8 Horror Movies With Incredible Hidden Messages You Totally Missed

The Shining has been seen as many things over the years. A classic horror movie, a modern day take on the minotaur of legend, and of course, Stanley Kubrick's personal apology for faking the moon landing. But underneath all the straw-clutching of weird internet fans, however, rings one theory that many believe to be the defining truth of The Shining - that it's an allegory for the death of Native America.

The key for this comes when you take into account that the Overlook is cited as being built on an 'ancient Indian burial ground': it's not a part of the source novel, so was something Kubrick added in as a reference point. When you couple that with the Navajo wall hangings and the clear supplies of Calumet baking powder - a brand that depicts a man in a Native American headdress - then the theory can be played out a little more clearly.

Suddenly the elevator of blood is symbolic for the genocide of indigenous people, Hallorann's death by an axe is indicative of the betrayal of colonisers in America, and the Overlook's name itself is a representation of people's ability to look past these past atrocities.

Kubrick has hidden references to Native Americans throughout his movie as a reflection of the US being ignorant to its own bloody past, never once outright stating this, much in the same way the country would rather sweep it under one of the hotel's pointedly patterned rugs.