Similarities In The Amityville Horror And The Shining

The Shining is a 1980 horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick. The Shining starts with the Torrance family moving from their apartment in Boulder, Colorado, to the Overlook Hotel, located in the isolated Southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Jack Torrance, the father has accepted a position as the winter caretaker of the hotel in its off-season. His wife, Wendy Torrance and son, Danny Torrance move into the hotel with him. As the film unfolds the hotel becomes a place of tension and menace. It is revealed that Danny has supernatural psychic abilities and can see the ghosts of the hotel and so does Jack. Jack's sanity begins to deteriorate due to the influence of the supernatural forces that inhabit the hotel, thus placing his wife and son in

69). The disintegration of the family has a tremendous impact on each individual as it pushes all members of the family to the brink. In the climax of each film, both George Lutz and Jack Torrance utilize axes to breakdown the bathroom doors in an attempt to get to their families. Both Kathy Lutz and Wendy Torrance, put the safety of their children before themselves in an attempt to defend themselves and deter the father from hurting the family. Kathy is successful whereas Wendy fails, and Danny must fend for himself. In each film we see the iconic scenes where in the Shining, blood gushes out of the elevator doors, in the Amityville horror, the walls and the stairs ooze with blood and George falls through the floor in a pool of blood. In the Amityville Horror, many scenes consist of people becoming sick, they are physically unable to walk, sweating and vomiting after being in the house. This sickness can be seen as a physical manifestation of the anxieties, and fear about change and the occupation of a new home and new opportunities and the desire to not ruin them. According to Barbara Creed, the horror film “abounds in images of abjection, foremost of which is the corpse, whole and mutilated, followed by an array of bodily wastes such as blood, vomit, saliva, sweat, tears and putrefying flesh” (p.10).

In contrast, the Torrance’s fall victims to the hotel, Jack dies and only Wendy and Danny manage to escape. In the Amityville Horror, the family escapes due to their strong relationship within each other. In the Shining, the tumultuous relationship and dysfunctional family dynamics already existed before the move to the Overlook hotel. It was only at the hotel that these tensions between the family was worsened and thus, this unstable foundation gave way to the oppressive nature and force of the Overlook hotel. The ending of each film is dependent on the pre-existing relationship of the family before their move into the house or the hotel. The relationship between George and Kathy and the children in the Amityville horror start off amicably and relatively good. The relationship is only deteriorated by the time spent in the house. The stability and strong foundation of their relationship allow the survival of the family. In contrast, the Torrance’s are introduced as an unstable couple, with a miserable family life. The foundation of their family is unstable and tumultuous, abusive and violent. This is only exacerbated by their move into the Overlook hotel. Thus, the lack of a strong relationship and connection in the Torrance family only lead to its disintegration by the end of the