“Room 237” is a documentary film that has what seems to be conspiracy theorists discussing “The Shining” by director Stanley Kubrick (“2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Eyes Wide Shut”). I feel this film is a serious missed opportunity as it doesn’t delve into the quirkiness and the eccentricity of Kubrick as a filmmaker but more of the quirkiness and eccentricity of the contributors to this documentary.

In “Room 237”, we get a bunch of whacky theories. We hear how various continuity errors were actually intentional. Then we hear how the film is really about the genocide of Native Americans due to their being a food product of with a Native American picture on it. There is also a bunch of stupid excuses for subliminal sex messages and the most amusing theory is about how Stanley Kubrick secretly worked on NASA’s space mission footage and this movie is his way of proving he was responsible for some of it.

The issue with this film is that the people discussing it are not doing it objectively and are reading things into the film that are only there because they want them to be. I know Kubrick is famed for putting little Easter eggs/secrets into his films but the people here are too busy trying to prove other things they are interested in, such as the WWII historian thinks it is about the Jewish Holocaust.

The film gets to a point where you expect a Kennedy assassination plot be the next point to be made. I think this film could have been really interesting as it exposes goofs and strange hidden details but this film doesn’t do that. It is nothing but a self-indulgent trip for the people who we never see but we hear their voices. “Room 237” has a scary revelation and that is the people involved in the making of this are probably serious about their views.