The Shining was filmed across a mix of real American landscapes and entirely constructed studio sets in England. The exterior of the Overlook Hotel came from Timberline Lodge in Oregon, while every interior space of the hotel was built from scratch at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire. Additional outdoor scenery, including the iconic winding road and sweeping aerial mountain views, was filmed in Montana and Colorado. These choices were deliberate, allowing Stanley Kubrick to combine the realism of actual locations with the total creative control of studio-built environments.
Exterior Filming Location for the Overlook Hotel
Interior Filming Locations
Mountain and Landscape Filming
Why Kubrick Used Multiple Locations
Architectural Influences on the Sets
Differences Between the Overlook’s Interior and Real Hotels
Behind the Scenes Production Details
The exterior of the Overlook Hotel is Timberline Lodge, located on the south side of Mount Hood in Oregon. This is the building shown whenever the film cuts to wide shots of the hotel surrounded by snow or when the Torrance family first arrives. Timberline Lodge was chosen for its isolated mountain setting, its massive stone and wood façade, and the unique shape of its roofline, which matched the ominous aesthetic Kubrick wanted. Only the outside of Timberline Lodge appears in the film. No interior space from the lodge was used. Kubrick also followed a request from the lodge’s operators regarding the room number. Timberline Lodge asked Kubrick not to use the number of any room they actually had, so Kubrick changed the haunted room from the book’s Room 217 to the film’s Room 237. The hedge maze featured in the movie was not located at Timberline Lodge. The real lodge never had one. The maze was entirely constructed on a backlot in England, designed to withstand heavy lighting equipment and to maintain consistent height and density during filming.
The entire interior of the Overlook Hotel was built at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, England. Kubrick lived in the UK and refused to travel, which meant that the full hotel interior had to be recreated within driving distance of his home. These sets were among the largest studio constructions of their time. The Colorado Lounge, the Gold Room, the Torrance family apartment, the long connecting hallways, the kitchen complex, and Room 237 were all purpose-built. Kubrick designed the Colorado Lounge to be enormous, with towering ceilings and a wide-open floor plan that allowed him to use deep-focus cinematography and lengthy tracking shots. The Gold Room was constructed with reflective surfaces and polished materials to emphasize the surreal atmosphere during Jack’s ballroom scenes. The kitchen and service corridors were designed to look authentically American, with commercial equipment sourced or replicated based on US hotel kitchens. The hallways were engineered to allow smooth Steadicam movement, which was essential for the shots of Danny riding his tricycle. To make this possible, the sets had to be constructed with seamless floors, unobstructed turns, and structurally reinforced walls to support the camera rig’s repeated passes.
The opening aerial sequence showing Jack’s drive to the Overlook was filmed in Glacier National Park in Montana. The winding road in the scene is Going-to-the-Sun Road, one of the most famous scenic routes in the United States. Helicopters were used to capture the footage, creating the slow, sweeping shots that follow Jack’s yellow Volkswagen Beetle as it approaches the hotel. Additional mountain establishing shots were filmed in Colorado to reinforce the isolation and harsh winter conditions that define the setting of the story. These locations gave the film its sense of scale and realism, contrasting the controlled, artificial interiors with genuine North American wilderness.
Kubrick’s use of multiple filming locations was driven by practicality, aesthetics, and absolute control. No single hotel looked the way he wanted, and real hotels could not accommodate the technical demands of his vision. Real hallways would have been too narrow for Steadicam rigs. Real ceilings would have been too low for lighting setups. Real floor plans would not have allowed the unnatural architectural structure that Kubrick used to unsettle viewers. Timberline Lodge provided the perfect exterior, but its interior did not match the psychological tone Kubrick wanted. Glacier National Park offered the dramatic mountain landscapes essential to the film’s tone. Elstree Studios allowed Kubrick to reshape reality itself. By building the interiors from scratch, he could design an Overlook Hotel that felt real at first glance but subtly impossible when analyzed closely. This combination of controlled studio construction and authentic exterior footage created the unique spatial tension that makes the Overlook feel both familiar and wrong.
While none of the interiors were shot in real American hotels, the Overlook’s interior design was heavily inspired by them. The Colorado Lounge was directly influenced by the Great Lounge of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. Kubrick and his design team studied the Ahwahnee’s timber architecture, chandeliers, stone detailing, and Native American-inspired patterns. They then exaggerated the scale to make the Overlook feel imposing. The hexagonal carpet pattern, one of the most recognizable visuals in the film, was chosen to create a subliminal sense of unease. The Gold Room incorporated a mixture of Art Deco design elements found in 1920s American hotels and ballrooms. The combination of geometric lines, reflective surfaces, and warm lighting gives the scenes a dreamlike quality. The bathroom connected to the Gold Room was intentionally designed to feel sterile and disorienting, with stark colors and symmetrical angles that contrast sharply with the hotel’s otherwise warm tones.
Kubrick intentionally designed the Overlook’s interior to be spatially impossible. Rooms contain windows that could not exist based on the exterior layout. Hallways connect in ways that defy the building’s footprint. Doors lead into spaces that should not logically fit behind them. These inconsistencies were not mistakes but psychological techniques. By creating a hotel that subtly violates architectural logic, Kubrick kept viewers uneasy without them always understanding why. The hotel becomes a character that shifts and distorts reality. This effect could not be achieved inside a real building. The sets also included exaggerated proportions. The Colorado Lounge is impossibly large for a remote mountain hotel. The hallways are too long. The staff quarters are too spacious. These details make the Overlook feel like a dream or a memory rather than a straightforward location.
Elstree Studios was pushed to its limits during the production. One of the sets caught fire and had to be rebuilt. Kubrick’s commitment to perfection meant dozens or even hundreds of takes for certain scenes, which required the sets to be durable and adaptable. The Overlook’s snowy exterior, including parts of the maze, was created using salt, crushed Styrofoam, and refrigerated studio environments. The maze was so large and detailed that cast and crew often got lost inside during filming. Kubrick also used specialized lighting to create the Overlook’s distinct atmosphere. For example, parts of the Colorado Lounge were illuminated using natural light simulations to replicate the feel of sunlight pouring through enormous windows. All of these elements contributed to a hotel that feels real but behaves like a psychological trap.
This expanded, in-depth breakdown covers every filming location and gives a complete picture of how The Shining created the Overlook Hotel through a mixture of real-world landscapes and meticulously constructed studio environments.