The Shining (1980) ft. Polly Schattel: The Long Shadow of Trauma

Filmmaker and author Polly Schattel joins Beth and Michelle to discuss Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, a film she has studied since first seeing it in a theater as a child. Together, they explore the Overlook Hotel’s visual clues, unsettling sound design, supernatural mysteries, and the many interpretations that have kept audiences returning to the film for decades. The conversation moves beyond ghosts and conspiracy theories to the trauma at the center of the Torrance family. Beth and Michelle share why Jack’s abuse has always frightened them more than anything hiding in Room 237, while Polly offers a different perspective on Wendy’s agency, Kubrick’s treatment of Shelley Duvall, and the film’s larger themes of patriarchal violence, inherited trauma, and survival. They also put The Shining through the Castellini Test and find that, despite its isolation and limited female cast, it passes. Wendy is not a helpless victim waiting to be rescued. She confronts the danger, protects Danny, and ultimately becomes the reason they escape. By the end, Polly has not turned Beth and Michelle into devoted Kubrick fans, but she has given them a new way to understand a film they had previously kept at a distance. You can find Polly and her work at PollySchattel.com  also you can follow Polly on BlueSky The links and photos referenced in the episode: Rob Ager