Redrum and the Red Room

This past weekend, I caught Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING at the theater for the first time. The fact that I refer to it as “Kubrick’s” and not as “Stephen King’s” is likely why Stephen King doesn’t care for the film. The movie is probably even more Stanley Kubrick’s creation than it is Stephen King’s. So much of the movie came not from the novel but from the film’s director and co-writer, Kubrick. (Novelist Diane Johnson, not Stephen King, wrote the screenplay for the film along with Kubrick.) The actors and their performances, the music and the cinematography. And the visuals.

Something that struck me, watching the film, is the similarity in the patterns of the rug in the Overlook Hotel in the movie and the infamous Red Room, a part of the even-more infamous Black Lodge, from TWIN PEAKS. Check them out in the image accompanying this article. The mazelike pattern of the carpeting from THE SHINING (nothing is accidental with Kubrick) is on the left. The pattern for the Red Room is on the right. Did Lynch take inspiration from THE SHINING when he came up with the Red Room? (Nothing is accidental with David Lynch.) Really the two aren’t *that* similar, yet there’s something that reminds you, when looking at one, of the other. A quick google search reveals that I’m not the first person to have noticed this.

By The Evil Cheezman

WAYNE MILLER is the owner and creative director of EVIL CHEEZ PRODUCTIONS (www.evilcheezproductions.blogspot.com, www.facebook.com/evilcheezproductions), specializing in theatrical performances and haunted attractions. He has written, produced and directed (and occasionally acted in) over a dozen plays, most of them in the Horror and Crime genres. His first novel, THE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF, is available for purchase at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/734763 MORTUI VELOCES SUNT!

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