Behind the scenes

The Shining has many intriguing stories and facts that most people won’t know. I will take you through actors when they are on set and added features that people have noticed while watching this movie. Some of these facts are almost as scary as the movie itself.

Nothing in the movie was plugged in (lamps, television sets..etc) except for one time. Stanley Kubrick did this to add on to the eerie effect that the Overlook powers itself.

Stanley Kubrick made so many takes. This partly had to do with semantic satiation, which means getting the actors to open up. This causes Dichotic Verbal Transformation. That’s when you repeat something so much you forget the meaning and you just say it naturally.

Danny Lloyd thought he was filming a drama. Danny never saw the full film until he was seventeen. He didn’t find it all that scary because he saw it behind the scenes. In the scene where Wendy picks Danny up and accuses Jack of hurting Danny, she actually picks up a dummy dressed in Danny’s clothes so he didn’t have to hear her screaming at Jack. So Danny didn’t have to see the Grady ghost twins, they filmed the girls and Danny separately and spliced them together. Danny Lloyd strangely likes comedies and documentaries.

Scatman Crothers, at some point in the making of the movie, broke into tears and begged for Stanley Kubrick to stop filming. Because of this, Jack Nicholson vowed that he would never work with Stanley Kubrick ever again.

Apparently, acting scared wasn’t enough for Stanley Kubrick. He was constantly mean to Shelley Duvall on set. At one point, he even turned her hot water off so she was constantly shivering on the set.

They used nine hundred tons of dairy salt and pulverized Styrofoam to make the illusion of snow.

Stanley Kubrick didn’t even read the screenplay Stephen King wrote, Stanley and Diane Johnson spent eleven weeks working on the script. It makes sense he didn’t read the screenplay, Stanley Kubrick says Stephen King’s writing is weak. Stephen King was disappointed with the end result. Stephen King has nothing against Jack Nicholson but says he was wrong for the part because you knew he was crazy from the start when he gave that smile, so he doesn’t have that ‘descend into madness’ effect that Stephen King was looking for. He also says that Wendy’s character was far braver in the book and hated how she was always crying and scared in the movie.

The line “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” has different translations. In Spanish, it means: Although one will rise early, it won’t dawn sooner. In Italian, it means: He who wakes up early meets a golden day. In German, it means: Don’t pull off till tomorrow what you can do today.

The scene where Wendy is swinging the bat at Jack landed itself a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for most takes. It took a total of one hundred twenty-seven takes.

Near the end of the making of The Shining multiple sets burned down because they needed to make it look like winter, so they had to make it look bright outside. To do this they had to have a lot of lights outside, and eventually, it got too bright and the sets burned down. To rebuild one of them cost about $2.5 million. There’s a picture with Stanley Kubrick laughing in the wreckage, and some think it’s because he knows that the book ends with the Overlook burning down. Strange coincidence.

Stanley Kubrick made the film with a different ending where Ullman visits Wendy in the hospital and tells her they checked the hotel and found nothing. Not even Jack’s body. Ullman then offered for them to stay with him for a while. As Ullman walked out he passed Danny in the playroom. As he passes he gives him a ball- but not just any ball. The same one that had rolled to Danny in the hallway of the Overlook. Ullman then laughed and walked away. Then the screen went dark and the screen said:

“The Overlook Hotel would survive this tragedy as it had so many others. It is still opened from May 20th to September 20th. It is closed for the winter.”

All versions and copies of this ending were destroyed under Stanley Kubrick’s orders.

Every time Jack talks to a ghost there’s a mirror; except when Jack speaks to Grady through the door of the food locker, but Grady isn’t actually in the room in that scene.

The Shining is a horror film but is also considered a comedy because of Jack Nicholson.

Shelley Duvall says that Stanley Kubrick probably pushed her to her limits to get the best acting job. Although it wasn’t a sweet experience, and she wouldn’t want to do it again, she says she wouldn’t trade her experience for anything.

The blood scene with the elevator took a year to get right, and every time they failed Stanley Kubrick would say the blood doesn’t look real.

For the scenes where Jack is typing but you can only hear the sound of the typing, but you can’t see it, Stanley Kubrick recorded someone typing “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” to ensure authenticity.

The line “Heeeere’s Johnny” was ad-libbed by Jack Nicholson.

When Jack says “Single moment’s thought” he makes a six with his hands for each word. There are three words, so he gives 666 to the camera.

They talk about the Donner Party, who were snowbound one winter and had to eat themselves to survive. Later on in the movie, Jack says “Little pigs, little pigs,” which are usually eaten.

Stanley Kubrick made all of the actors watch Eraserhead several times to get them in the right mood.

Stanley Kubrick considered Robert De Niro for the role of Jack, but after seeing Taxi Driver he thought he wasn’t psychotic enough. He also considered Robin Williams but after seeing Mork and Mindy, he thought he was too psychotic.

To get Jack Nicholson frustrated to play Jack Torrance better, they only fed him cheese sandwiches. He hates cheese sandwiches.

Shelley Duvall sometimes ran out of tears from crying so hard and long so she had to have so many water bottles to keep hydrated.

When Scatman Crothers went on to do another movie, Bronco Billy, he broke into tears after realizing he wouldn’t have to do as many takes as he had to in The Shining.

They didn’t want to show the trailer because of the blood, but they let it slide when Stanley Kubrick convinced them it was just rusty water.

Danny Lloyd talked to his finger through his audition, so instead of having Tony come to Danny like in the book, they had Tony be Danny's finger.