COCKTAIL OF THE WEEK: DIAL "R" FOR "REDRUM" AT THE COTSWOLDS DISTILLERY

A crucial player in moving palettes of finished product at the Cotswold’s Distillery to get that product on your palate is the spirits factory’s forklift “affectionately” named Red Rum. In this case, the forklift is so named “as it is a pirate forklift” and pirates certainly ran rum through the Atlantic in days of yore. But Red Rum is more often recognized as the sum of its two terms, primarily when referencing the pivotal and ominous term in “The Shining”, a 1977 Stephen King novel adapted for the big screen three years later by Stanley Kubrick.

Depending on your analysis of the novel and film, redrum may be eerily uttered by Danny Torrance, the son of the story’s psychotic main character, Jack; by Danny’s imaginary friend and future self, Tony, taking over Danny’s body; or by Jack himself as he speaks through his son. When one first encounters the term, especially in the film, its meaning is not immediately apparent as redrum is not a word you’ll find in the dictionary. Not until Jack’s wife, Wendy sees the term written in red lipstick from her hotel room mirror does it all come together for the audience: redrum is the mirror image of murder. Look a little closer and you’ll find that Kubrick mirrored several elements from King’s novel and even made the movie a mirror image of itself.

For one, Kubrick reversed aspects of King’s book to accommodate his film, from subtle elements such as switching the color of the Torrance family’s car from red to yellow and their hotel destination’s snowmobile from yellow to red to more obvious plot twists such as moving the writing of the term “redrum” from the inside of a bathroom door to its outside so that Wendy sees it from the bedroom.

The redrum scene itself is a mirror. As the backwards term passes the young boy’s lips, his father is simultaneously deciding that his family must go. As Jack picks up an axe and inspects its sharpness, Danny brandishes a knife whose blade he checks. As the murder nears with Jack approaching the room where Danny and Wendy sit, Danny repeats redrum more rapidly.

Some movie analysts believe that Kubrick even transformed the film’s timing into a mirror image of itself. For instance, exactly one-quarter into the film we see Jack Nicholson reflected in the vanity mirror of his and Wendy’s hotel room as well as the word on his t-shirt in reverse. In this same mirror, at exactly three-quarters of the way through the film - the numerical mirror of one quarter - Wendy terrifyingly spots “murder” which is actually a reflection of redrum written on the door to the bathroom.

If Kubrick indeed intended his film to be a mirror of King’s novel, then the Cotswold Distillery’s Gin Faisán is the mirror image of the classic cocktail, the Paloma. The Paloma calls for tequila and grapefruit soda whereas the Faisán calls for gin and fresh grapefruit juice. Paloma means dove in Spanish whereas Faisán means pheasant, arguably mirror-image birds. 

Next you settle in to watch The Shining, it will be fitting to pour yourself a Gin Faisán or two. But don’t drink many more than that. We don’t want you seeing things backwards, too. 

Cotswolds Dry Gin Perfect Serve – The Gin Faisán

• 50ml Cotswolds Dry Gin
• 50ml Fresh pink grapefruit juice
• 15ml Fresh lime juice
• 10ml Sugar syrup
• Top with cold soda water
• Pinch of salt

50ml Cotswolds Dry Gin

Method: To make the Gin Faisán, place the gin, fresh juices and sugar syrup into a cocktail shaker with a good handful of ice. Shake until frost appears on the outside and pour into a tumbler. Top with soda and garnish with a slice of pink grapefruit and a pinch of salt.