Room 237

[The Curmudgeon]

If our every movement is secretly being followed and documented by the government, then my days are probably numbered. I don't know WHY I read this stuff when I know it's bullshit, but I find myself trawling the weirdest, craziest websites devoted to all kinds of conspiracy theories, from False Flag attacks, Illuminati to fucking lizard people.

This week's subject that will have me taken out by black helicopters? The different meanings of The Shining, namely how it's an admission of Kubrick's guilt that he faked the moon landing footage. Of course it is.

I've been ill the last few days, so what better comfort viewing is there than Kubrick's horror masterpiece? And once I was done with that, I watched Room 237 (on Netflix, God bless it), a documentary about all the hidden meanings and subtext buried deep into the film. About 90% of it was complete "this is what I was thinking, so that makes it true" bullshit, but some of it is quite interesting.

Of course it's all nonsense, but.. well, did you know that Nasa deleted all of their footage of the moon landings? Essentially "taped over it." The first ever recorded document of man leaving the fucking planet and you tape over it?? And Kubrick makes Eyes Wide Shut, a film exposing the Illuminati and he dies just after it's completed??

Hoo boy, time to get off the internet for a bit.

But yeah, Room 237. Anyone seen it?

[trashcanman]

I've deliberately avoided it. I remember you posted that thing about The Shining being about the Illuminati and I couldn't even get through that so a hour and a half doc was just going to hurt my brain. Why? With so many true documented conspiracies that actually make sense, why do these fucking looney tunes insist on doing this?

A "Truther" invaded a Super Bowl interview to tell us "Investigate 9/11. 9/11 was perpetrated by or own government". Oh well then; if you say so, crazy fucker. I always do what nutballs tell me as long as they're on TV. I'm reasonably sure there's a fuck of a lot more than people think going on with 9/11, but I'm 100% certain that not a single person is going to be turned into the investigator that breaks this case wide open at this point by some freak invading a stage during a sports interview.

And even if it just so happens that every one of these conspiracies is true and we can prove it, so fucking what? We never landed on the moon. Well, fuck, that sucks in some way, I guess. There are people who are in charge of stuff and they don't have our best interests at heart? You don't say? Our own government kills a couple thousand people in two buildings in addition to the millions in wars? Dicks. And they LIED!? Politicians? Lied? About bad stuff they did? STOP DESTROYING MY VIEW OF THE WORLD! Oh well, I've got to go to go spend time with my family and then go to work to make some money to feed and house them with. Thanks or the info, mister crazy guy.

[Ben]

I've read a lot about Eyes Wide Shut interpretations/conspiracies and it's disturbing shit. There's a lot of background shit going on that seems to point in a very specific direction. But if The Shining has some hidden meaning, wouldn't it also, you know, start with the Stephen King book?

[The Curmudgeon]

Trash - yeah, there's a part of me that's interested, part of me that knows it's shit and another that's just overwhelmed by it all. Like you said, what are we supposed to DO with this information if any of it is true anyway? Besides creating one of those foaming mouth Youtube videos about 9/11, what exactly do WE do about it now?

Ben - they do mention that in the film, and it's a reason why King hated the film. Could be a coincidence, probably not, but Dick Holloran (the cook, if you're not 100% familiar with the Shining) drives up to the Overlook hotel and sees a red Volkswagen lying crushed by the road, the exact same description of car Jack drives in the NOVEL. In the film Jack drives a YELLOW Volkswagen, which Room 237 explains as Kubrick saying "that red one was your vehicle, this is mine." Crazy enough to be true, I guess.

Here's Mark Kermode, a guy I used to drop everything to listen to (now I catch it online, progress) who does a weekly movie review on the radio. Very clever, quite funny, and an unashamed horror fan, discussing Room 237.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5QyEfQ3xIc

Although, as one reviewer of the documentary said, you could find the same sort of hidden meaning and subtext in Ghost Rider 2.