To understand genre theory, we must first know what a genre under the context of a film is. Related to movies, "a genre is a type, or category" (Goodykoontz, 2019). Genre theory is the study of films with the intent to categorize the film. This allows someone who is more experienced with this theory, the ability to assist the common viewers in classifying the film before watching it. These similar aspects that enable the films to be grouped could be similar plots, filming techniques, or other features that very be the genre of the film. For example, the horror genre has sub-genres like slasher films, ghost stories, vampire films, and others. They all fall into the horror genre due to the goal of the film being to produce fear and deeper levels of emotion. The American Film Institute defines the Horror genre as "films that seek to elicit fear for entertainment purposes" (American Film Institute, 2008). The focus of this paper will be on the Horror genre and specifically the movie The Shining.

The Shining tells the story of a haunted hotel that Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) becomes the winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel, which closes every winter. He takes this job to help cure his writer 's block and he brings his wife and son to the hotel. Jacks' son is portrayed to have physic abilities that allow him to see the hotel's horrific past. When a snowstorm leaves the Torrance's stuck at the hotel, Jack slowly starts to become insane due to the hotel's supernatural forces. Jack starts having violent outbursts and threatens his wife's life. He gets freed by a ghost and goes after his wife and child with an ax, which is when he finally trapped his wife in a bathroom. He then broke down the door which directly led to the famous line "Here's Johnny" from Jack Nicholson.

The setting is the first genre convention that supports the genre placement for The Shining in the horror genre. The film is shot at a secluded hotel in the Rocky Mountains. This is shown during the opening scene, the viewers have a view like they are looking out a helicopter showing them the winding roads and the different terrains the characters travel through to get to the hotel. This opening scene starts with an overhead shot that follows a car driving down a one-lane road through forests, by a lake, along with driving up a mountain. This isolation is helped by not showing any properties along the way in the overhead shots, so the viewer assumes this place is extremely out of the way.

The next convention of horror that supports the film's genre placement is iconography. The weapon choice helps the viewer associate the film with the horror genre. When the ax goes through the door in the film when Jack is trying to hurt Wendy helps the audience feel some of the emotions that a horror film wants the audience to have. It has two aspects for the viewer depending on how they connect with the film, it can be a jump scare when the ax connects with the door. As Jack swings the ax repeatedly into the door to break it down, you hear Wendy screaming from the other side of the door. This helps the film feel like a real horror film as she is trapped in a bathroom and the killer is breaking into the room to commit murder. When the camera cuts to Wendy's side of the door, you can see the damage the ax has done, but also the pure fear and panic that she knows she will probably die.

The third convention of the horror genre that is shown in this film is editing. Editing in the horror genre commonly contains a fast pace with many cuts to make the audience feel uneasy and build tension for a potential-jump scare. The editing in the film The Shining , expands the film into multiple subgenres within the horror genre. The Shining falls under the subgenres of gothic, psychological, and paranormal. The gothic subgenre is covered by the sense of mystery the movie has in the horrific background, and what happened to start the haunting. The psychological subgenre is covered by a movie that plays with the mind of the main character. The hotel's isolated location and creepy past messes with Jack's head and he goes mad enough that he wants to kill his wife and child due to whatever is messing with his head. The horror subgenre paranormal can be argued as belonging to this film due to the spirits that interact with Jack and his son during their stay at the hotel. This is best depicted when the ghost butler lets Jack free so he can go after his wife, or in the ghost twins that appear in the hallway in front of Jack's  son.

Genre theory is a helpful tool to allow someone that wants an understanding of the film, they will see before they watch anything about it. While watching this film from a researcher's perspective, and studying the horror genre, I found that there are multiply conventions that are seen across most horror films portrayed in this film. The setting of the film allows the viewer to have an idea of the film's location, like an isolated house in the woods, or in the city. The iconography provides the viewer symbolic imagery so the viewer can picture a vague image of what the film will be like in their head. The last thing I found while researching is that horror films commonly use many cameras cuts to make the viewer’s uneasy. Overall, using the techniques mentioned in the textbook, I have gained a new understanding of the director and producer's role when a film is being created.