11/25 Urmston - REDRUM in "The Shining"

The first time I saw “The Shining,” I fell asleep. 

This isn’t to say I found the film particularly boring by any means. Instead, it was the combination of four glasses of red wine and the opening credits that take you over majestic waters and mountains to The Overlook for a solid five minutes. I’d say that did the trick. 

My friend at the time had explained how Steven King’s “The Shining” was her favorite movie of all time. After sleeping through most of the film, I woke up to the scene where the five-year-old son, Danny, is chanting, “REDRUM” over and over and over again in the dark voice of his imaginary friend Tony. A friend who basically lives inside of Danny’s finger. I thought to myself, “I have some pretty twisted friends.” Turns out, I’m just as twisted as they are. This story is now one of my absolute favorites. 

To catch those up who haven’t seen the film/read the book, REDRUM spelled backward is MURDER. In the movie, Danny and his mother Wendy are hiding out in their room from their father, Jack, who has grown more and more eager to harm his wife and child throughout the story. While Wendy is asleep, Danny picks up his mother’s dark red lipstick and writes REDRUM on the door facing the mirror. He slowly walks toward her with a knife in his hand, the chanting of the word growing louder. She wakes to see the word MURDER in the mirror. 

This scene did not take place in the book. Instead, it was a word used by Danny (or I should say “Tony”) that comes up every time there is an evil near. When Danny is found outside of Room 217, REDRUM appears to him to show him the past murder of a woman in a tub. “He could see that limp hand dangling over the edge of the tub with blood running down one finger, the third, and that inexplicable word so much more horrible than any of the others: REDRUM.” (The Shining). 

It is argued that the meaning of the word REDRUM is meant to symbolize the opposite of murder, because it is murder backward. “In the chapters titled "REDRUM" and "Jack and Wendy," Jack and Wendy both almost murder each other. It's murder averted, murder that doesn't come to pass.” (Shmoop). 

As much as I appreciate good symbolism, I find this argument to be the last one I would have suspected. Instead, as straightforward as it can be, I would argue that it means just the opposite. It is used in both the book and the film as a warning; a way to get the family as far away from the premonitions of The Overlook as fast as they can, before it’s too late. Before REDRUM. 

Because Steven King is as creative-minded as he is, he knew how to make this a good story. He wasn’t going to simply begin the piece with Danny chanting the word “murder”. That’s too easy. Instead his twisted mind literally twisted the word around, creating an eerie, creepy way of warning the family without completely ruining a good story with an even better ending. 

Works Cited

King, Stephen. The Shining. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1977. Print.

Shmoop Editorial Team. "REDRUM in The Shining." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.