This Quote Defined Horror for an Entire Generation
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Stanley Kubrick made a fair few horrifying movies in his time, with some parts of 2001: A Space Odyssey being unsettling, the centerpiece of Eyes Wide Shut being mortifying, and A Clockwork Orange being consistently disturbing, but his only horror movie in the traditional sense was The Shining. Even then, to call it “just” a horror movie wouldn’t feel entirely accurate, since Kubrick was Kubrick, and Kubrick didn’t really seem all that keen on sticking to one genre for each movie, and he also liked to do unexpected things, to put it mildly. Like, just ask Stephen King, since The Shining (1980) was based on King’s 1977 novel of the same name, but it did things on its own terms, in many ways.
Sure, you get psychological and supernatural horror colliding violently in both, and the principal characters remain largely the same in the book versus the movie, at least as far as setting everything up is concerned. But what those characters do, and where some of them end up? There are definite differences, and look, The Shining (1977) is a great novel, and The Shining (1980) is a great movie. They are great in some similar ways and then in other regards, they are great in different ways. And not everything changed can be blamed on Kubrick, since the most famous line from The Shining (1980) is not found in the book, but made its way into the movie because of a Jack Nicholson improvisation.
What 'The Shining' Is About
To backtrack a bit, Nicholson plays another Jack, surname Torrance, and he’s the main character of The Shining, but not the hero, because… uh, Jack (Torrance) is a complicated guy. Jack's a bit more complicated in the novel, but in the film, he’s mostly monstrous and terrifying, and less of a villain who you might have some sympathy for, or believe could be redeemed to some extent. Both book and movie Jack go to stay in a hotel during its off-season, bringing along wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and son Danny (played by another actor who shares a first name with his character: Danny Lloyd). And then at the hotel, bad things happen.
Jack's a bit more complicated in the novel, but in the film, he’s mostly monstrous and terrifying, and less of a villain who you might have some sympathy for, or believe could be redeemed to some extent.
The Overlook Hotel is haunted and all, but Jack also brings his own personal demons along, so to speak, and any problems he had before are exacerbated by the bizarre and seemingly violent surroundings he and his family find themselves in. It would be a spoiler if it weren’t one of the most famous images in the history of the horror genre, but things do escalate to a point that Jack Torrance has an ax that he’s coming after his wife with, hacking down the bathroom door, looking through, and saying…
The "Here's Johnny" Quote From 'The Shining' and What It Means
Yeah, you know what he says. This is like talking about the most famous quote in Scarface. And also, with Scarface, it’s not a spoiler to say that Tony Montana (Al Pacino) wields an assault rifle with a grenade launcher attached and calls it his little friend, the kind you have to say hello to. For what it’s worth, both these scenes involve people destroying some kind of door with their chosen weapon, and both weapon-wielders/door-destroyers have lost their respective minds by that point. Nicholson, of course, says “Here’s Johnny!,” which if you hear it now, in another context, it’s obviously going to be a reference to The Shining, right?
Well, probably. But in The Shining, it was a reference to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, specifically the way Ed McMahon would announce the titular host. It’s safe to say it’s taken on a life of its own, within The Shining, paired with Nicholson’s look, Shelley Duvall’s convincingly terrified screaming, and the way Kubrick memorably films that ax being drawn back and then thrust into the door, again and again. “Here’s Johnny” is like a punchline to the whole thing, and the whole thing is a very horrifying joke. If it’s not the most intense moment in the movie, then it’s definitely a contender, and may only be slightly less horrifying nowadays because it’s so well-known you're likely going to be aware that it’s coming.
Reasons Why ‘The Shining’ Feels So Memorable as a Horror Movie
Kubrick found a lot of horror and dread in bathrooms, both in The Shining and in some of his other movies. In The Shining, you’ve got the woman in the bathtub, Jack’s conversation with a ghost inside one of the hotel’s larger bathrooms, and then Jack hacking the door down. In his other movies, you’ve got one intense and violent scene in a bathroom at the end of the first half of Full Metal Jacket, and then there’s a disquieting revelation for one character in A Clockwork Orange when another is in a bathtub, singing. Is this anything? Does this make the scene from The Shining more horrifying? Is there much that can be said for highly stressful moments plainly happening in very mundane/everyday rooms? See also Psycho and that shower scene you’ve probably heard of, since it’s a little bit famous and all.
Or maybe horror is horrific because it just is and it’s worse when it can’t really be explained. There are moments from The Shining (1980) that are baffling and confusing, and then subsequently exceptionally confronting. The “Here’s Johnny” moment endures because it’s an intense scene, and also because it’s so easy to reference, but the movie is jam-packed with some truly disquieting stuff, all throughout. It’s an undeniable masterpiece of a horror movie the same way King’s source material is a masterpiece of a horror novel.
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