Fan Theories About The Shining That Change Everything

The Shining has attracted an almost cult-like collective of fans who long to discover its secrets. What follows are our favorite fan theories we've gathered up from internet forums, fan films and documentaries like Room 237, and just putting the movie on repeat until we start coming up with our own kooky headcanons.

Out of all the theories out there about the true meaning of The Shining, one of the more plausible ones is that the film is an allegorical tale about the genocide of Native Americans by white settlers. The most overt hint occurs when Stuart Ullman, a smiling white guy who dresses in red, white, and blue, and has an American flag on his desk, casually mentions that the Overlook is literally built over dead Native Americans.

Throughout the hotel are depictions of Native Americans and Native American art motifs, such as the enormous sand painting on the wall of the Colorado Lounge. Jack even uses the phrase "White Man's Burden," in a conversation with Lloyd, a reference to a poem by Rudyard Kipling that valorizes the colonization of natives by white imperialists,

Internet film scholar Kevin McLeod, who did a commentary track for the home video release of the documentary Room 237, also claims that the film features a pair of hidden symbols from another group of indigenous Americans, the Maya. He asserts that in the iconic bright yellow film poster for The Shining, the extra wide letter "T" in the title is actually a Mayan symbol, and that a repeating pattern in the carpet of the Gold Room, a cross within a square, is actually the symbol for "yellow."

There are also a handful of strange but compelling parallels between the film and the real life founding of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. This was a horrific, bloody event with countless Native Americans casualties, but perhaps the most famous Native person killed there was Hokolesqua, also known as Chief Cornstalk.

In 1777, Hokolesqua was killed by a mob seeking revenge for an attack that he'd had no part of, and, of course, legend states that Hokolesqua's final words were a curse on the land that would leave it, quote, "paralyzed by the stain of our blood."

This statement has clear parallels to the famous wave of blood from the film, but believe it or not, it's not the biggest link between the battle of Point Pleasant and The Shining. In 1909, the same year the fictional Overlook Hotel was completed in the film, a real life monument in Point Pleasant was struck by lightning, and the same thing happened again on July 4, 1921. As any true Shining fan knows, July 4, 1921, is the date on the old photograph of Jack from the final shot of the film.

Before we go any further, let's get one thing straight. The moon landing wasn't faked. Mythbusters did a whole episode about it.. Go watch Hidden Figures. Educate yourself. However, there has been a conspiracy theory circulating since before The Shining came out that the Apollo 11 moon landing was faked, and that Stanley Kubrick was the one hired by the government to shoot it. It would obviously be nearly impossible to carry a secret like that without letting it out somewhere, so could The Shining actually be Kubrick's covert confession? Keep watching the video to see more fan theories about The Shining that change everything!

#TheShining #FanTheories

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