What is fear if not the unknown? What is dread if not based on reality? What is art if not enticing and transfixing? Terror can manifest through all art forms. It jumps at you from a page. It reaches for you from a screen. It speaks to you from a song. It can even mimic your own reality. 

For filmmaker Lee Unkrich, Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ did exactly that. It terrified him. It followed him home from the theater. It presented itself through similarities within his parent's dysfunctional marriage. However…it also inspired curiosity, a drive to investigate the fear and seek others who left the theater with the same sensation. How did Kubrick do it? How did Kubrick make one of the most iconic and terrifying horror films ever? Quickly, Unkrich’s curiosity turned into an obsession, throwing himself down the rabbit hole to create, alongside writer J.W. Rinzler, the meticulous behind-the-scenes book, The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining via Taschen.

Even weeks after Unkrich was infected with fascination, he was head-first into research, specifically combing through the film’s source material, a book with the same name written by acclaimed author Stephen King. Unkrich noticed there were missing elements from the film that were featured in the novel, including a collection of stills from the film sandwiched in the center of the book’s pages. He was astonished to find that some stills had not been in the film, and at that moment, it was like a light shone above him. In the preface of what would become the compendium, he reflects on the moment, “My thoughts raced; if there was a scene in the film that was shot–but not used–could there be others?” 

The hunt had begun. He posted on online forums, combed through archives, and contacted crew members and actors who starred in the film; he even had lunch with Kubrick’s wife. Unkrich also pitched the book to anyone who would listen, which eventually led him to J.W. Rinzler–who was as equally transfixed. Rinzler had an equally intense fixation on ‘The Shining’ and Kubrick’s work‌. He recounts a similar anecdote detailing the terror of his first viewing of the film, “The Shining promised to scare us, and we were teenagers who liked to experience the adrenaline high of being terrified.” Together, Unkrich and Rinzler became archaeologists in a sense, but instead of digging up dinosaur bones, they were piecing together memories and anecdotes. 

The book consists of two colossal volumes: a scrapbook full of unseen images and a comprehensive exploration of the film’s birth to its now afterlife. Even before the readers christen the pages full of delicate artifacts, their eyes will notice that the book’s cover is a play on the film’s unsettling but mesmerizing color scheme and a reference to the famous production design and symbolism.

Unkrich and Rinzler’s decision to split it into two volumes mimics the sensations of discovery and beautiful disorientation, a feeling that the duo must have felt, transporting themselves through time with every one of their findings. Some images in the scrapbook will even strike nostalgia in fans, reminding them of the sensations of terror and awe they may have once felt in the theater during their first viewing. The book is a true amalgamation of legacy and passion, a dedicated vision.

Although Rinzler sadly passed away before the book’s completion, it is clear that just like ‘The Shining’ itself, Rinzler and Unkrich’s work will forever serve as a medium for future generations to explore, a haunting ghost story in itself, with each turn of a page emitting the terror and curiosity that bound Rinzler and Unkrich together, as well as countless others. You can purchase the book here.