Music: The Invisible Horror of The Shining

In another blog post I made the comment that "I don't really consider The Shining a horror movie". Let me reiterate what I meant. Yes, The Shining is technically a horror movie. But the movie is just as much a Psychological/Paranormal thriller as it is a horror movie. In fact, I believe the paranormal/psychological aspects of The Shining are more interesting than the horror parts. So much so that, if they were removed, the movie wouldn't be nearly as good. I'll explain what I mean. People often get finished watching The Shining and go "How can Jack Torrence be in the 1921 photo in the end, and be in the present day (1970s Colorado)?" The truth is that you never actually see what the main character looks like. The movie starts with main character driving to the Overlook Hotel for the first time. Notice: the very first time you actually see the main character is ONLY when he enters the lobby of the Overlook Hotel. What you're seeing is the ghost of the hotel, not the main character (Wendys husband). This is why the character throughout the film looks like Jack Nicholson, and he's also in the photo at the end. I imagine many people just assume Jack Torrence just looks like Jack Nicholson. Another interesting thing about The Shining is the background stories behind each ghost in the hotel. The movie presents these ghosts, but doesn't really explain to you why they are interesting and connected to the hotel. You'll have to read a wiki for that. I imagine Kubrick couldn't get all that in there, or the movie would be too long. Anyway, yes its a horror movie, in the sense that there's blood and killing. But to me, it's like saying "The Titanic is a great boat movie about boats in the Boat Genre". Taking movies at face value means you're not extracting what's really interesting about them.