Top 10 Scariest Moments from The Shining
#10: The Gold Room
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Far too many horror films rely jump scares and other “cheap” tactics to elicit a response from audiences. And that’s what makes this scene so remarkable - there’s nothing inherently scary about it. In a different film, everything about this exchange could be taken at face value. Heck, it could’ve been a pleasant time travel trip into the past in the vein of “Midnight in Paris”! But we know that the Overlook Hotel is empty and that Jack is most certainly not time travelling - at least not in the traditional sense. Jack is clearly losing his mind, and that makes this entire sequence deeply unnerving, especially the ominous bathroom exchange with Mr. Grady.
#9: The Bear Costume
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Jack might be the one losing grip on reality, but he’s not the only member of his family seeing things. As she flees from her husband’s violent rage, Wendy spots, much to her shock, someone in a creepy bear costume with a man in a suit. It catches the viewer off-guard just as much as it does Wendy, but it’s their blank stares and silence that really imbues the moment with a sense of dread. As with much of the film, people have been debating the significance of this scene for decades; all we know for certain is that it’s totally unexpected and, due to a number of visual connections to Danny earlier in the film, it makes your skin crawl.
#8: The Hedge Maze
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As film scholars have pointed out, the Overlook Hotel is an incredibly disorienting place. The physical layout of the hotel fundamentally makes no sense - it’s spatially impossible. And taking this disorientation to its most literal extreme is the hedge maze outside the hotel where Jack attempts to kill his son. The scene is incredibly dark and foggy, and the spotlights scattered throughout the maze only serve to highlight Danny’s small, fragile frame in silhouette as he runs for his life. The tracking shot heightens the anxiety and makes the viewer feel utterly lost in the labyrinth. By contrast, we see Jack head on, so that his terrifying screams are directed right at us. It’s an incredibly effective sequence, one that, come morning, ends with a horrific sight ...
#7: Redrum
Jack might be this film’s villain, but Danny, for all his cuteness, can give off some serious “creepy little kid” vibes. Often channeling his imaginary friend Tony, Danny seems to become increasingly unhinged as the film progresses, but at no point is he scarier than in this scene. Repeating the word “redrum” in his croaky Tony voice, Danny picks up a knife from the bedside table. Considering his mother is fast asleep in bed, you can’t help but fear the worst. Instead of committing matricide, however, he writes “redrum” on the door using his mom’s lipstick. The whole scene is one big exercise in building tension, and just when you can’t take anymore, the tension breaks - only to reveal the true meaning of “redrum”.
#6: Jack Kills Dick Hallorann
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Stephen King has a knack for writing deranged psychopaths, but he’s also got a talent for crafting genuinely sympathetic characters who seemingly wouldn’t hurt a fly. Now, for all the liberties that Stanley Kubrick took with the source material, one of the things he didn’t change was the characterization of this fan-favorite character. Sadly, what he DID change was Dick’s fate. Having heard Danny’s psychic call for help, Hallorann returns to the hotel. As he walks its halls in search of the Torrance family, you’re filled with a sense of dread, and rightfully so. Jack comes out of nowhere, cutting Hallorann down with an axe to the chest. After the deed is done, Jack Nicholson seems to channel the face of the devil himself.
#5: Jack's Typewriter
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Given all the madness, ghostly encounters, and violence at the Overlook Hotel, it can be easy to forget why Jack took his family there in the first place. The goal was to give him an opportunity to write! As the film progresses, Jack begins to show signs of increasing mental instability, but it’s not until Wendy takes a closer look at his typewriter that she realizes just how far he’s gone off the rails. It’s just the same sentence over and over again, and it casts her husband in a completely different light. This is the turning point, and from this point on Nicholson plays Jack as “all crazy, all the time” to terrifying effect. Jack and Wendy’s staircase exchange is particularly unnerving.
#4: The Blood Elevator
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It’s not a particularly long scene, but it’s one that’s imprinted itself upon generations of cinephiles and horror junkies. Sometimes referred to as the “river of blood,” this is one of Danny’s many visions. As he stares into a mirror, he sees a lobby with elevators. In slow motion, blood begins to flood in, a rushing torrent that fills the room, splashes up against the walls, moves the furniture and eventually even engulfs the lens of the camera. The symmetry of the shot, paired with the dramatic movement of the blood would actually be beautiful... if it weren’t so gruesome and foreboding and uncomfortable.
#3: Here's Johnny
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One of “The Shining’s” greatest strengths is that it manages to instill fear in the audience by slowly ramping up the tension. It creates dangerous, menacing situations and then refuses to look away. Jack doesn’t suddenly pop up out of nowhere, he slowly approaches the bathroom, where Wendy is trapped, unable to fit through the window. There’s no mystery, just a loved one-turned-madman wielding an axe, slowly cutting through a bathroom door in real time as his wife screams in terror. It’s brutal and all the more frightening because it feels so real. And as if that’s not scary enough, Jack proceeds to crack a joke, adding an entirely new level to the terror by making it clear that he’s enjoying what he’s doing.
#2: The Grady Twins
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Frequently emulated and parodied, but never duplicated or recreated with the same effect, this scene is among the most recognizable in the horror genre. It’s a real work of art. As Danny Torrance rides his tricycle through the empty hallways of the Overlook Hotel, he suddenly comes face to face with twin girls in old-timey dresses. This unexpected appearance is shocking enough as is, but it only gets worse when they reveal that they know Danny’s name and ask him to come play with them in the creepy way that only ghost children can. Then, just when you think it can’t get worse, Danny sees their grisly fate, cranking the horror to new heights.
#1: Room 237
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Over his long career, Stephen King has crafted an elaborate fictional universe populated by all manner of dark, twisted and horrifying entities and objects. And yet, for all the cosmic terror he’s created, this hotel room remains among his most iconically terrifying creations. It’s worth clarifying that in the book, the room in question is number 217, not 237, but it all works out the same in the end. Danny reports that a woman strangled him in the room, and later Jack comes face to face with her. At first beautiful, she transforms as they embrace, revealing herself to be an elderly woman whose skin is rotting away. It’s one of the most famous scenes in the history of the genre, and it remains scary even after repeat viewings.
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