the whole place is such an enormous maze
Regardless of deeper reasons --the Native American genocide, the holocaust, the moon landing--Kubrick does seem to have deliberately toyed with set layouts and the positioning of doors and windows in order to keep things a little off kilter. The opening credits running upward add to that. With opening music that seems far more sinister and dark than the driving scene it plays over. That there is no hedge maze anywhere near the hotel in the establishing shot yet that maze will be vital to the climax of the film is another. Then there's the so-called "impossible window" in Ullman's office opening to daylight and plants when the lobby we have just tracked from (without any cut) implied another hallway is behind that office. Ullmann mentions Grady's daughters being 8 and 10, yet they are played by twins. (And, anyone who hasn't read the book always assumes they are twins. Ullman's line about their ages is just in passing and we haven't seen the twin sis...