Signature Scenes: The Bat Scene From The Shining

This scene happens just after Wendy (Shelley Duvall) has thumbed through the world’s most shocking manuscript on Jack (Jack Nicholson)’s desk, where he was supposed to be writing a novel all this time and getting quite testy about her interrupting his work. Until now, Wendy has been able to stay in denial about Jack’s increasingly psychotic state as the ghosts of the Overlook gnaw at his brain, but finally the tension that’s been building between them comes to a head. Meanwhile their son Danny (Danny Lloyd) is having his own freak-out as his psychic abilities give him a remote vision of his parents’ argument and the malevolent forces provoking it. This scene from legendary, timeless movie was inspiration for many other videos.

The scene proceeds like a teeter-totter, with the conversation reeling around in baffling circles as Wendy becomes increasingly terrified and Jack becomes more confidently predatory. But Wendy’s still armed, and even while backing away, she manages to maintain the proverbial high ground. She keeps swinging at Jack, he keeps advancing, and we have no idea how this is going to end, while the steady-cam plods along with them, recording every bowel-freezing moment of tension. It’s some of the most amazing chemistry between two performers ever!

And now for the BONUS BUCK jackpot bonanza:

Here’s Jack Nicholson behind the scenes, hyping himself up for his household renovation demonstration:

Hey, somebody made the Overlook Hotel in the hit video game Minecraft. You’ll want to see that too while you’re here:

We might as well drop this fan-made Overlook Hotel commercial while we’re at it:

Oh yes, there’s a The Shining themed haunted house at Universal Studios:

Oops, almost forgot, the Linux-native XScreensaver collection (maintained by horror fan and legendary hacker JWZ) includes a module imitating the “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” mantra:

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