This Is Still the Scariest Scene in a Stephen King Movie

The literary works of Stephen King have been adapted to film and television countless times, producing many iconic moments of pure terror, with one particular scene in 1980’s The Shining the most chilling of all. Adapted from King’s eponymous 1977 novel, The Shining sees writer and recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) taking the job of winter caretaker for the Overlook Hotel during its off-season. While Jack and his wife Wendy (Shelly Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd) try to make a family vacation of sorts of the extended winter stay in the Overlook, the isolation of the hotel along with its eerie supernatural presence begins pushing Jack to become increasingly hostile to Wendy and Danny.

Eventually, after a conversation with the spirit of one of the Overlook’s previous caretakers, Delbert Grady (Philip Stone), Jack completely flies off the handle and tries to kill Wendy and Danny with an axe. In his climactic pursuit of his wife and son, Jack also delivers one of the most quoted lines in any Stephen King movie, “Heeeeeere’s Johnny!” while trying to kill Wendy. Over four decades since its release and with many other outstanding Stephen King adaptations in that time, The Shining‘s “Here’s Johnny!” scene remains the scariest scene in any Stephen King movie.

Why “Here’s Johnny!” Is Such a Terrifying Scene

The Shining‘s spine-tingling tale of isolation, family conflict, and supernatural hauntings culminates in Jack deciding to “correct” Wendy and Danny like Delbert Grady did to his wife and daughters a decade earlier. Chopping through the door of Torrance family’s Overlook suite like an infuriated lumberjack, the completely crazed Jack proclaims with jovial verve “Wendy, I’m home” as Wendy and Danny hide in the bathroom. Unfortunately, only Danny is small enough to escape through the window, leaving Wendy cornered as Jack chops through the bathroom, poking his head through the hole he’s made to intone his immortal line “Heeeeeere’s Johnny!”

The line and the scene are two of the most memorable and terrifying elements of The Shining for many reasons, but arguably the biggest is the culmination of gradually snowballing fear they embody after the near two hours of story preceding them. Moreover, the effectiveness of the scene is also rooted in why The Shining would be so scary even without any of the supernatural elements. With his history of alcoholism and his marriage hanging by a thread when the movie begins, Jack has finally been fully unleashed as the abusive (and now homicidal) husband and father he always was, just barely held at bay by his better impulses for years until he is finally consumed by his true nature. Chopping through the bathroom door to murder his wife and son, Jack captures the most terrifying family dissolution possible in The Shining‘s iconic “Here’s Johnny” scene, made all the more impactful by Jack Nicholson’s unforgettable performance as Jack Torrance.

Stephen King Famously Dislikes Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (& His Reasons Are Valid)

Despite the reputation The Shining enjoys as a horror classic and one of the best Stephen King movies ever made, King himself was famously unmoved by Kubrick’s adaptation. Much of King’s dislike of Kubrick’s version of The Shining is steeped in the movie’s portrayal of Jack. In The Shining, Kubrick and Nicholson completely re-interpret Jack from a troubled but decent man struggling to overcome his alcohol addiction and be a loving husband and father into a violent, rage-filled psychopath who mostly regards his wife and son with annoyance and even contempt until he fully turns on them. Jack’s character arc in King’s novel also unfolds very differently, with Jack overtaken by the Overlook’s supernatural influence to try to murder Wendy and Danny, with the movie showing Jack far more unstable from the start and extremely susceptible to Grady’s suggestion that he needs to “correct” Wendy and Danny.

The thing is that King’s reasoning for his dislike of Kubrick’s version of The Shining is entirely reasonable, especially with its basis in where King was in his own life at the time of writing the novel. King battled drug and alcohol addiction himself for many years, and crafted Jack as a personal analogue of what he was going through at the time. The redemption arc of Jack in the novel, culminating in Jack regaining control just long enough for Danny, Wendy, and Dick Halloran to escape before the Overlook’s boiler room explodes, is gone altogether in Kubrick’s take on The Shining (and was subsequently seen in 1997’s The Shining TV mini-series, crafted as an overall more faithful adaptation of King’s novel). In its place is the tale of a sociopathic monster gradually shedding what little restraint he ever had through months of snowbound isolation and the Overlook’s influence, and finally emerging as the killer who always lurked inside. It’s hard to argue that, when it comes to the movie’s portrayal of Jack Torrance, The Shining has very little of what King intended brought to life through Kubrick’s direction and Nicholson’s performance.

Why the Changes to The Shining Still Enhance the Terror of the “Here’s Johnny!” Scene

While The Shining definitely presents a Jack Torrance far removed from the character in King’s novel, the changes to Jack in the movie are also a major part of why the “Here’s Johnny!” scene is so effective. While Jack has become fully unhinged by this point in the movie, his treatment of Wendy and Danny is not all that much better beforehand. Having already dislocated his son’s shoulder during a drunken episode months prior, Jack views Wendy with a combination of resentment and vexation throughout much of the movie. From the scene of Jack profanely excoriating Wendy when she dares break his concentration while writing or showing concern only for his career prospects when Wendy becomes worried for Danny’s health, it is easy to infer that Jack’s angry outbursts at his family are hardly isolated incidents. While the movie never shows Jack physically attacking Wendy or Danny until he finally picks up an axe, The Shining leaves the distinct impression of Jack as a domineering, abusive husband and father long before he took the job as the Overlook’s winter caretaker.

That also illuminates the true terror of the “Here’s Johnny!” scene as one grounded in the reality of abusive, acrimonious marriages captured within the backdrop of a ghost story. The Jack Torrance of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining was always headed in the direction of becoming a killer, but Wendy and Danny being trapped with him in the Overlook with his violent anger towards them gradually building for months makes his psychotic break even more terrifying. Rather than coming home late one night drunk again and finally giving into to his violent impulses, Jack slowly has the paper-thin barrier that has kept him in check whittled down, culminating in Jack exclaiming “Here’s Johnny!” to his terrified wife with nothing left to stand in his way in the isolated Overlook. It may be a complete 180 of the involuntary rampage the Overlook sends Jack on in King’s novel, but the “Here’s Johnny!” scene is nonetheless the scariest Stephen King movie scene because of that exact re-invention of Jack Torrance as a vicious, troubled person.

The Shining is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video, Google Play Movies, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.

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