Allow me to reiterate my point: it is my opinion that Danny isn't in any real danger at the Overlook. Well, the hotel is indeed a dangerous place, but the child, protected by his mother (whom the hotel deems more resourceful than expected), his "imaginary friend" Tony and his mentor Hallorann, has got everything covered.
First of all, Hallorann seems quite clear that the ghostly apparitions cannot physically harm him, the exception being the woman in Room 237 (we'll get to her soon).
Secondly, Danny is playing a game of chess with the Overlook spirits, with his father Jack as the main pawn. Danny/Tony wants to get rid of Jack because he is a bad husband, father and provider for his family. The Hotel wants Jack back because he is for ever and ever and ever the hotel's caretaker. So, the easiest course of action would be to drop Jack off at the Overlook with Wendy and Danny going off on their merry way. Yet things are not that simple. Danny is a six years old kid, so he has no real choice but to go and live there with his parents for five months. Same with Wendy (we assume she's a stay-at-home mom with no source of income of her own). The other problem is that the Overlook is an evil place, and since when do Evil play fair? So the Overlook's endgame is twofold: get Jack back and get rid of Danny.
Yet Danny/Tony is quite aware of this. For most of the film, Danny isn't really scared at all. Certainly not the way Wendy gets scared as things go along. Unsettled, yes, but not scared. The only time he is truly scared shitless is when he meets the Grady twins. And yet Tony is prompt to remind him what he already knows: none of this is real. And when things get too hairy, Tony takes over completely while Danny is busy communicating with Hallorann. Finally, when Jack's mind finally snaps, Danny keeps cool enough under the circumstances to always stay one step ahead of his father, allowing him not only to avoid being chopped up into little bits, but to "guide" Jack into the hedge maze. The hedge maze, if you recall, that Danny spent some time exploring while Jack has never stepped foot in it. The trap has been laid, all it needs now is for someone to spring it.
As for Wendy, since she is not psychic like her husband and son, she has escaped the more horrifying aspects of the Overlook, until near the end when it decides to show her its real face. And yet Wendy, though completely scared out of her mind, still manage to keep it together to find Danny and escape with Hallorann's snowcat.
Ah, yes, what about Room 237?
Since the Overlook spirits can appear just about anywhere in the Hotel, what's so special about Room 237? More specifically, why is Danny in any more danger in that particular room than anywhere else?
Because Room 237 houses the only ghost capable of hurting living people (i.e. the "crazy woman in the bathtub" to quote Wendy). None of the other evil spirits can. If the Overlook spooks could hurt anyone they want, why take the pain of turning Jack against his own son? They would've just killed Danny as soon as he stepped foot in the hotel. Yet they can't, or more to the point, only one of them can: the Woman of Room 237. This is why Hallorann insists Danny steer clear of the room, and this is why the room attempts to lure Danny in.
(Note, however, that the woman do not actually kill Danny. How Danny manages to escape is left pretty much unsaid. And yet, while the Woman fails to kill the son, she is rather more effective frightening his father out of his tiny little mind.)
Oops!
I originally believed I could get away writing about a Kubrick film in a single (or two-part) post. How wrong I was. Thank's to Mr, Kubrick for making a complex movie full of twists and turns making it absolutely impossible to start talking about it without being engulfed in its labyrinthine structure. The trap has certainly being sprung.
Next Kubrick on the menu?....why not Dr. Strangelove (in a little while).
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