With some of the most iconic shots in any film ever, The Shining stands atop the pantheon is great horror thrillers, even if original author Stephen King doesn’t agree. Right from the very opening theme and credits, there is a sense of mounting tension, dread, and fear that never goes away. Every scene is fraught with it. As with all of his movies, whether you like his movies or not, director Stanley Kubrick just knows how to make movies. His attention to every minutiae of detail allows every frame to be filled all kinds of things to examine.
Much has been discussed over the years about the behind-the-scene stories behind the making of The Shining.
The Overlook Doesn’t Have Room 237
Right from the get-go, between the helicopter shots and the eerie opening theme, the Overlook Hotel instantly became an iconic set and character for the film. The family are warned from heading into room 237 under any circumstances. In real life, the Timberline Lodge that doubled for the Overlook doesn’t have a room 237. The owners asked that the room number from the story, 217 be changed to avoid patrons not wanting to stay in the room.
The Grady Twins Aren’t Twins
During the film, Danny drives his big wheel around and comes across the ghosts of the Grady Twins. According to several people over the years, their look is patterned after a picture taken by Kubrick’s mentor, Diane Arbus, simply titled “Twins.”
However, while nearly everyone refers to the girls colloquially as “The Grady Twins,” and they’re played by twins, the characters are actually not. During the film, Mr. Ullman refers to their ages as 8 and 12.
Holy Rusty Water, Stanley
Another iconic shot in the movie was the elevator filled with blood. It was in one of the trailers for the movie and paid homage to by Ready Player One. The perfectionist director actually had his effects team work on the shot for a year just to get it right. But that meant nothing to the Motion Picture Association who are and were keen on not having a lot of gory movie trailers. Since this was the scene Kubrick wanted for the trailer, he tried and succeeded in convincing the MPAA that what they were looking at was just rusty water.
Danny Lloyd Didn’t Realize What He Was Making
For his ability to concentrate for long hours at a time, Danny Lloyd was cast as Danny Torrance in the film. Despite the horror that unfolds in Kubrick’s epic ghost story, let alone his treatment of several other actors in the movie, he never allowed Danny to know what movie he was working on.
Kubrick took great pains to shield him for being part of one of the biggest horrors of all time. Lloyd thought he was working on a family drama film and had actually not seen the full movie in it’s entirety until years later.
One Of The First Steadicam Films
Contrary to some popular belief, The Shining was not the first film to use Garrett Brown’s then-new invention, the Steadicam. Prior to the film, it had first been used on the Woody Guthrie biopic, Bound For Glory.
The Steadicam had also been used to film Rocky running through the streets of Philly. But it would be Kubrick who made the most use out of the rig during the shots of Danny riding his big wheel around the Overlook. This caused the Steadicam to have a “low mode” innovation.
“Do You Believe In God?”
Despite Stephen King not agreeing with Kubrick’s adaptation of his work, he still entertained this now-mythic late-night phone call. The director reached out to the author and flat-out asked him, “Do you believe in God?” He wasn’t insinuating that King was an Atheist, he was merely asking because of the optimism behind telling a ghost story, you’d have to believe in some kind of afterlife. When King asked, “What about hell?” The director responded that he doesn’t believe in hell.
Lloyd Came Up With The Finger
During the movie, Danny has his imaginary friend Tony help and protect him. He speaks to him using his index finger. Despite being an ultra-control freak (at least according to legend), this was something that Kubrick deferred to his young star for. According to his acting coach, Danny came up with the finger version of Tony during his audition. One more fun fact - Lloyd was told he’d be gifted the big wheel, and it never came. However, he would always get a Christmas card from Kubrick.
Mistreatment Of Shelley Duvall
Considering the mood of the movie, it’s constant uneasiness and terror, it would be easy to understand why Kubrick was such a madman of a director. While he was famous for long shooting schedules and getting 875 takes of a scene before moving on with his life, it only added to the legend of The Shining. Particularly in his supposed mistreatment of Shelley Duvall. To “help” her get into Wendy Torrance’s frame of mind, Kubrick was exceptionally mean to her, isolated her and made her also do countless takes. At one point, the actress lost clumps of hair from the stress of the film.
The Conspiracy Theories
Media studies is a pretty cool major to take in college. You watch a movie, you read into it what you think and then find a slew of sources to back up your theory. The makers of the documentary, Room 237 culled just about every harebrained theory about The Shining ever concocted into one movie.
Some people think the movie is about the Holocaust, or the genocide of Native Americans, an apology for staging the Apollo 11 mission? Yes, all of these theories and a slew more fan have devoted countless hours of thought and research to.
Jack’s Tie Is The Hedge Maze
One of the reasons Kubrick was such a brilliant filmmaker was his obsessive nature to detail. It’s such a trait that nearly no other director in Hollywood has had before or since. One aspect of this attention helps allow for seeing all kinds of things with every viewing of the film. You might not notice at first, but when we first meet Jack at his interview, he’s wearing a strange green tie. Eagle-eyed viewers will realize that his tie is reminiscent of the hedge maze.
