THE SHINING
The Shining is great, obviously. Important to get that out of the way before I kick into the rest of this paragraph. My favourite dumb opinion that I have is that Stanley Kubrick is boring. It’s so much fun. It really annoys people. I cannot recommend it higher. Having somebody get stuck into you about not liking 2001 or Full Metal Jacket and having to say “Look, I’ll concede, it is remarkable that in Barry Lyndon he shoots scenes lit only by candlelight but if I wanted to stare at a painting for three hours I’d go to an art gallery.” It’s fun! Do you have to really feel that way to your core? Of course not, but being a contrarian is fun especially if your real opinion is ‘eh, it’s fine’.
Anyway, The Shining is so good. It’s the only Kubrick film that makes me feel something other than ‘Ooh, that was well shot’. You’d have to be Stephen King not to like it.
Rather than go over the plot can we talk about “Here’s Johnny!”? Let’s put aside the fact that I one hundred percent did not know it was a reference to Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show intro until well into my twenties. I just want to think about how movie quotes that enter the broader public consciousness don’t tend to be from scenes where crazed husbands are taking an ax to a bathroom door as their terrified wives scream on the other side.
There is not a children’s cartoon out there that hasn’t done a riff on “Here’s Johnny!” There’s a five-minute supercut on YouTube of every show or movie that’s done a “Here’s Johnny!” reference and it’s one of the most mind-crushingly bizarre things you can watch. Raven Simone carrying an ax yelling “Here’s Raven!” will break your brain. And then after you watch that you can think about the song by Hocus Pocus that uses it as a sample, a song that says "Here's Johnny!" a lot less times than you think it says "Here's Johnny!".
Where would I fit into The Shining? Maybe I’ve scored myself a gig at the Overlook Hotel. Maybe things wouldn’t have gotten so dire up there if there’d been a comedian on site.
IF I WERE IN 'THE SHINING' I WOULD: TRY TO GET AWAY BUT GET STUCK IN THAT MAZE FOR SO LONG BEFORE GIVING UP AND SUCCUMBING TO THE ELEMENTS
