Buzz
Even after 35 years, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining continues to be hailed as a masterpiece of horror cinema, proving that fear doesn’t require clichéd tropes like helpless victims. Mytour has previously explored the intriguing conspiracy theories linked to the film, but Kubrick’s methods to achieve his vision were arguably even more astonishing.
10. The Clash Between Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King
At first, King was thrilled that Kubrick would adapt his novel. However, Kubrick didn’t share the same enthusiasm, dismissing King’s writing as “mediocre” and ignoring his screenplay in favor of crafting his own. Kubrick also eliminated significant portions of the book, including the core idea of Jack Torrance as an ordinary man succumbing to madness due to alcohol, isolation, and supernatural forces.
King believed Jack Nicholson was a poor choice for Jack Torrance, as Nicholson’s persona made it impossible to see him as an average man. Given Nicholson’s recent Oscar-winning portrayal of a mental patient in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, King argued audiences would immediately perceive Torrance as unhinged. The character, partly autobiographical—reflecting King’s own struggles with alcoholism—was meant to evoke sympathy, with his downfall portrayed as tragic. However, Kubrick’s Torrance was unsympathetic from the outset, almost inviting his fate. King also criticized Kubrick’s treatment of Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall), calling her “one of the most sexist portrayals in film history,” reduced to screaming and incompetence, far from the strong woman he originally envisioned.
King was so displeased with how his characters were portrayed that he eventually reclaimed the rights to his story to create a version more faithful to his book. This led to a lackluster 1997 TV miniseries that failed to captivate audiences. As part of the agreement to regain the rights, King had to refrain from criticizing Kubrick’s film. “For years, I stuck to that,” King told CBS. “But after Kubrick passed away, I thought, why not? I’ve gone back to voicing my criticisms.”
Kubrick, in turn, made a subtle change seemingly aimed at King. In the novel, the snowcat is yellow, and Torrance’s VW Beetle is red—a detail inspired by King’s own red Beetle, which he drove while writing the book. However, in the film, the colors are reversed: the VW is yellow, and the snowcat is red. In one scene, Dick Halloran (Scatman Crothers) encounters a red VW Beetle destroyed by a truck during a blizzard. The incident, which has no bearing on the plot, is widely believed to be a deliberate jab by Kubrick, given his reputation for meticulous attention to detail.
9. The Harsh Treatment of Shelley Duvall
Kubrick’s harsh treatment of actors was well-known, but his behavior toward Shelley Duvall during the filming of The Shining was particularly extreme. Duvall described the experience as “agonizing, nearly intolerable.” Kubrick berated her for small errors and subjected her to countless retakes. The iconic scene where she retreats up the stairs, crying and wielding a bat, was filmed at least 35 times, with some sources claiming it took up to 127 takes. The emotional toll is evident in her trembling hands and tear-streaked face, making it one of the film’s most gripping moments.
Kubrick’s cruelty extended to his constant rudeness and dismissiveness toward Duvall, often accusing her of wasting time. He even directed crew members to withhold any kindness from her. This relentless pressure left Duvall visibly exhausted and distressed, which ironically contributed to the raw, authentic performance Kubrick sought.
Kubrick spent four months filming the final hour of the movie, during which Duvall had to maintain a state of hysteria for nearly every scene. The grueling process left her physically unwell, with her hair beginning to fall out. She revealed that the constant crying required her to keep water bottles close by to stay hydrated. Adding to her distress, Duvall disliked her character, telling Roger Ebert that she found her subsequent role as Olive Oyl in Popeye far more enjoyable: “After all that emotional turmoil, playing Olive Oyl was a breath of fresh air. I adored her. Don’t laugh—I’d never been given the chance to portray a strong, multi-dimensional woman before. Despite being a cartoon, Olive Oyl had depth.”
8. Filming the Entire Movie in Chronological Sequence
To maximize efficiency, directors usually shoot all scenes at a specific location or set at once, regardless of their order in the script. Once completed, the crew moves to the next location or set, filming the necessary scenes while dismantling the previous one.
Kubrick frequently altered the script during filming, prompting Jack Nicholson to discard his copy and memorize lines just before shooting. To accommodate this approach, Kubrick insisted on filming the story in chronological order. This required renting every soundstage at Elstree Studios to maintain all sets simultaneously, with each set remaining fully lit and prepared for shooting at all times.
Unsurprisingly, Kubrick’s production exceeded its schedule, occupying Elstree’s soundstages for 11 months and delaying other projects like Warren Beatty’s Reds and Steven Spielberg’s Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Two months before filming concluded, Soundstage 3 at Elstree caught fire, destroying the Colorado Lounge set (where Jack writes his infamous manuscript). Fortunately, the set was no longer needed, and Spielberg’s team reconstructed it for the snake pit scene in their film. The photo above shows Kubrick amidst the ruins of Soundstage 3, seemingly unfazed.
7. The Sets Defied Real-World Logic
Readers of King’s novel know the Overlook Hotel is a sinister, almost sentient presence. Kubrick infused the hotel’s interior sets with deliberate design quirks to subtly unsettle viewers, amplifying the sense of isolation and making the Overlook feel inescapable. While some critics dismissed these as continuity errors, Kubrick’s meticulous nature and the sheer number of anomalies suggest they were intentional.
The opening scene, where Jack Torrance interviews for the winter caretaker position, illustrates this perfectly. After stopping at the front desk, Jack passes a group of people waiting by elevators (1:20 in the video). Behind them, a hallway extends in both directions. Moments later, Jack enters the manager’s office, which features a window revealing sunlight and bushes outside. In reality, this window would overlook the hallway seen earlier, yet the impossible view adds to the film’s disorienting atmosphere.
In the Torrance family’s suite, the bathroom and living room are positioned at right angles to each other, both featuring exterior windows. For this layout to be feasible, the suite would need to occupy a corner of the building. However, when Danny escapes through the bathroom window, it becomes clear that the room is not located at a corner.
Kubrick’s set was filled with spatial impossibilities beyond just windows. Doors appeared behind fireplaces, opened into voids, shifted between walls, and freezer doors changed their swing direction. The massive ballroom, for instance, was far too large to logically fit within the hotel’s structure.
Jan Harlan, Kubrick’s brother-in-law and executive producer of The Shining, confirmed that the set’s design was intentional. In a 2012 interview with the Guardian, Harlan stated, “The set was meticulously designed to feel disorienting and irregular, ensuring the ballroom could never realistically fit inside. The goal was to keep the audience unsure of their surroundings. People often say The Shining doesn’t make sense. Exactly! It’s a ghost story. It’s not meant to be logical.” Kubrick himself once remarked that the hotel’s “complex layout and oversized rooms were intended to create an unsettling atmosphere.”
6. Shifting and Altered Props
In King’s novel, there’s a moment where Danny lies in bed at the Overlook, puzzled by changes in his room. He reflects, “But now things had been moved. Things were gone. Worse, things had been added, things you couldn’t quite identify.” Danny’s psychic abilities, or “Shine,” didn’t include telekinesis—only the Overlook Hotel possessed the power to manipulate objects like firehoses, hedge animals, and the elevator. While the film downplayed the hotel’s sentience, it has been theorized that Kubrick subtly hinted at the hotel’s actions to the audience.
For instance, in the film, a table and chair vanish from the Colorado Room. The paper in Jack’s typewriter is pulled out, only to reappear in the roller within the same scene. Chairs in the Gold Room shift positions between consecutive shots, and a lobby picture later disappears entirely. Even Jack’s typewriter changes color, transitioning from white to blue.
While some of these inconsistencies might be dismissed as continuity errors—common in nearly every film—Kubrick’s reputation as a perfectionist doesn’t exempt him from such mistakes. His tendency to shoot multiple takes increased the likelihood of errors. However, certain changes, like the typewriter’s color shift, are so glaring that they seem deliberate, especially in a high-budget production helmed by such a meticulous director.
5. Endless Retakes
While Duvall endured numerous retakes, Scatman Crothers might have faced even more. Known for his role as Louie the Garbage Man on NBC’s Chico And The Man, Crothers had previously worked with Nicholson on One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Nicholson recommended Crothers for the role of Dick Halloran in The Shining but cautioned Kubrick about the 69-year-old actor’s struggles with memorizing lines.
In the scene where Halloran explains “Shining” to Danny, Crothers repeatedly stumbled over his lines. Coupled with the challenges of working with a six-year-old, the scene demanded an astounding 140 takes. Another sequence, featuring just 10 lines of dialogue, was reshot 100 times, while the tour Halloran gives Wendy and Danny reportedly took 85 takes to complete.
In a 1987 interview, Kubrick addressed his reputation for multiple retakes: “It stems from actors being unprepared. You can’t act effectively without knowing your lines. If they’re preoccupied with remembering dialogue, they can’t focus on the emotion. That’s why you end up doing thirty takes. Even then, you can see the effort in their eyes. So you keep shooting, hoping to piece together something usable.”
However, dialogue wasn’t the sole reason for repeated takes. Kubrick relied heavily on trial and error. An actor who collaborated with him on another film recalled that Kubrick’s go-to instructions were “Faster, slower, do it again.” Even minor details like a hand movement or a crooked collar could prompt another take.
Crothers endured countless retakes, even in scenes without dialogue. Kubrick filmed him slamming a door 75 times, and his death scene required 40 takes. In one sequence, Halloran walks from his snowcat to the Overlook’s entrance, which Kubrick made Crothers repeat 40 times in freezing conditions until Nicholson stepped in. Nicholson himself spent three days filming the iconic axe-chopping scene, destroying 60 doors in the process. This wasn’t entirely Kubrick’s fault—Nicholson, a former volunteer firefighter, kept breaking through the doors too quickly.
On the other hand, Kubrick rarely rehearsed before filming, stating, “Actors who are seasoned in film don’t truly bring intense energy to their performances unless there’s film rolling in the camera.”
4. Attaching a Steadicam to Anything on Wheels
The Steadicam, created in 1975 by cinematographer Garrett Brown, is a harness that stabilizes a camera using gyroscopic technology, isolating it from the operator’s movements. Before its invention, cameras were restricted to dollies or booms. The Steadicam allowed cameras to move freely, almost anywhere a person could go. Kubrick, who first encountered the device in 1974, was captivated by its ability to capture smooth, low-angle shots. For The Shining, he employed it in the iconic scene where Danny rides his Big Wheel through the Overlook Hotel, hiring Brown as the cinematographer.
Initially, Brown attempted to follow Danny’s Big Wheel on foot while carrying the 27-kilogram (60 lb) Steadicam. However, as he told American Cinematographer, the effort left him “too exhausted after a three-minute take to even discuss my funeral preferences. Plus, at that speed, I couldn’t lower the lens closer than about 18 inches from the ground.”
Kubrick’s first idea was to have Brown ride a modified skateboard behind the Big Wheel. When that failed, they experimented with a wheelbarrow, which also proved impractical. Eventually, they settled on a wheelchair that Kubrick helped adapt. Brown sat in the chair, holding the camera so the lens nearly touched the floor. Kubrick demanded 30 takes, leaving the person pushing Brown gasping for breath and complaining about Danny’s actor being “endless with energy.” The camera’s battery and sound equipment were pulled behind on a cart.
The outcome was a striking scene that juxtaposed visual and auditory elements—loud roars on wooden floors and eerie silence on carpets. Kubrick was so impressed with the Steadicam that he used it for over 70 percent of the film.
3. The Ever-Evolving Ending
In King’s book, Halloran arrives at the Overlook on a snowmobile to rescue Wendy and Danny from Jack, who has been overtaken by the hotel’s evil. Although Jack attacks Halloran with a roque mallet, he doesn’t kill him. However, Jack’s neglect to release pressure from the Overlook’s boiler leads to an explosion that destroys the hotel and kills him. Halloran manages to save Wendy and Danny before the disaster, and the three escape on his snowmobile.
Kubrick found this ending unappealing, telling French critic Michel Ciment that it “felt clichéd and lacked depth.” He and co-writer Diane Johnson studied classic horror films, concluding that their endings were “emotionally flat” due to being either implausible or random. These films often portrayed ghosts as either figments of the protagonist’s imagination or entirely external entities. Kubrick and Johnson believed there was a middle ground, where the protagonist’s vulnerabilities and anger would draw malevolent spirits like a flame attracts moths.
Kubrick also wanted to surprise his audience. Knowing many viewers would have read King’s novel, he aimed for an unpredictable conclusion. In his interview with Ciment, he explained, “I wanted an ending the audience couldn’t foresee. In the film, they expect Halloran to save Wendy and Danny. When he’s killed, they’re left fearing the worst, convinced there’s no escape for the mother and son.”
Kubrick struggled with his own ending as well. Initially, after showing Jack frozen in the maze, the film cut to a hospital scene where Wendy and Danny recover. As Johnson later recounted, Kubrick initially “felt we needed to see them in the hospital to reassure the audience they were safe. He had a soft spot for Wendy and Danny and believed a horror film should end with a sense of normalcy restored.” In this scene, Ullman, the hotel manager who hired Jack, informs Wendy that her husband’s body hasn’t been found. As he leaves, Ullman tosses Danny the same ball that led him to Room 237, hinting at his collusion with the Overlook’s ghosts.
Before the film’s release, Kubrick showed it to Warner Brothers publicist Julian Senior, who criticized the ending. A week after the premiere, Kubrick instructed US theaters to remove the ending and send it to him, which he then destroyed. Only the script remains, as depicted in the video above.
2. The Ghosts
Kubrick is often praised for leaving the supernatural elements of The Shining open to interpretation. For over three decades, fans have argued whether the ghosts are real or products of Jack’s deteriorating mind. However, Kubrick himself never saw it as ambiguous: the ghosts were unequivocally real.
King remembers one of his rare phone conversations with Kubrick starting with a question: “Don’t you think supernatural stories are inherently optimistic? If ghosts exist, it means life continues after death.” Kubrick’s daughter Katherina recalled a similar discussion, where her father expressed skepticism about ghosts but added, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they were real? It would mean death isn’t the end.”
In an interview, Kubrick explained that this duality was what drew him to The Shining, telling Michel Ciment that King’s novel “masterfully balanced the psychological and the supernatural, making you believe the supernatural could be explained by the psychological: ‘Jack must be imagining these things because he’s insane.’ This allowed the audience to suspend disbelief until they were so immersed in the story that they accepted the supernatural almost unconsciously.”
Kubrick aimed to replicate this balance in the film, using clever techniques to hint that Jack might be hallucinating. For instance, during Jack’s early ghostly encounters, a mirror is always positioned behind the apparition. By filming at a slight angle, Kubrick created the illusion that Jack was seeing his own reflection over the ghost’s shoulder. In the scene with the naked woman in Room 237, the straight-on shot makes it unclear whether Jack is embracing the ghost or himself. This technique is most evident in the bathroom scene with Jack and Delbert Grady, where both characters appear to be looking over each other’s shoulders.
However, the narrative shifts when Grady unlocks the pantry door to release Jack. How can a figment of Jack’s imagination open a physical door? Later, Wendy, who lacks the “Shining,” also encounters ghosts throughout the Overlook. Kubrick later explained that he used rational explanations—Jack’s mental instability, guilt, alcoholism, isolation, and claustrophobia—as “psychological red herrings to delay the audience’s realization that the supernatural events are indeed real.
1. The Maze
King’s novel featured no maze; instead, Danny was menaced by animal-shaped topiaries. During pre-production, Kubrick experimented with robotic and stop-motion topiary creatures but found them unconvincing. He and co-writer Diane Johnson replaced them with a maze, drawing parallels between its complexity and the hotel’s disorienting layout. Filming the maze scenes proved to be some of the most challenging.
The maze was constructed from plywood boxes covered with chicken wire and woven hedge branches. Despite maps provided to the crew and cast, the massive set often left them lost. When they called for help, their cries were met with Kubrick’s laughter echoing from hidden loudspeakers within the maze.
The iconic scene where Jack gazes at a maze model and spots miniature versions of Wendy and Danny was the film’s sole special effects sequence. Kubrick filmed the zoom shot from an apartment building overlooking the outdoor set, using doubles for Wendy and Danny. The footage was then integrated into a model of the maze.
For the sequence where Jack pursues Wendy and Danny through the maze, the hedges were dismantled and reassembled on a soundstage. To simulate snow, 900 tons of dairy salt were spread across the floor, and crushed styrofoam was scattered from large hoppers overhead. To create a misty, foggy atmosphere, vaporized motor oil was sprayed, forcing the crew to wear gas masks. Cinematographer Garrett Brown recalled that the salt made walking treacherous, and the masks made breathing a challenge.
The set’s halogen quartz lights generated intense heat, forcing Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd to run in thick winter coats. Antiperspirant was added to their makeup to minimize sweating, but they could only film for a few minutes before needing to remove their heavy clothing. Brown found his Steadicam too cumbersome to operate in the heat and eventually reduced it to its most basic components.
In the scene where Danny retraces his steps backward, Brown wore stilts with soles matching the boy’s shoes and walked backward while filming, meticulously following the footprints. Brown later described the maze set as possibly the “most grueling” he had ever worked on.
