THE SHINING: Danny's ordeal and the bear costumed man - film analysis Rob Ager 

A few people have raised a good point about the eyes on the teddy pillow actually being folded up, not "trimmed" as I'd put it. Looking at it again I think they're right. At the same time it doesn't necessarily debunk the comparison with the elevator dial eyes. Note that the fold is still at the convenient angle to match the dials (there aren't two folds from diff directions or a fold only from the top downward or from one side). And when you put that in context with all the other significant props in the same set like the goofy figure and Wendy dressed in exactly the same colour combo plus the view of the bathroom shower curtain with rubber ducky sneakily peaking out, the chances of the pillow elevator eye comparison being deliberate remain a strong possibility. Thanks to those who gave that observation though. In addition, triggered Batman and LOTR fans ... I offer no apologies! Hahaha Want more content folks ... follow these links. Check out the current discounts on my offline vids and articles www.collativelearning.com/ Join my Film, Game & Media analysis page on Facebook facebook.com/groups/4637000646361309 ... as well as following the Collative Learning FB page facebook.com/RobAgerpublic Get a copy of my video game To The Death store.steampowered.com/app/2758570/To_The_Death/ ... and follow the game on the Ager Games RU-vid channel www.youtube.com/@robagergames ... and at the To The Death FB page facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555615927786 Follow me on Twitter / X twitter.com/RobAger Signing up as a monthly supporter on Patreon gets you arround 12 hrs more content www.patreon.com/RobAger PLEASE ALSO POST YOUR RESPONSES TO THE VIDEO CONTENT ABOVE SEPARATELTY FROM THIS PINNED COMMENT, THANKS.

One comment is wrong here: Stanley did not want any music during the Jack/Danny bedroom scene. The use of the Bartok here was in fact my idea, and as music editor I laid it as 'an optional extra'. Fortunately, when Stanley saw it in the dubbing theatre, he liked it, and kept it.

I think that kids acting is highly underrated for a 6 yr old. He had no clue about the movie and still gave a convincing performance.

Someone told me the shining was a bad movie. I.....corrected them

This video made me realize what if the bear scene symbolized Wendy walking in and actually witnessing the abuse herself. Shes so in denial so afraid that she cant even SEE her son and husband so her mind sees the bear and the man....

The bear freaks me out more than anything I don't know why

It is interesting that Wendy does not experience any visions or supernatural activity from the hotel until this scene.

I always assumed that scene was just there to shock and weird out the audience (and Wendy), like the hotel ghosts were showing their true bizarre colors and grotesque things that had happened there.

18:00 Along the lines of the theme, look how horrified Wendy looks as if she's catching Jack in the act with her son and suddenly realizing the full extent and nature of Danny's abuse. Also, Jack isn't going to kill them simply because he's gone insane, he's going to kill them because he got caught and has to prevent them turning him in.

11:21 this is my favorite moment in the whole movie. He literally spent the last 20 minutes talking to an imaginary bartender and still his first words to Wendy are “... Are you out of your fucking mind?” 😂 His face too

I always did find that scene with Danny on Jack's lap extremely creepy. It's even more so now.

That makes sence! The name of the hotel is the overlook. The mom overlooked all the signs of his abuse. When the psychologist was talking to Danny the mom interrupted and made excuses for his imaginary friend. She overlooked hotel being an indian burial, people being killed there, them being isolated for months and she overlooked dannys abuse believing it was the woman in the tub who choked her son instead of her husband. The mirrors symbolize having to look at yourself and deal with your eternal demons.

How Wendy is so repulsed by jacks action that she’s frantically looking for any other explanation to justify Danny’s injury and jumps on the crazy woman story for her own sanity sake is crazy to me

What fascinates me about The Shining, is the way it captures how frightening adults can be as seen through the eyes of a child. When you first see your parents fight, when they smack you, or you see them drunk, they become different people to you, and that's truly terrifying. You can't contextualise that as a child, and they seem monstrous. The idea of the people you love turning against you, or trying to harm you, is nightmarish and I believe The Shining captures that so well. I'm with Kubrick all the way on this one, making Jack a nice guy turned bad would have lost a good deal of why the film is so effective.

Makes the film even more terrifying.

When Jack sees the woman in room 237 in her 'beautiful' form, to me that signifies that Jack, like most child molesters, thinks of the act as being loving and as enjoyable for the victim as it is for him, at least during the act itself when the abuser's arousal is at its height (and especially when he's drunk). When he has the tables turned on him, and the woman changes form and causes him to be on the receiving end of unwanted 'affection' from a grotesque and frightening creature, the scales fall from his eyes and he finally appreciates how hideous and disturbing it was for Danny. There was no 'mutual pleasure' here, just horrifying abuse and degradation that he committed against his defenceless son, and now he knows it. Danny never saw the 'beautiful' woman, only the rotting hag. Jack, on the other hand, was self-deluded into seeing what he wanted to see to make what he did less abhorrent to him in his own mind. The hotel showed him the truth.

It just struck me that the Overlook Hotel is symbolic in itself, especially if this theory is true. Any house where domestic abuse is going on could feel like the Overlook Hotel to the victims, it could just be a normal house in a normal street, but to the victims it could feel like they really are in an isolated mansion in the middle of nowhere, unable to hide or escape, with nobody coming to help.

The most amazing thing is how Kubrick directed Danny without him having any idea it was a horror film.

The bear scene freaked me out as a kid, and I can still feel it. I think it was the sexual deviation being so goddamn out of place. She was in fear for her life. And that gets flashed at you? And it's so short. By the time you realize what the fuck you saw, it's gone. That moment has stuck with me more than any other scene in any horror movie.

I never noticed Jack was reading a Playgirl. What the hell is that doing in a resort hotel lobby anyway? That was creepy.

In support of this, Jack is outwardly friendly to strangers, but cold and distant to his own wife ( I recognize this abusive behavior trait from my own father). When Wendy and Danny are present together in his company, he's cold to both of them. During the tour, Jack would hardly respond to anything Wendy said. But when Danny is alone with Jack, there's a completely different demeanor from Jack towards Danny. Wendy subtly knows this abuse is happening, but can't confront it. Her talk with the child psychiatrist is full of denial; to the point the psychiatrist has a "WTF?!" look the whole time. The tour scenes are full of subtle physical indicators. When the hotel staff brings in Danny who got lost outside during the tour, Jack is the first to warmly greet Danny, but doesn't change his stance (trying to not be obvious of too much affection), Wendy quickly asks Danny to join her and wraps her arms around him, putting distance between father and son while Jack stares at Danny. Jack's eyes often linger on Danny in scenes. Wendy's character is full of submissive and survival behavior. She regularly keeps side eyes on people, her conversations with strangers are self-deprecating (she says she'll get lost in the hotel, she doesn't know how to use the kitchen), and her spoken voice is softer than other character's while her talking points are easy and inoffensive responses. The only time she's assertive, is when Hallorann calls Danny, "Doc", which she immediately identifies as a red flag of being too familiar.

I was sexually abused by my extremely controlling and violent father. The parallels between him and Jack are terrifying. The part where he said he would never hurt Danny or Wendy, my father always did that, and then he would abuse us moments later. This is 100% spot on.

Wendy's terror in this scene ( I'm sure Kubrick did not divulge to Duvall) is subconsciously she knew the abuse was going on all along and the hotel is showing her what she already knew deep down.

Also I just remembered that young children with a history of repeated sexual/physical abuse are the most likely to have Dissociative Identity Disorder, which causes multiple personalities. Danny talks to “Tony” quite a lot, maybe to deal with his abuse (Tony acts as his protector just like in DID, a personality can act as a protector to cope). This is probably a stretch because of how old the movie is. But hey I thought it was cool

Also why was Summer of 42, a movie about a youth who has a sexual affair with an adult, playing on the TV so prominently right before the cringy scene with Jack and Danny? And Jack becomes the abused youth when the young lady becomes an old decaying woman in the bathroom embracing him. Like cycles of abuse

I don’t think this was a “known thing” at the time but Danny is describing trauma triggered dissociation to the doctor, the idea of “Tony” hiding down in his “stomach” is very evocative of dissociative imagery

When praising Stanley Kubrick don't forget that he was horribly abusive to Shelley Duvall and she never got any credit for her amazing performance.

When Jack and Grady are in the red bathroom. "Your son has a very great talent. I don't think you are aware how great it is. But he is attempting to use that very talent against your will." Notice the facial expressions during this next exchange. "Well... he is a very willful boy." "Indeed he is, Mr. Torrance. A very willful boy. A rather... naughty boy, if I may be so bold, sir." "It's his mother. She uh, interferes." "Perhaps they need a good talking to..." ...

Perhaps the scariest part about The Shining is you can interpret the movie multiple ways and none of them are wrong. It can be a story about a haunted hotel or child abuse or the treatment of Native Americans. And none of those are wrong. That's really what makes The Shining such a great film.

Not sure if I can fully believe Danny was sexually abused, but physically abused definitely. It can still be as traumatic and frightening for a young child to experience physical violence from a parental figure.

The Shining has several well, well studied symbolic and literal interpretations. Kubrick was simply a mastermind in his craft. Most movies fail to land just one narrative concisely.

That's odd... the blood normally gets off at the second floor

Perhaps the biggest clue to the child sex abuse theory is the total lack of sexual chemistry between married couple Jack and Wendy Torrance. We never see them in bed together, of kissing, or acting like they are in love. He is seen eyeing up a couple of young women who pass them in a hotel corridor and has no hesitation in passionately kissing the naked woman in 237. It's clearly an abusive relationship in which Jack is the abuser holding all the power, and Wendy acts like a compliant child, making excuses for his behaviour (hurting Danny's arm, drinking), terrified of upsetting him. Ultimately though she is a hero, saving herself and her child from Jack, their would-be killer.

Jack Nicholson smiling is terrifying enough

Wendy probably knew, to a certain extent, about the abuse Danny was going through. She ignored the signs, and now the hotel is showing her the horror of being trapped in a home with an abuser, without someone to protect her... which is the fear Danny had to go through at home

Kubrick was known for being maniacally methodical and detail oriented. literally 0.0000% of what we can see/hear onscreen of his movies is left to randomness. your analysis is excellent and as such extremely disturbing....

What I love about The Shining is how ambiguous and open for interpretation it is. This was a wonderful analysis and adds ever more to the psychological horror of the film.

Adding to the theory: when Jack has the nightmare and Wendy comes to his aid, it seems to me that he is diverting the attention and care that Danny should be getting at that moment, being right after he abused him. He knows that Danny just suffered, but he wants the aftercare to be for him, as abusive men tend to play extremes very well, they'll yell at you one second then demand pity and play innocent the next ('real victim'). This type of hot and cold attitude is what keeps their victims around, since it mindmelts you.

To all of the people saying things like “you think kubrick would have jack spit? Or those are just props”. You obviously haven’t seen how he made shelly do the stair scene so many times she was hysterical, while he made jack do it once... Thus actually abusing her to make the film more realistic. Kubrick was an obsessive genius, every part of everything is planned out in his films. So yes he picked those pictures. Three things I believe about the film are 1. danny let jack out of the locked room, children of abusive parents will keep going back to them with the hope of love over and over.. 2. I think halloran knew danny was in trouble, and it just hit him while he laid there that he left the boy... 3. The film is like the yellow title page says, a modern American horror story.. Its about being isolated in an alcoholic, abusive family, alone and afraid, there is no way out. And the only ghosts are in yourself, you see in all the mirrors. I’ve had the displeasure, at my place of work to see children experience states of catatonic paralysis due to abuse ptsd. Kubrick did a scary good job of recreation of those states with dannys character. The film is extremely high level. And i think it may be about more than one topic at the same time. That is to say one scene may have two or more meanings at once, and the film certainly speaks to more than one issue.

The bear's eyes are NOT "trimmed." I was born in 1972, and we had a lot of stuffed animals and dolls with felt circles around the eyes that collapsed and folded in very quickly, and stayed that way. That bear has typical folded felt eyes.

I love this movie and I always got the feeling that Jack was more than just physically and verbally abusive. Danny's fear of his father always struck me as a child being molested.

It's not a bear inside the "O" in the "choking" sign. It's a child's face with mouth wide open. Which is, if anything, MORE suggestive.

Damn...that makes Wendy and Danny even more sad as characters, especially Wendy. Imagine being trapped with this crazy man that sexually abuses your child and the fact that you yourself have had your mind so twisted by this man that you actually defend him to a medical professional. Like... Both Wendy and Danny are more tragic now and this movie just got so much scarier. *shivers*

As a victim of csa, I’ve recognized a lot of my behaviors in Danny. The theory seems far fetched to some, but I stand by it.

I knew I was picking up the theme of sexual abuse; I kept having that sinking feeling while watching the scenes of Danny and Jack interacting together, I just couldn’t piece out the reasons why. Thanks for laying them out!

Danny’s wide-eyed expression of terror is one of the most disturbing images in all of cinema. It reminds me of nightmares I’d have when I was really young...at an age when scary things TRULY shake your foundation. It represents the purest form of terror. This place where no other emotion exists...

You know, I got a creepy "did he touch that kid?" feeling during their weird "talk" on the bed the very first time I saw the movie. I was very young at the time (14) and I was kind of upset that such a thought would enter my mind...I wondered if there was something wrong with me for having that impression. But I've never actually been able to watch that one quiet, very gore-less scene all the way through without averting my eyes or deciding that was a good time to go to the kitchen for a Pepsi or something. It squicks me out SO bad.

I didn’t think this movie could get more terrifying but you just did it for me. Sexual abuse wasn’t even a thought in my mind watching this film a million times. Well done analysis.

This theory states that Jack sexually abused and strangled Danny after the fatherly love scene, then Danny covered it up with a nightmare of entering Room 237. I don't think this is right because of the week day title cards. The fatherly love scene happens on a Monday, but Jack has the nightmare on a Wednesday which would have to be 2 (or more, we don't even know if it's in the same week) days later. Wendy sees the strangling marks on Danny's neck for the first time on the Wednesday that he supposedly got when Jack strangled him on the Monday and according for this to have happened, Wendy would have to have not seen Danny at all for 2 days.

As an adult survivor of childhood physical/sexual abuse, I can tell you that Rob is spot on with this analysis, and Kubrick may have been a survivor as well, using this project to express some of the deep-seated trauma that he may have suffered. I'm not sure, otherwise, how he would have been so very knowledgeable about the intricacies of the abuser/victim dynamic. It took me a long time to even begin to understand, but as I grew older I realized that the physical abuse I suffered resulted from the guilt my abuser felt every time he looked at me. Seeing me would trigger this guilt, and shame, and would be instantly replaced by anger. And the only way to deal with the anger was to attack the "source" ... that being me. Of course, I never allowed this to justify my abuser's actions. He did tremendous, and long lasting, psychological harm that took me decades to, even partially, disassemble. But it did help me to understand, just a little, so that I could begin the process of healing.

Gotta add...that bear picture over Danny's bed is very similar to the pictures psychologists use to diagnose disturbed children. In a book called "Big Secrets", I believe, they show a number of these types of illustrations used to diagnose whether children have been molested or not. For example, there is one of a baby bear sleeping with a partly opened door in its room, and clearly the psychologist is wanting to hear the story the child makes up about the picture, like "the baby bear is pretending to be asleep" or "the baby bear heard something funny from the other room and wants to close the door" kind of thing. I should dig up the book, it's really fascinating material. Although I'm sure it's easy to find the original pictures on the Internet, I just don't know what you'd find them under. It was so much easier when we had card catalogs in the library that weren't mixed in with advertisements and clickbait! Let alone the googolplex trying to control what we can and can't see.

When the mother saw the bear costume couple in the room, she finally understood what Jack did to Danny. the realization hits her hard.

God, I remember as a kid that dog/bear mask might've scared me more than any single image, and I had no idea why. Maybe just because, it's *so* ugly, there's no way any costume manufacturer would have made it. It has the uncanniness I sometimes see in AI art; of something that looks familiar, yet made by something that's never understood how a human would see its subject matter.

The eyes on Danny’s teddy bear were not trimmed, they are curled away from the base of the pillow itself due to wear.

Just putting in my two cents: What doesn't make sense to me about this theory is the timeline. The scene with Jack and Danny ended with the day changing to Wednesday, and him having the choking marks in the midday. We see Wendy serves them both breakfast throughout the movie, would she not have seen these scars then? It could be that the sexual assault didn't happen during the scene with Jack and Danny. Perhaps Jack was the one who lured Danny into room 237 and assaulted him at that point. I do believe there is a good foundation for this theory but it is difficult to believe it happened before Danny went into room 237 when he goes in looking put together and comes out with choking scars and disheveled. Also an explanation why Hallorann was scared of room 237 despite this not happening yet is that during the ice cream scene with him and Danny, Hallorann explains that those with the shine can see "things that haven't happened yet." He could have had a bad feeling off of this room because of what was going to be done to Danny.

If King caught this then it’s no wonder why he hated Kubrick’s film so much

it's also called the 'overlook' hotel - Danny's abuse was being over looked (by Wendy and maybe others) . Also, notice the eyes of Jack - notice how his eyes gradually begin to move up ward- imitating what eyes do when one orgasms - it happens in the fatherly scene - honestly Jack's eyes in this scene upwards make it look like he's getting turned on. Also the screams from his worst dream scene to me sound like he is orgasming also in a rough manner - he says it is his 'worst dream' not nightmare - alluding to the fact that it is a fantasy of his and something he is ashamed of.

"The layout of room 237 is the exact same as theirs" it's a hotel sir

Couple things. When danny walks into his parents bedroom in the overlook his father is sitting at the edge of the bed the same as the man who is receiving fellatio. When Danny is brushing his teeth, the bathtub and it's curtain is very reminiscent of the bathtub in room 237. I think the teeth brushing scene is the scene that links it all together. I believe when Danny walks into room 237, it represents what he as the abused experiences. When jack enters the room he goes in to experience sexual pleasure, when looking into the mirror he sees what he is doing as truly horrific, this is what drives him mad.

I wonder if the previous caretaker, the axe murderer, might have sexually abused his twin daughters. Hence why Danny sees them so often?

I know I am late to this video, but my mind is seriously blown. I am a survivor of csa/psa and ironically enough my dad used to play this movie a lot as a child. And despite the parallels to my own abuse, it never crossed my mind that Danny was going through the same thing I was. But there was something about the scene where he sits on his father's lap that always made me feel really uncomfortable. Now I know why...and it makes the movie even more horrifying because the real horror is that this happens everyday. Unrelated but related: I believe Tony is Danny's alter who allows Danny to disassociate from the trauma or uncomfortable conditions surrounding him. It's ultimately how he outsmarts his dad in the final hedge-maze scene. Danny even says that Tony lives in his mouth, which is even more suggestive considering what Danny has to endure at the hands of his father. It's likely that Danny has dissociative identity disorder, which many sexual abuse survivors are diagnosed with because we have to create alters in order to survive...alters who give us "superpowers" to cope with our horrors and survive. Danny's alter is Tony, who gives him clairvoyant powers. He even seems older than what he is, which is likely the Tony alter (also victims of psa often "act" older than they are because something so sexually deviant is happening to them--they "mature" quickly). The only way I knew how to cope with it was disassociating and altering.

The "Apollo" sweater Danny is wearing... Apollo being one of the Greek gods who had a homosexual lover (with Hyacinth, the son of the king of Sparta).

I always looked at the bear scene as nothing more than pure shock to make your skin crawl. That scene happens as the suspense and terror has been building for several minutes toward the end of the film and the camera is panned way out as you're looking at the bear and your staring at it wondering 'what the hell is that?' Kubrick then at just the right moment quickly pans in on it and it scares the living daylights out of you when you see something so bizarre.

This point has probably been made before, but at 13:35 when Danny enters the room and Jack along with Jack's image in the mirror create the effect that Danny is entering hostile territory, as though he is outnumbered.

the exact moment jack becomes really nasty and decides to kill them is directly after he asks wendy in a calm voice 'you mean leave the hotel?' and she says 'yes', this is because the hotel (in the abuse aspect of the plot) is simply an ave family home, and she is saying im gonna leave and take your kid with me, this is the exact kind of triggering incident that could lead irl an abusive father and husband to murder his wife and child- you cant / you dont get to leave and humiliate me and take my kid away leaving me alone with nothing but a bottle of booze, i'll kill ya before i ever allow that to happen.

I had zero clue Danny was sexually abused, when I watched this movie at 10 years old. I just recently watched the whole movie again, and I'm 34 now. It shows little hints of it. But after watching this video it becomes very clear. The little hints you bring up are on point.

The bear eyes haven't been trimmed, they are just folded up a little.

Wendy also reads catcher in the rye which has a child being sexually abused. Perhaps she was reading it because she was subconsciously drawn to it's themes

Every time I watch it, I find something new. This movie is literally the gift that keeps on giving. Absolutely incredible.

Was Danny's injury 5 months ago--when Jack promised Wendy he'd stop drinking--or "three godammed years ago!" like he told Lloyd?

Kubrick didn’t make mistakes. Everything was there for a purpose.

I think you're missing the obvious... his sweater changed because its the next day. He talked to his father on a Tuesday, then it cuts to the next day (Wednesday), which is when he goes to Room 237. If this is the case, then his mother would have noticed the marks on his neck on Tuesday evening when she put him to bed. I'm pretty sure there's a ghost in Room 237, as there are obviously supernatural phenomena in this film, such as Danny and Halloran talking telepathically using the Shining. Now this doesn't preclude the possibility Jack's dream included abusing Danny, and that is when he really starts to go crazy, as Danny comes downstairs looking hurt and traumatized, so he starts to question whether it was a dream or whether it really happened. That Playgirl magazine was a good catch, which is why I think the theme is definitely there, whether or not it actually happened

I just came up with a theory that I've never seen before. That doesn't mean that somebody hasn't actually come up with it already-- that's very possible. But I haven't seen it. So if it exists, it can't be very well-known. In this theory, *Danny* is the one who actually conjures up all of the events in his mind as a re-enactment of his father's abuse (and his mother's enabling of the abuse.) It's a revenge fantasy. That's also why his mother is in so much danger until she actually begins to actively work towards protecting Danny. Once she gets out into the maze with him and they escape Jack, the danger is over. In Danny's fantasy, this represents his mother finally believing that the abuse is happening. This theory would explain the scene with Jack's interview in the impossible room, the one that spatially can't exist. We are not looking at reality at any point except for Danny's breakdown scene. This would also explain why Kubrick pulled the film from theaters to cut the ending scene that also takes place in the "real world" (Wendy going to a police station and being unable to find out what happened to Jack.) I've never seen a theory that explains this strange and very expensive decision, and there had to be a good reason for it. Kubrick realized that it completely broke the storytelling device where Danny was the narrator and it all was taking place in his mind.

"You're scared of room 237, ain't you?" Hallorann was sexually abused by his father.

Kubrick was an extreme perfectionist, every single shot is equally important to the script and heavily influences the watcher’s vision

When you consider that Danny talks to Tony, which is manifested as a wiggly finger that hides in his mouth, it is quite clear what Kubrick is telling you.

This explains a lot: 1) why Jack Nicholson whom i love in most of his roles, here makes me uneasy. 2) why he mentions "sperm bank" in the conversation with the bartender. That bit seemed so weirdly placed, especially when discussing your wife and how much uou love your kid. 3) Tony's appearance in Danny's mind and why to me that's one of the most disturbing bits of the movie. 4) what does the black man see in his vision as he is lying in bed. He must have seen smth terrifying /disgusting enough to make him anxious for the child's safety. 5) why Wendy is SO freaked out when she sees the manuscript "all work and no play" and when she sees the bear costume scene. I mean, yea, it's a bit disturbing, especially since there shouldnt be anyone else in the hotel, BUT Wendy's reaction is way too intense. I think she suspected smth from the start, but wasnt sure. Maybe she even saw them in a door frame and only now realised what it was... 6) why the author hated the movie so much. He said "it hurts people". Compared to other horror movies, Shining is quite tame in visuals, BUT the it has a sort of atmosphere that freaks you out more than any gory scene.

It may be so, but it can never be certain. Also curb your hubris, Lord of the Rings are great films in their own right irrespective of their "escapism."

I remember watching this video for the first time and telling my wife later that after that I thought the underlying theory was both thought provoking but also very disturbing to me and that i’d never be able to watch this film again and just enjoy it as a standard ghost film and sure enough - when I watched it last Halloween I couldn’t get past your theory and i was unable to just accept it anymore as a ghost story - so yeah, you’ve added a layer of insight for me that’s thought orovoking but the while family trapped in a haunted hotel is somehow spoiled for me - it’s stil a horrific horror film of grand Kubrick visuals and ideas And Jacks performance is still as powerful and immediate as it’s ever been to me - Shelley steals many of the scenes by her sheer ‘emotional’ performance - it’s visceral!

In the “fatherly love scene” he wore dark blue/black pants, and on the chair in front of the mirror, there was a pair of light blue jeans. When Jack stood up in the dream scene, he was wearing a different pair of jeans... the same ones that were on the chair in front of the mirror, conveniently placed in view. Also the bear scene could have been Danny subconsciously shining and giving his mom the vision as a way to tell her what happened.

This really cements how different Jack is in the film from how he is in the book. In the book he starts as a sympathetic character that you can have some level of empathy with...he’s a recovering alcoholic who was violent....but he’s trying to be better than that and the haunted hotel destroys him. If this interpretation is true, the Jack in the movie is a repugnant monster from the get go. Which might explain the casting of Jack Nicholson (not saying Nicholson is repugnant) since his version of Jack comes across as “off” from the very first time we see him.

The "T" face in The Shining is allegedly Tony, Dannys imaginary friend.

The bear costume always reminded me of the costumes worn by the Beatles in the "I am the walrus" video.

I noticed Kubrick used the color green as a cue to this theory; the shower curtain when Danny is brushing his teeth and has his episode. Out of place green hallway in the corridors outside the kitchen where Danny is riding his big wheel before he sees the twins, before room 237 there are double doors with small windows like lurking green eyes watching Danny, then of course all out green in the bathroom of room 237, and the doorway in the bear scene is framed in a shade of green and there is a green hue to the wallpaper in the bear room.

It seems clear enough to me from Nicholson's performance, especially in the scene between Jack and Danny on the bed, that Nicholson himself absolutely believed Jack was about the molest Danny. You can see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice.

This interpretation is absolutely correct. Look at Kubrick’s other work: Lolita and Eyes Wide shut. Kubrick was a Hollywood insider. He knew what was up.

I only just noticed this, but when we see Danny before Jack enters Room 237, we can see he's drooling like Jack was.

I never picked up on sexual abuse... abuse yes, but sexual - I didn't, and I find the reactions here interesting. This was a very compelling theory. Last night in Milwaukee, I went and saw a 35mm copy of "The Shining", the whole time I was like - there's the bear pillow and I was like, wait there's a bear costume towards the end of the denouement. I thought it was foreshadowing, but I am loving the more nuanced comments showing up.

Never noticed the bear had a bare bum before.

The bear guy always was and still is the scariest part of the movie to me. Seeing the thumbnail in my recommended caught me off guard and startled me. There's something that is so terrifying to me about the way he looks. I actually have a similar reaction to Peaches in Creep. Lol maybe I'm just scared of furries.

I noticed that when he was brushing his teeth there is the number 42 on Danny’s shirt, and when Wendy and Danny are watching a movie it’s The Summer of ‘42 which is about a boy that has sex with an older widow. That’s me grasping at straws here and trying to seem smart lol, but I thought that was a weird coincidence. Great video, definitely makes the movie even creepier!

You know when someone once asked Kubrick some question about themes or something, he simply leaned back, chuckled, and said "It's just a ghost story."

I am not sure I am convinced that the pillow bear's eyes were trimmed. It looks like we are looking at the lower half of the circular eye that is bent toward the center so to us it looks like it is cut, but it is just bent inward with us facing the edge.

The climax of the film, when Jack is chasing Danny through the maze, literally has Jack screaming "I'm coming! I'm coming, Dan!"

That is not the bear costumed man, ITS MANBEARPIG!!!!

Watched this movie many times, and I didn't realize half of this. You have a true talent for recognizing symbolism. Great work!

"in this marketing poster for the film note that the face within the lettering looks both like a child and like a teddy bear." ...Umm...no??

I don't completely agree with your hypothesis but the evidence presented is really interesting.

Let's also not forget that this movie that is about revealing sins of the past - whether they be generally historical or deeply personal - takes place at the OVERLOOK Hotel. Overlook. IE ignore. Not only is the film about things that were overlooked, it is also composed in such a way as to make the audience overlook what is actually going on. On its face, The Shining is a well-made, but clichéed ghost story. But look a little deeper - IE dig into what you overlooked - and much more is revealed. Indeed, nearly everything this movie has to say is so obtuse that you can only really get a grasp of it through careful study of the film. It was deliberate. The film is designed to make you overlook everything that matters. Do you get it now?

The sweater change might have also implied that Jack changed Danny’s clothes after the incident.