THE SHINING: FORWARDS AND BACKWARDS Film Edit Gives Us a New Perspective on Stanley Kubrick's Horror Masterpiece
If you're a fan of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and you've got a couple of hours to spare today, you've got to watch this experimental edit of the film. It's called The Shining: Forwards and Backwards, and you get to watch the film from start to finish and from finish to start at the same time as they are superimposed on one another. I've heard about this film and it was even featured in The Shining documentary Room 237.
John Fell Ryan and Akiva Saunders are the creators of the experimental film and they premiered it back in 2011 for an audience. It's had a few other screenings over the years but now it's online for all of you to watch! I have no idea how long it will last on the internet before it gets pulled off by the studio, so you should probably watch it while you have the chance!
It's pretty damn fascinating and there are some cool oddities and strange occurrences that pop up while you watch it. You can check out a couple breakdowns of the film pointing out some of these cool things here and here. Here's the note that accompanied the video.
Since I’m a film editor and a somewhat slavish fan of all things Kubrick…I have re-created the experiment and am posting an HD version of it so you can judge for yourself. I began by aligning the forward and backwards versions to match still frames available on-line from the original experimental project. All I needed to do was eye-match one frame and the rest would be in synch.
If you're a hardcore fan of The Shining, you're going to love this.