Scenes From The Overlook: The Caretaker

Scenes From The Overlook: The Caretaker

One of the most memorable and terrifying cinema experiences of my childhood was "the Shining." It has been studied, analyzed, interpreted, and being a Kubrick film, deservedly so. Of course the debate has often been focused on the drastic differences from the novel as source material - even the author, Stephen King, was upset by this. But if we take the film at the surface level, it is a haunted hotel story, of the Overlook Hotel possessing the Caretaker during the long, isolated winter season when the hotel is vacant except for the family charged with its upkeep during the winter. In that broad overview, the film resembles the novel. The key difference in the film's interpretation to the novel is that Jack Torrence in the novel is a victim of the supernatural forces at work in the hotel, whereas Jack in the film is really the source of all the evil - his descent into madness manifesting outward into hallucinations and murder.

One of the most chilling characters, at least to me, is Delbert Grady, known as Charles Grady in the novel, mentioned in the film as a former caretaker who murdered his wife and daughters and later seen as an apparition (or a figment of Jack's fractured psyche) by Jack himself. The chilling dialogue, filled with long, terrifying pauses between Jack and Mr. Grady is one of the most memorable scenes in the film. We see Grady as a waiter, but his agenda becomes apparent - to turn Jack Torrance into the Caretaker, to force him to kill his family, and become part of the ghostly staff of the Overlook Hotel. We see his murdered daughters in the film, victims of Grady's own descent into madness, decades before Jack took the job.

When I saw this raw shot of Ed Barron, hair flying wildly, intense look on his face, I knew I had to use this shot for something - it was one of my favorites from our recent shoot. I didn't know what I would do with it though. With my preference for classic dress wear on my male models, I am aiming for a specific time period and look - the post Victorian/Edwardian era. A time period covering World War I, the Titanic, the Roaring Twenties, and the Great Depression. It also warrants mentioning that the final shot of an old photograph from the Overlook Hotel in 1921closes this highly memorable and influential film. There is a masquerade ball in the film that is creepy without even trying to be - something about that time period and the party goers all dressed in their 20s finery always had a sheen of the sinister to me.

I have long wanted to use the Overlook as a source for imagery, but, not having a hotel at my disposal, that proved a pretty significant stumbling block to overcome. When I saw this shot of Ed, I thought he would make a pretty compelling Mr. Grady, being driven mad by the influence of the dark history and spectral occupants of the Overlook. But I still needed a hotel. Then I remembered a trip we took to New Paltz, NY a few years ago, and in our travels, we stumbled on this really creepy hotel. I remember joking that this was the Overlook when we saw it, and I decided to find the few shots I took of it to see if one would work here. I decided it did, and added some eerie lights to it, along with a few easter egg apparitions to round it out. If you look closely you will see a man in a masquerade mask (a reference to the final party scene of the film as Wendy tries to escape), a woman raising a glass, perhaps the woman in room 237 (217 in the novel), and a few other men in their finery, perhaps former caretakers themselves.

Depending on ideas and the availability of hotel scenery in the future, I may do more images from the Overlook, so I am titling this as a series in case I do. If not, I had a good time making an image of Mr. Grady, who clearly has done some harm, and is perhaps heading out into the hedge maze to finish himself off.

Model: Ed Barron