Shelley Made "The Shining" Shine

This is your only warning. Beyond this point be SPOILERS. If you have not seen Stanley Kubrick’s film, “The Shining” or read the classic horror novel by Stephen King, STOP, and go watch and read them. But if you don’t care about spoilers, then by all means… shine on!

One of my favourite films is Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel “The Shining”. It offers a psychologically-driven masterclass in evoking tension and dread and with a little axe murder on the side. What's not to love?

Every winter, the Overlook Hotel is cut off from the outside world due to heavy snowfall. Jack Nicholson plays Jack Torrance, a struggling writer and 'recovering' alcoholic. Jack takes the job as the hotel’s caretaker seeking seclusion to write his new novel. His wife, Wendy, played by Shelley Duvall, goes along hoping for a fresh start for their rocky marriage, and for a little peace for their troubled son, Danny.

Wendy Torrance is the wife of an abusive alcoholic, and having grown up in a household like this, I understand that Wendy’s ‘go-along to get-along’ behaviour might be seen as a sign of weakness to some - it's not - it's a survival tactic. You may view Wendy as a meek doormat to Jack, but I see her as a traumatized woman doing her best to protect her son and salvage her marriage. Alcoholic households are messy, and unless you've been there, you don't get to judge Wendy. And even if you have, you shouldn't. Wendy's got a lot to deal with.

Jack Nicholson’s iconic ‘Heeeeere's Johnny’ performance is a standout in horror movie history. I can’t take anything away from Nicholson, who created one of the greatest movie villains of all time. Yet, it’s Shelley Duvall’s Wendy who is the conduit for fear in this movie. The audience feels the dread and horror of The Overlook, not from a raving Jack stalking the hallways with his axe, but from a terrified Wendy who must deal with the malignant spirits of the hotel along with the disintegration her husband's fragile state of mind.

As Jack descends into madness, Wendy doesn’t surrender; nor does she turn into an ass-kicking hero like Ripley in “Aliens” or Sarah Connor in the “Terminator” films. Overmatched and terrorized, Wendy Torrence stands her ground and battles her menacing and powerful husband with what little she has — and in the end, she wins! At one point, even The Overlook’s malignant heart is impressed by her courage and resourcefulness.

One of the most powerful moments of Duvall’s performance is when she faces her enraged husband on the staircase of the Great Room where Jack has been ‘writing’ his novel. This moment is a pivotal point for the horror aspect of the movie. Wendy has just discovered that “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”, and that her troubled husband has gone completely insane and intends to kill her and Danny. She holds a child's baseball bat in her hands as he growls at her with murder in his eyes. He’s the big bad wolf snapping his teeth right in front of her terrified face.

Duvall effectively conveys the tsunami of emotion Wendy experiences in that moment on the stairs: fear, terror, anger, confusion, and her unwavering maternal instinct to protect her son. Her movements with the bat are unsure — she flings it about in frantic gestures — her panic-stricken face and stammering voice make it clear that the situation is too much for her. The wolf doggedly chases her up the stairs as she begs him to leave her alone. Jack reaches out to take the bat from her with a promise of murder, and WHACK!, Wendy brings the bat down as hard as she can on his wrist, and then POW!, she delivers a resounding blow to his skull which sends Jack flying down the staircase. Wendy then drags her unconscious husband to the food pantry where she locks him up inside.

Wendy Torrence FTW! Evil hotel DENIED!

Of course, the ghost of Delbert Grady sets Jack free later in a supernatural dick move, but hey, Wendy took care of business when it counted most. It’s not her fault that Jack got sprung through dark magic douche-baggery.

The scene on the stairs is a masterful moment in horror. Now let’s discuss another horror element within “The Shining”, and that is the rumours of Stanley Kubrick as a director. Known as a perfectionist, Kubrick would shoot a scene until it met his exacting standards. A single scene could go on for days or weeks. If Clint Eastwood was known as ‘One Shot Clint’ then Stanley Kubrick was ‘One More Shot, Stanley’. There are tales of Kubrick playing mind games with his actors too — some would call that ‘coaching’, others ‘abuse’. I wasn't there, I don't know, but Kubrick is not the first director to manipulate his actors to get the desired performance. I'm not defending bad behaviour, just acknowleging it. Shelley Duvall and Scatman Crothers both stated that they were brought to tears by the excessive number of takes demanded by Kubrick but Shelley also praised Kubrick for the film they made together, and how much she learned from him. So maybe 'great movie, toxic work environment'. Without a doubt, filming "The Shining" was extremely demanding of Shelley Duvall but she toughed it out and gave us an incredible performace.

Back to the staircase. Put yourself in Shelley Duvall’s shoes: you're walking up a large flight of stairs, backwards, swinging a baseball bat, and delivering your lines while in the throes of a complete nervous breakdown. You're performing with one of the best actors of the era, and with a perfectionist director breathing down your neck. Your're doing the scene over and over and over again. It's no wonder that her mental and physical health suffered during the shoot. Now, imagine doing that scene over 100 times (rumored at 127 takes). For that alone, Duvall deserved a medal, heaps of praise, and all the empathy we can give her. Google the scene, give it a watch, and try to envision being Shelley Duvall and having to deliver that level of intensity 127 times. She carried that damn movie like a cross on her back.

The shooting schedule for “The Shining” was extreme too: sixteen hours a day, six days a week, for 52 weeks. Despite it being a masterpiece, and one of my favourite films, I can’t imagine how taxing it must have been to be an actor on that set. Many actors worked with Stanley Kubrick over the course of his brilliant career, but most of them did it only once. There's a reason for that.

The Bottomline: Shelley Duvall gave an outstanding performance under extreme conditions. The terror she manifested through Wendy is essential to the film. Nicholson’s performance as Jack Torrance is frightening and iconic, but it is Duvall’s as Wendy that adds the crucial element of fear. Without the sheer terror that she brings to the film, Nicholson’s performance wouldn’t seem nearly as threatening. Their performances work together to create an atmosphere of dread and terror that is crucial to the success and longevity of “The Shining”.

Long may the Dark Gods praise Shelley Duvall for surviving the Overlook Hotel and Stanley Kubrick.

* All Images are Warner Bros. promotional stills for the 198O film, “The Shining”.

© Anthony Roberts 2025

The Shining