nothing suggests that he would ever hurt his family. Futhermore something does in fact disrupt the eqilibrium and causes a chain of horrific events which i believe was when the proprietor informs jack about the previous murders of the care taker before him. However some may argue it began when Wendy disturbs Jack while he is writing. Despite this however i felt that the ending was not restored back to normal (the equilibrium) as nothing was shown to be resolved apart from Jack being defeated. Wendy and Danny escape in the snow vehicle but nothing is shown to suggest that made it back safely and there were previous indications throughout the film to suggest the weather was making travelling dangerous.
The usefullness of Todorov is that it clearly makes you think about how the film is set out and more importantly, what sets of the chain of horrific events.

Claude Levi-Strauss.
Looking at Strauss's theories we can see that there is a sense of whats good and evil throughout 'The Shining'. We see that Danny is the main sense of innocence as well as Wendy who is always kind and looking out for him. She also appears to put up with Jacks bad manours towards her and acts as a doting wife and mother. In reflection we can see that Jack is gradually becoming evil however it is the hotel which is the suggested sense of evil. On the other hand Strauss suggests that these boundries are concrete whereas it is difficult to say that Jack is evil to the core when he began the sequence as a loving husband and father and it was the hotel which transformed him to become evil so this is something that i feel does not fit.
However the usefullness of this theory is that it shows how themes can be juxtaposed within a film.

Bordwell and Thompson.
Most of these theories appear to work well with 'The Shining' as Bordwell and Thompson dont seem to be suggesting there is a definite narrative which every horror film follows. They suggest that the narrative begins with one situation and then changes occur according to a pattern of cause and effect. They then suggest that a new situation arises that brings the end of the narrative. This can be seen in 'The Shining' as the narrative begins with a mother and son in there home while the husband/father is travelling for a job interview and once he has got the job is sets of a pattern of cause and effect. The new situation is that they move into the hotel which Jack has been trusted to look after and the isolation of the environment spells the end of the narrative, Furthermore, Bordwell and Thompson also suggest that horror's generally leave the audience to make sense of what is happening and make presumptions of the situation for example if two images are shown seperately we're more then likely to put them together ourselves. This is true in relation to 'The Shining' as it is presented quite loosely and we are left to make sense of what is happening ourselves quite often. For example who was the dead woman in the bath tub? And what was Jack doing in one of the photo frames from the past? We are unsure of what was trying to be done with some parts of the film which fits well with this theory. In addition they also suggest that there is a restricted narrative which means that the audience is unsure what is going to happen. This can be argued for this film as we have a general idea that Jack is going to try murder his wife and son because it is mentioned earlier in the film that it what the previous care taker done. However because it is a very slow build up to the main sequence of events we are unsure of how and when it will happen and whether or not they will survive.