CLASSIC FILM SCENES #10 – THE SHINING (1980) – “HERE’S JOHNNY!”

Directed and Produced by: Stanley Kubrick

Screenplay by: Stanley Kubrick & Diane Johnson – based on The Shining by Stephen King

Cast: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd and Scatman Crothers.

Music by: Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind

Cinematography: John Alcott

**CONTAINS SPOILERS**

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With Stephen King’s latest adaptation Doctor Sleep (2019), hitting the cinemas, I thought it interesting to remind myself of the original classic horror film of which it is a sequel, The Shining (1980).

Uber-writer Stephen King was not a fan of Kubrick’s adaptation. Indeed, he was alleged to have been asked to cease complaining, in exchange for the book rights reverting back to him. Nonetheless, The Shining (1980) is quite rightly lauded as a horror classic. It slowly shows a writer’s descent into madness; something which is exacerbated by the ghosts living in the creepy Overlook Hotel.

Jack Nicholson plays Jack Torrance with a brooding menace throughout, exploding into full insanity after several encounters with the phantom hotel’s grim residents. In the famous “Here’s Johnny!” scene, Jack pursues his poor wife, Wendy, (Shelley Duvall) and gifted son, Danny, with an axe in hand. Wendy is trapped in the bathroom and Duvall’s petrified performance is chilling.

Beautifully framed, edited and acted, the scene is scary and nerve-wracking. The mania of Jack also casts a dark humour at the end. It took, according to Shelley Duvall, three days and sixty doors to shoot. Moreover, it has been widely reported the, “Heeerree’s Johnny!” line was famously improvised on set by Jack Nicholson. The rest they say is history.

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