The Shining

Artist: Other
Format: UK Quad (30"x 40")
Condition: Excellent
Year: 1980

Description

Although his previous films had certainly contained horror elements and aesthetics, Stanley Kubrick had never made an out-and-out horror film before he discovered Stephen King’s novel “The Shining”. Using his famously methodical approach to filmmaking, Kubrick’s film adaptation of the novel in 1980 is now widely regarded as one of the finest and scariest horror films ever made.

The UK Quad for the film is a rare example of a collectable pre-1990s poster that utilised simple photographic imagery as opposed to a painted art design. Merging two stills, the poster captures Jack Nicholson’s improvised and now-iconic “Here’s Johnny” moment of insanity which helped propel the film to legendary status. Though just utilising the two still-images, the poster remains highly disturbing, testament to how meticulous Kubrick was with every single scene and shot.

The US 1-Sheet for the film, shown below courtesy of emovieposter.com, offers a different, though still highly disquieting, image. Designed by renowned graphic designer Saul Bass, (famed also for his Hitchcock title sequences), the poster features a typically clever merging of text and imagery creating an altogether unsettling effect. Another interesting poster is the UK Quad Advance (courtesy of www.moviepostermem.com) which, like the Quad, emphasises the film’s success in America through a newspaper-like design. All 3 poster designs have clear merit & represent the disturbing nature of Kubrick's masterpiece to good effect.