10 Horror Movies That Mock You For Paying Attention

Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is unarguably one of the greatest horror films of all time, albeit one whose subtext - or apparent subtext - is perhaps even more fascinating than the surface-level story itself.

There are few films more enthusiastically analysed - or over-analysed - than The Shining, a film which many critics nevertheless agree is teeming with subconscious imagery far beyond its core premise.

Rodney Ascher's ludicrously entertaining documentary Room 237 runs down most of the major theories, such as the film being Kubrick's subtle confession for helping fake the moon landings or that it's actually about the cultural assimilation of Native Americans.

Much has also been written about the film's apparently intentional continuity errors, such as the direction of the hotel's distinctive carpet changing orientation when Danny (Danny Lloyd) sits on it, or the overall geometry of the Overlook Hotel making no logistical sense whatsoever.

Then there are those who believe that Kubrick even embedded a snub towards author Stephen King and fans of his book, by not only changing the colour of the Torrance's VW Beetle from red to yellow, but also showing a red Beetle wrecked, as if symbolically trashing King's vision of the story.

As interesting as all of these theories are, the fact that Kubrick isn't here to pass comment on any of it - if he would even bother to, that is - makes it a never-ending agony for fans, an unanswerable riddle which will both intoxicate and torment audiences for as long as cinema exists.