If you've seen Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, then there are more than a handful of moments you'll no doubt be instantly able to recall with only the mention of the title. The woman in the bathtub, the man in the dog costume, Delbert Grady, and baseball bats are probably all fluttering through your mind right now, and you wouldn't be faulted for such a Kubrickian montage. However, there's one more moment that you remembered along with the rest of those mentioned, and it's one IKEA has recreated for their Halloween/late night shopping ad campaign.
I'm talking, of course, about the infamous big wheel scene that finds young Danny Torrance riding through the halls of the Overlook Hotel, without a care in the world. That is, until he runs into the equally infamous pair of twins who just want Danny to play with them... forever and ever. Now if you haven't seen the film, at the very least you can watch part of that legendary sequence below. It'll help you get the overall gist of the ad, and make the proceedings that much funnier.
Now if you're a die hard Shining fan, there's an orgy of references to the film hidden throughout this short IKEA advertisement. So many that you definitely can't catch them all without repeated viewings of the video, and at least one re-visiting of the Stanley Kubrick original. We'll lay some of them out in Page 2, but for now we'll just say that this ad got really clever with how it referenced the original film, right down to some interesting IKEA product placement.
The best part about IKEA's take on The Shining is the fact that while IKEA isn't exactly The Overlook Hotel, it can be a really creepy place with the right atmosphere. The place already looks like something you'd find in a dream, with the rooms all blending in with each other, everything laid out as if it's already lived in, and copious amounts of Swedish meatballs being available once you've gotten to the end of the line. Yet all it took was the right lack of lighting, some easy to create special effects, and the right iconic moment in horror history to make this ad something that stands really well on its own. So even if you haven't seen The Shining, or have seen it so many times you can recite it word for word, this commercial is a lot of fun for everyone this time of the year.
The Shining is available on DVD and Blu Ray, as well as in the back of your subconscious, past all of those Nightmare On Elm Street films you watched as a kid. You'll probably be seeing it in your dreams tonight, so head on over to Page 2 to see some of the choice references dropped throughout the course of this commercial.
The decaying woman that Jack Torrance finds in the bathtub is referenced with this shot of someone peaking through the curtains.
The rugs that the Danny stand-in drives across look similar to those in the Overlook Hotel. Also, a ball is rolling across the floor.
The bear imagery motif from The Shining is connected to the big stuffed bear on the bed.
The sign on the wall in the bedding department says, "All work and no sleep makes life dull," which sounds like a great sequel to "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."
Just like "Redrug" is clearly a callback to "Redrum".
The hedge maze finale is referenced with the foggy corridor.
"237" (the infamous room number) is laid out in number cubes.
If we've missed any, besides the obvious sequence at the end with the twins, let us know in the comments section! We still can't figure out what that ghost family at dinner is referencing...
