15 Scary Facts About The Shining That Will Make You Lose Your Mind

Very soon – on May 23, 2025, to be exact – “The Shining” by the genius director Stanley Kubrick, based on the book of the same name by Stephen King, will mark 45 years since it first appeared in theaters in the United States. Today, there is almost unanimous agreement that it is one of the best horror films of all time, with masterful acting (especially by Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall) and several scenes that will remain in the memory of every horror fan. Interestingly, the film was initially considered a joke; Stephen King hated it, and its production included many unusual events. So, how the hell did we get this timeless classic?

The following review will present 15 engaging and sometimes scary facts about “The Shining,” some of which would make you a dull boy, and others lose control.

1. Jack Nicholson Wasn’t The First Choice For The Role Of Jack Torrance

There’s no doubt that Jack Nicholson’s psychotic performance as Jack Torrance – a writer who stays with his family in an isolated hotel during the winter months but “loses it” and discovers the dark side of himself and the hotel – is breathtaking.

Kubrick considered other actors for the role until he decided to settle on Nicholson. For example, he considered Robert De Niro, but after seeing “Taxi Driver,” he thought he wasn’t psychopathic enough for the role. Another name that came up was Robin Williams, but after seeing his performance in the 1978 television series “Mork & Mindy,” one of the “Happy Days” spin-offs, he thought he was too psychotic. Stephen King said that Kubrick even briefly considered Harrison Ford.

On the other hand, Stephen King suggested names like Jon Voight and Christopher Reeve. Perhaps he thought that casting Nicholson was a mistake because a few years earlier, Nicholson had won an Oscar for his unforgettable role in Miloš Forman’s masterful “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” King argued, with some justification, that audiences would already perceive the character Nicholson was playing as “crazy,” recalling his role as a prisoner who arrives at a psychiatric hospital and is exposed to various injustices and another cruel therapist. King explained that casting Nicholson was inconsistent with the story’s process, according to which the writer is a normative person who only goes crazy after arriving at the Overlook Hotel. “If the person is crazy from the start, then we waste the whole tragedy of his deterioration,” he said.

According to reports, Nicholson ate nothing but cheese sandwiches in the weeks before filming to prepare for the role of the crazy person. It may not sound so bad, but he “fucking hates cheese sandwiches” and believed that changing the menu would put him in an angry mood. In one of the confrontations with his wife, Wendy, he introduced elements from his own divorce story, and Kubrick decided to incorporate them into the script.

2. There Were Disagreements About The Casting Of Shelley Duvall

There were also differences of opinion about the casting of the female lead in the Torrance family, one of the most complex horror roles. Severalandames came up. Nson suggested the legendary Jessica Lange to Kubrick because he said she was more suited to the character’s spirit in Stephen King’s book. Kubrick changed quite a few things about the book and convinced Nicholson that Shelley Duvall was more suitable for the role because she was more in line with the more fragile character.

Stephen King did not like the cast of Shelley Duvall for “The Shining” because he imagined Wendy as a blonde, former cheerleader type who had never faced real adversity, making her ordeal at the Overlook Hotel more terrifying. King felt that Duvall’s portrayal was the opposite of this vision. He thought that Duvall was too emotionally vulnerable and that she seemed to have been through quite a bit in her life, the complete opposite of the character he had imagined. In a BBC interview, King defined the character as “one of the most misogynistic characters ever put on film. “She’s basically there just to scream and be stupid,” he added, perhaps alluding to much of the representation of women in horror films in the decades since. “That’s not the woman I wrote about.”

3. Stephen King Wanted To Be More Involved In The Production, But Kubrick Refused

Legend says that after Kubrick read the 1977 book “The Shining,” he told anyone who would listen that it would be his first horror film. He had previously decided to make a film based on a book, and according to his secretary, during those years, he locked himself in his library and read countless works. The books he didn’t like, he threw against the wall. The secretary suspected something when she hadn’t heard the familiar noise for a while, entered the room, and saw him engrossed in reading “The Shining.”

After paying King an undisclosed sum for the rights, Kubrick got down to business. King wrote a script draft and offered it to Kubrick, but the latter refused, claiming, according to some accounts, that the script was “weak.” Rumor has it that King’s script was more faithful to the book’s spirit, a more traditional horror film.

Instead of King, Kubrick turned to American author Diane Johnson (“Le Divorce”). He liked her novel “The Shadow Knows” from 1974 and was even more enthusiastic when he discovered she had a doctorate in Gothic studies. The two began to collaborate and adapted the book into a screenplay.

Perhaps for these reasons, King pretty much slaughtered the film for years. He claimed that Kubrick preferred style over substance, comparing the film to “a big, beautiful Cadillac with no engine inside it.”

Here’s a video from The Horror Geek that explains some of King’s reasons for his opposition to the film:

4. The Relationship Between Stanley Kubrick And Shelley Duvall Was A Horror Movie

Shelly Duvall suffered at the hands of the perfectionist director. She reportedly experienced exhaustion, illness, and unpleasant symptoms like hair loss during filming. Kubrick was impatient with her, criticizing her delivery of lines, facial expressions, and everything about her as an actress. He repeatedly berated her for wasting the entire crew’s time on set, instructing the crew to boycott her.

Duvall said that she left the set in tears almost every day. In an interview for the 2003 documentary “The 100 Greatest Scary Moments,” she claimed to have cried so much during this time that she “ran out of tears.” To replenish her fluids and tears, she carried around water bottles. Not surprisingly, she said it was the most challenging role she had ever done.

Here’s a clip that shows a bit of how “Stanley Kubrick treated Shelley Duvall like a s***,” as the clip above puts it:

In the decades that followed, many people involved in the film have argued that Kubrick’s attitude was deliberate, aiming to get Duvall into the character and bring her to the extremes required of her performance. In general, he invested a lot of effort in getting the team in the right mood, including watching significant horror films together, such as David Lynch’s “Eraser Head” (1977), “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968), and “The Exorcist” (1973).

5. Academy Award? More In The Direction Of The Razzie Awards

Trivia fans can memorize in their sleep that Stanley Kubrick never won an Academy Award as a director, despite a long line of masterpieces (“2001: A Space Odyssey”, “A Clockwork Orange,” “Paths of Glory,” “Full Metal Jacket” and more) – except for a minor win for special effects in “2001: A Space Odyssey”.

The reviews of “The Shining” by critics were horrible, with audiences finding it challenging to accept, even though the film made a profit. “The Shining” was not nominated for an Academy Award or Golden Globe in any category—the only film of Kubrick’s last nine to hold that dubious feat—and even received two nominations for the Golden Raspberry (or Razzie) Award, which is given to the worst performance in the film industry each year. Kubrick received a Razzie nomination for directing and Duvall for worst actress. In March 2022, the awards committee officially withdrew Duvall’s nomination because it has since discovered that her performance in the film was affected by Stanley Kubrick’s treatment of her during production.

One reason for this is criticism directed at the awards committee for deciding in 2021 on a one-off category for “Bruce Willis’ worst performance of 2021” – that is, choosing only from his eight films released that year – but refusing to withdraw the nomination even after the star’s family announced that he was suffering from a complex cognitive brain condition. Ultimately, the committee withdrew this scandalous award and announced the withdrawal of Duvall’s nomination the next day.

6. The Filming Of The Shining Took Too Long

The initial plan was for four months of filming, but various circumstances – from Kubrick’s perfectionism to events on the set – meant it lasted over a year.

Kubrick shot dozens of takes for most of the key scenes. The famous scene in which Wendy tries to hit Jack with a baseball bat had a total of 127 takes – which put it in the Guinness Book of Records as the scene filmed with the most takes. Some of the film’s co-creators claim that this number is exaggerated and that there were more precisely about 35-45 takes, but don’t be silly.

Kubrick also had a hard time with the film’s poster. The studio that took on the graphic design task prepared about 300 versions until Kubrick was ultimately satisfied with the result.

7. The Shining Elevator Scene Was A Bloody Challenge

In one of the most prominent scenes in the film, which is also one of the most famous elevator scenes in horror history, Wendy stares helplessly at endless amounts of blood pouring through the elevator door. Kubrick’s longtime assistant, Leon Vitaly, spoke in 2018 about the challenge of making blood with quality, color, and texture as close to “the real thing” as possible, not to mention the enormous amounts of blood they needed.

The blood flow mechanics in “The Shining” elevator scene were also complex, as too much fluid pressure inside an elevator was dangerous. The crew had to work against the clock when filming the scene, fearing it would leak before they could complete the job. The crew worked under challenging conditions, which included, for example, setting up cameras with different lenses and films on the elevator’s roof or using large wooden chests by the crew to avoid drowning in blood. Some of the crew were said to be afraid, at the moment of filming, of drowning in blood.

The original trailer for the film just included the elevator shot. The Motion Picture Association of America objected because they found the shot too violent. After Kubrick convinced them it was not real blood but water, they agreed to give the trailer the go-ahead.

8. Many Scenes In The Shining Required A Lot Of Preparation And Filming

Stanley Kubrick was known for his perfectionism, and the famous elevator scene was a perfect example. It reportedly took no less than nine days to prepare the set for each shot, as Kubrick repeatedly claimed that “blood doesn’t look like blood.” It took about a year to complete the scene, which was ultimately filmed – very unusually compared to most scenes in the film – in just three takes.

Another famous scene in which Wendy comes across the text “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” that Jack had written an infinite number of times – which indicates the madness the author was in – did not appear in the original book. Reports suggest that typing by Kubrick’s assistant took months since there were no word processors back then and the ability to copy texts with a few keystrokes. Kubrick instructed her to type the text in bulk so Duvall could tear the pages several dozen times. Different writing appeared on the pages in other language versions of the film – Italian, German, Spanish, and French.

One of the scenes in which Jack throws a tennis ball in the empty hotel took days, with the crew throwing the ball thousands of times, with the camera running, so that Kubrick could get the “perfect” shot in which the ball hits the camera precisely.

9. The Shining Script Included Improvisations And Multiple Changes

From a classic film like “The Shining,” one might have expected a script that was tight from the first second. Thanks mainly to Kubrick, the opposite is accurate, and the film underwent countless changes.

So many changes were made to the script during production that Nicholson refused to read it and decided to read only the new pages on set. When a new page arrived, he threw it straight into the trash because he thought it was useless, which meant – according to my reasonable logic, he hadn’t read too much.

Some of the scenes involved improvisations by the crew, and in other cases, the actors came up with ideas. For example, Jack’s losing his mind throwing the tennis ball didn’t appear in the original script, which only stated that “Jack doesn’t work.”

10. The Most Memorable Scenes Didn’t Appear In The Book

Some of the most critical scenes in the film – like the blood coming out of the elevator, Jack’s retyping, or the creepy twins who appear in the hallway – didn’t appear in King’s book, which may explain why he loathed the film.

For example, the book mentions the two Grady sisters, aged eight and ten, who were murdered by their father, Delbert Grady, after he went crazy at the Overlook Hotel (sound familiar?). They haunt the Overlook Hotel, but they don’t appear there. Kubrick made them twins, gave them first names (Alexa and Alexi, for God’s sake), and made them appear in some of the scariest scenes in the film. The moment when Danny meets them in the hallway and is invited to play with them, but at the same time, seeing their dead bodies is undoubtedly creepy.

The maze is Kubrick’s improvisation. In King’s novel, there is no maze but a collection of trimmed bushes in the shape of animals, which come to life and attack. Kubrick realized it was too complicated to do in terms of effects, so he decided on ​​a maze. He created the maze from about 900 tons of salt and a synthetic plastic called polystyrene. The filming of the scene where Jack chases Danny through the maze took over a month. During this time, the crew members often got lost in the complex maze, having to use their walkie-talkies to get help.

11. The Phrase “Here’s Johnny!” Is An Improvisation, Which Came From A Talk Show

In one of the most memorable and quoted scenes in the film, Jack (who has already reached a psychotic state) breaks down the door to the room where Wendy is, puts his head in, and frantically says, “Here’s Johnny!”.

Nicholson improvised this line. He took it from Johnny Carson’s late-night talk show, that is, the way the host was introduced on the show. Kubrick, who lived in England then – and probably didn’t watch talk shows – didn’t understand the reference. He debated whether to leave Nicholson’s improvisation on the editing floor but ultimately decided to go with Nicholson’s improvisation.

12. Danny Lloyd (Little Danny) Thought He Was In A Drama Film

Unlike Duvall, Kubrick is said to have bonded with six-year-old Danny Lloyd, who played Little Danny and even played ball with him during filming. “The Shining” was Lloyd’s first film role, and Kubrick was right to defend him. He gave him the impression that it was a drama, and for scenes that were too violent – for example, the scene where Wendy holds Danny and confronts Jack for hitting him – the production team used a puppet instead of the real boy. Lloyd saw a somewhat censored film version only a few years later. He saw the whole movie at the age of 17.

13. Danny Lloyd Switched To Biology, But Appeared As An Extra In “Doctor Sleep”

Danny Lloyd did not choose to develop a film career. Two years after “The Shining,” he appeared in another biographical TV movie called “Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy” and played the younger version of the film’s subject, an American lawyer and FBI agent considered one of the dubious heroes of the Watergate affair. Lloyd decided to retire from acting and has since largely kept his private life private, although we know he is a biology professor today. According to reports, Lloyd threatened to discredit students who asked him about the film.

In “Doctor Sleep,” the rather tedious sequel to “The Shining” (based on another story by Stephen King), Lloyd played a rare, very minor role: one of the spectators at a baseball game. Director Mike Flanagan contacted him via Twitter and showed him the trailer for the film. Lloyd was thrilled and agreed, and he even got a few lines of dialogue.

14. Jack Nicholson Broke About 60 Doors While Filming THE Scene

The scene where Jack breaks down the door to Wendy’s room took about a month to complete. Kubrick planned to film the scene with a fake door, but Nicholson – a volunteer firefighter before turning to film – broke it too quickly. Kubrick decided to use an actual door. By the time the scene was completed to the satisfaction of everyone involved, Nicholson had destroyed about 60 doors.

15. Shots From “The Shining” Appeared In “Blade Runner”

Remember the bird’s-eye shots from the film’s beginning, where you mistakenly see the helicopter’s shadow? So Kubrick – or rather, a team he sent to Colorado – came back with many shots, much of which remained on the editing floor. Some of these shots (those that Kubrick didn’t use at the end) appear in the first cinematic version of the masterpiece “Blade Runner.” In the film’s final scene, you can find some shots from the helicopter flight against the background of a narration that seals the film.

Kubrick liked Ridley Scott’s “Alien” (between us, how could you not?), allowing Scott to use the shots. It is said that if you view the shots in a particular aspect ratio, you will see Jack’s yellow car in the frame.

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