In the most recent episode of It: Welcome to Derry, we saw various characters—heavily armed Air Force guys, a member of the local Indigenous community wielding an alien dagger, and a group of awkward young teens—slip into the sewers under 29 Neibolt Street in search of you-know-who. We know they’re chasing an entity that delights in taking the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown; at this point in Welcome to Derry‘s storyline, however, nobody’s quite certain what they’re looking for. They just know it’s got mind-control powers and is propelled by pure evil.
One of those Air Force guys happens to be Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk), who’s been singled out by the military for this unconventional mission thanks to his psychic powers. Stephen King fans are already very familiar with this character, especially because of Scatman Crothers’ enduring performance as an older Hallorann in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of The Shining. In Welcome to Derry, we’ve gotten to know the younger Hallorann. He’s cockier and a bit more tightly wound, and he’s learned to keep the scarier aspects of his gifts under control—to a point.
As episode five, “29 Neibolt Street,” reveals, It worms into Hallorann’s mind to exploit his memories of his abusive grandfather. Hallorann and his grandmother, who also had psychic powers, cower as his grandfather looms over them, cruelly taunting them. Then, the worst thing Hallorann can imagine happens: the elderly man, who’s really Pennywise in disguise, opens the box and frees all the horrors Hallorann’s been very carefully tucking away.
In the vision, the mental creation appears as a real box, filled with an orange glow just like Pennywise’s deadlight eyes.
When a dazed Hallorann emerges from the sewer at the end of the episode, he sees Pauly (Rudy Mancuso), a soldier who was killed moments earlier in the tunnel. He should not be up and walking, but he is—and Hallorann can quite clearly see him.
Welcome to Derry hasn’t yet given much context around Hallorann’s mental lockbox beyond just showing it to us—and making sure we understand that opening it was a very bad thing. Clearly, it’s something Hallorann is going to have to work through if he wants to be a functional person again. But the box exists in previous material introduced about the character, notably King’s Shining sequel Doctor Sleep.
In the 2019 Mike Flanagan movie version, Carl Lumbly plays a ghostly version of the character who appears to Danny Torrance (not long after the events at the Overlook) with some helpful advice. About… mental boxes. You can find Doctor Sleep on Netflix now to watch the scene in full, but it includes a callback to Hallorann’s famous line from The Shining about how the dark things that Danny can perceive with his “shining” powers can’t physically hurt him. They’re like “pictures in a book.”
The old man also tells Danny that dark things will flock to him because of his abilities. There’s nothing he can do to stop them from coming. “My grandfather, he was a mean son of a bitch,” he explains. “When he died, I danced… but he kept on coming back.”
Hallorann pulls out a small box and says that his grandmother taught him a trick. “I want you to know this box inside and out,” he tells the boy; earlier in the movie, we’d seen that Danny is still being haunted by the creepy ghost from room 237. “You’re gonna build one just like it in your mind. One even more special. So next time that bitch comes around, you’ll be ready.”
He’ll be ready to trap the ghost and all its adjacent negativity and bad vibes in his mental box, in other words. It’s a great idea, and perhaps this version of Hallorann didn’t have to deal with what our guy in Welcome to Derry is going through now. What’s going to happen with all the clingy spirits who come calling now?
Speaking to Decider, Chalk and It: Welcome to Derry co-showrunner Jason Fuchs shared a little more insight into Hallorann’s trauma.
“All the terror that he has ever seen, he just slipped it in the box, slipped it in the box, slipped it in the box,” Chalk explained about his character. “So the moment you unleash that, it’s not going to come out as gently as Dick put it in and it’s not happy about being shoved in a box. These are not entities that want to be trapped. And so when they can break free, they do, and it changes Dick forever.”
Added Fuchs, “That very last shot you see of Dick, of Chris Chalk, in [episode five] of him seeing dead Pauly in front of him on the bank of the river, that is going to take Dick to some extremely dark places, to a place he’s tried to get away from. There’s a reason he wanted to keep that box shut. His life by the end of episode five has been fully upended in ways that will take him to the breaking point and possibly past [it] in the episodes to come.”
New episodes of It: Welcome to Derry arrive Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
It: Welcome to Derry will be floating into your nightmares very soon, and while the kids—Pennywise’s favorite feast—will be front and center, adult characters also take a prominent role in the story. Most folks we meet have been created for the HBO series, which is set in 1962 and is a prequel to the events of the It movies. But every Stephen King fan who’s ever checked into the Overlook Hotel knows Dick Hallorann.
Chris Chalk (The Newsroom, Shining Girls) plays the psychically gifted character—most famously seen in The Shining—in It: Welcome to Derry. As he told io9 at a recent HBO press day, he’s well aware of the legacy crafted by Scatman Crothers—who memorably portrayed Hallorann in the 1980 Stanley Kubrick movie—as well as Carl Lumbly (in 2019’s Doctor Sleep) and Melvin Van Peebles (in the 1997 Shining miniseries). But he’s here to present his own interpretation of the character.
“In order to create and manifest this version of Dick Halloran, I did observe those performances, but I didn’t—’study’ is too strong a word, because that’s not what we’re doing,” Chalk said. “If we were doing Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining in 2025, then I’m going to study that performance in a different way, but all I have to do is see who he is now and break him down backwards to who he was in an earlier time, and then it becomes about creative freedom and the text. So it’s awesome to have all of these options of people who’ve had their versions of the performance, but just as they had their version, I knew I was going to get my version. Nobody asked me to mimic anybody.”
The younger version of Hallorann that we meet in It: Welcome to Derry is an airman stationed at the Air Force base just outside of town. This particular military installation has a fenced-off “Special Projects” area, where Hallorann’s abilities are pressed into service by General Shaw (James Remar). No spoilers on what they’re trying to accomplish, but Hallorann gets certain privileges due to his unique importance to the mission. The drawback is, all those mental gymnastics take a painful toll.
“I think the fact that Dick is even participating in this [mission] is proof that he’ll do anything to not be trapped,” Chalk said. “The worst thing he could possibly do to himself, he has to ultimately do in order to escape this idea of being trapped by General Shaw. He has to essentially assault himself and reopen trauma and reopen trauma and reopen trauma. But he wants to escape it so bad that he’s like, ‘Okay, I’ll cut myself if it’ll get me out of this.’ It’s a great thing to get to play a person at their weakest, most fragile, and most desperate points. Like, that’s what we want: to get to dig into the depths of a human.”
Elsewhere in the story, we encounter Hank Grogan, played by Stephen Rider (Daredevil, Luke Cage). He’s the single dad of young Ronnie (Amanda Christine) and the projectionist at Derry’s downtown movie theater. Early in It: Welcome to Derry, he’s dragged into some messy drama that ties into the show’s examination of America, circa 1962—a place full of problems even when there’s not a demonic clown in the picture.
Hank is a new character, but Rider had a lot of reference points even without pages from a King novel to consider.
“The thing about backstory is, it’s not like you’re going to tell it,” he explained. “It’s more about being very clear on his point of view and the world that he comes from and what he values. The fact that it’s the 1960s and he grew up in the 1920s and 1930s and where his parents came from, in terms of even slavery—it’s a lot to draw on. And most of us came up, or our parents came up, through the Great Migration. So there were a lot of things that I had access to. But backstories are tricky because they can become very fantastical. So if all of a sudden I’m like, ‘What do I do with this? It sounds good, but I don’t know what I’m doing with this.’ So I had to make sure it served Hank, not just Stephen’s fantastical world.”
More newcomers in It: Welcome to Derry are played by Jovan Adepo (3 Body Problem, The Leftovers) and Taylour Paige (The Toxic Avenger), though their last name is one It fans will recognize: Hanlon. As the show begins, Major Leroy Hanlon has just been transferred to Derry, with his wife, Charlotte, and their son, Will (Blake James), in tow.
Major Hanlon, we soon learn, has a quality that would be unique in any context, but it’s especially intriguing in a haunted place like Derry: he is literally a man without fear.
“It’s something that occurred through a brain injury, and I think it’s something that he wants to disregard every time someone brings it up, because it does recall a moment in his military career that he’s just not wanting to re-experience,” Adepo said. “I spoke to [director] Andy [Muschietti] about the specifics of the injury and what it truly means to be without fear in this town where the show is about being afraid. I leaned more on the side of not being completely immune to fear but just having a higher threshold for it. And if it’s the most guttural fear that I’m immune to, the other sub-elements of fear are heightened as far as, you know, insecurity, worry, doubt, shame, and any of those smaller elements of it. I never played Leroy as he’s just impervious to any type of jarring moments; he’s just able to withstand a bit more unless it’s something that he really, really cares about, which we can assume is his family.”
Charlotte was active in the civil rights movement in Louisiana, where the Hanlons lived before moving to Maine. Leroy would much rather his wife keep a low profile, especially since he’s trying to advance his military career. But Derry has its share of injustices that catch Charlotte’s interest, and it’s hard for her to resist speaking up for what’s right.
“I think she’s kind of bursting at the seams,” Paige said. “Living in that dissonance is very uncomfortable. Like you’re at home vacuuming and thinking about what to make for dinner, but you also have a sense that you have a lot to offer the world, and you’re curious and interested, and nobody really cares because you look like you. It’s a little bit sad, it’s lonely, it’s boredom, and it’s just living in a world that doesn’t respect or value what you have to offer. I think that’s a really tough inner world, so her inner world is challenging and lonely.”
She added, “I think Charlotte knows her husband’s heart is in the right place, but she’s also confronting [him about] defending a country [that hasn’t given us anything back], and that’s challenging. So [part of their marriage is] kind of understanding [that] this is our lives as Black people in 1962 and what opportunity means and how to kind of climb out of what you were born with.”
It: Welcome to Derry hits HBO October 26, bringing Pennywise the Clown out of the sewer to feast on a new generation of children. It remains to be seen if Derry will rank among the scariest Stephen King adaptations—we have a feeling it might—but there are still plenty of chilling movies and TV releases that draw on King’s prolific output to make your nights as sleepless as possible.
10. Cujo (1983)
Based on King’s 1981 novel about a St. Bernard who transforms from a gentle pooch into a vicious, violent monster after tangling with a rabid bat, the 1983 movie makes a few key plot changes, including softening the ending. However, the movie is still deeply unsettling, with the dangers of being trapped in a car with no water on a scorching day very nearly eclipsing the terror of a stalking beast.
Genre superstar Dee Wallace (The Hills Have Eyes, The Howling, E.T. the Extraterrestrial, Critters) gives a ferocious performance as a mom who’ll do anything to protect her son—one of those “Oscar-ignored” horror turns for the ages.
9. The Monkey (2025)
Osgood Perkins’ take on King’s cursed-toy tale (a short story first released in 1980) leans heavily into pitch-black comedy, but it’s still unnerving between all the nervous chuckling. Estranged since childhood, twin brothers (both played by Theo James) unhappily reunite when the cymbal-crashing simian that destroyed their youth resurfaces—but really, The Monkey’s main purpose is for the viewer to cringe in their seat as the tension builds between kills, each death more gruesomely Rube Goldberg-ian than the last.
8. Creepshow (1982)
We’re playing a little fast and loose with “adaptation” here; King wrote the screenplay, which does adapt a few of his short stories but also features new material. Like The Monkey, it’s a horror comedy—paying loving tribute to the splattery legacy of EC horror comics—but with George A. Romero behind the camera, it also unloads plenty of frights.
King himself stars in one of the anthology’s segments, playing a goofy farmer whose close encounter with a meteor results in some intense, plant-based body horror. But the standout shocks come from the creature horror of “The Crate” and buggy revenge howler “They’ll Creep Up on You.”
7. Salem’s Lot (1979)
Just four years after King’s source-material novel came out, Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) directed what’s still the best screen version of the author’s oft-adapted small-town vampire story. The two-part miniseries digs into not just the bloodsucker takeover, but also why Salem’s Lot—a seemingly idyllic Maine town, not unlike a little place called Derry—is such an ideal setting for a creeping outbreak of evil.
Hooper’s version makes a key alteration, changing the look of King’s head vampire character into something more ghoulish than originally described, but it makes sense—by making the viewer recoil when the unexpected, visually striking image appears. Also, apologies to Sinners, but Salem’s Lot still wins for the most spine-chilling “invite me in” scene of all time.
6. Carrie (1976)
King’s first published novel (1974) became his first adapted work, and not only are we still seeing tons of King adaptations coming every year, Carrie itself has also gone through many iterations (with a Mike Flanagan series on the way as we speak). But Brian De Palma’s film weaves its own spell in ways that’ve never been eclipsed, thanks to Sissy Spacek’s towering lead performance, the effectively jarring use of split-screen to bring the bloody prom scene to life, and one of horror’s best and earliest examples of a jump-scare finale.
5. The Mist (2007)
As this list has already demonstrated, many filmmakers have chosen to alter King’s prose to create a more effective screen story. But nowhere is that more searing and horrifying than in Frank Darabont’s 2007 take on King’s 1980 novella. Darabont, of course, is also the director behind some of the most uplifting King movies ever—The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and The Green Mile (1999)—but The Mist just might be the most feel-bad movie of all time. That’s a testament to the tension it builds and the characters you meet as the titular fog envelops a small Maine community—building up to a devastating ending that will haunt you.
4. It (2017)
We will always love Tim Curry’s Pennywise performance in the 1990 miniseries, but Andy Muschietti’s big-screen adaptation of the first half of King’s sprawling 1986 novel turns the screws in so many dreadfully alarming ways that Bill Skarsgard’s buck-toothed clown is just one fearsome element. Not for nothing is the kid-centric film the more agonizing of Muschietti’s duology; there’s something plainly terrifying about seeing coming-of-age stories that are already backgrounded in depressing home lives compounded by an insatiable supernatural entity.
3. Pet Sematary (1989)
The whole movie could just be furious, tendon-slashing, returned-from-the-grave toddler Gage and the shudder-inducing flashbacks featuring the dreadful Zelda, and it would be top five on this list. That Mary Lambert’s film (adapted from King’s 1983 novel) manages to couch those eerily resonant elements in a movie that constantly teeters on the edge—of despair, sanity, and the next terrible choice made out of sheer hopelessness—is no small achievement.
2. Misery (1990)
The 1987 book is unsettling; the 1990 Rob Reiner movie, starring James Caan as a best-selling author kidnapped by a deranged fan (Kathy Bates), is a thrilling masterpiece. Bates’ well-deserved Oscar for bringing the unhinged Annie Wilkes to life feels like payback for all the horror performances ignored by major awards over the years, and the “hobbling” scene still stings no matter how many times you watch it.
1. The Shining (1980)
King famously disliked Stanley Kubrick’s interpretation of his 1977 novel (speaking of page-to-screen changes, this one’s got quite a few)—but fans of the movie would be forgiven for suspecting the author is the only hater of this cinematic classic. Jack Nicholson’s performance as Jack Torrance is frightening, but it’s the Overlook Hotel itself—its mind tricks, its ghostly inhabitants, its troublesome elevators, its gorgeously nonsensical architecture—that makes the film practically vibrate with evil.
Did we miss your favorite scary King movie or TV show? Share your favorites in the comments.
Oregon’s historic Timberline Lodge, which featured in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film “The Shining,” will reopen to guests Sunday after a fire that prompted evacuations but caused only minimal damage.The lodge said Saturday in a Facebook post that it will support guests while repairs are being done, as well as work to ensure water quality. Historic preservation efforts are also underway.”There are challenges ahead but we are through the worst of it,” the hotel said. “First responder and Timberline staff efforts have been nothing short of remarkable during a very difficult time. This successful recovery is because of their dedication.”Embers from the lodge’s large stone fireplace apparently ignited the roof Thursday night, the lodge said. Guests and staff were evacuated as firefighters doused the flames, and no injuries were reported.Damage from the fire and the water used to extinguish it is “benign” and contained to certain areas, the lodge said.Its ski area reopened Saturday.Timberline Lodge was built in 1937, some 6,000 feet (1,828 meters) up the 11,249-foot (3,429-meter) Mount Hood, by the Works Progress Administration, a U.S. government program created to provide jobs during the Great Depression.It is about 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Portland.Kubrick used the exterior of the lodge as a stand-in for the Overlook Hotel in “The Shining,” a psychological horror movie based on the 1977 Stephen King novel of the same name.
GOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. —
Oregon’s historic Timberline Lodge, which featured in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film “The Shining,” will reopen to guests Sunday after a fire that prompted evacuations but caused only minimal damage.
The lodge said Saturday in a Facebook post that it will support guests while repairs are being done, as well as work to ensure water quality. Historic preservation efforts are also underway.
“There are challenges ahead but we are through the worst of it,” the hotel said. “First responder and Timberline staff efforts have been nothing short of remarkable during a very difficult time. This successful recovery is because of their dedication.”
Embers from the lodge’s large stone fireplace apparently ignited the roof Thursday night, the lodge said. Guests and staff were evacuated as firefighters doused the flames, and no injuries were reported.
Damage from the fire and the water used to extinguish it is “benign” and contained to certain areas, the lodge said.
Its ski area reopened Saturday.
Timberline Lodge was built in 1937, some 6,000 feet (1,828 meters) up the 11,249-foot (3,429-meter) Mount Hood, by the Works Progress Administration, a U.S. government program created to provide jobs during the Great Depression.
It is about 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Portland.
Kubrick used the exterior of the lodge as a stand-in for the Overlook Hotel in “The Shining,” a psychological horror movie based on the 1977 Stephen King novel of the same name.
Whether you’re looking for a little Valentine’s Day counterprogramming or getting over a nasty breakup, these horror movies—about bad romance, toxic relationships, and monstrous partners—will do the trick.
Although the two genres have long been intertwined (e.g., Gothic horror), people typically don’t think of horror and romance as bedfellows. The language of horror is an effective means of communicating our deepest fears, and love is often terrifying, inspiring us to reflect on our own shortcomings and confront anxieties—about our worth, our place in the world, and the future. Also, love can be messy and fucking gross.
While the genre has plenty of great couplings, the horror movies below are decidedly unromantic and not recommended if you’re looking for a reason to stay attached.
Midsommar (2019)
(A24)
Of course Midsommar made the list. Ari Aster’s second film does for relationships what Hereditary did for families. Florence Pugh stars as Dani, a woman reeling from a recent family tragedy and trying to find solace in her total shithead of a boyfriend, Christian (Jack Reynor). When she learns that Christian and his pseudo-intellectual college bros are taking a vacay to a remote part of Sweden to study the local culture, Dani invites herself along. What the men find in Sweden is a cult steeped in disturbing rituals; what Dani finds is catharsis and community. And if you’ve been through a particularly crummy breakup recently, the ending of Midsommar will feel really satisfying.
Possession (1981)
(Gaumont)
When it was first released in 1981, Possession was banned in the U.K. and labeled as one of the “video nasties”—low budget horror movies with violent content deemed immoral by conservative group. In the decades since, Possession has become a cult favorite and the original cut is easier to see than ever before. Directed by Polish filmmaker Andrzej Żuławski, who wrote the script in the midst of a contentious divorce, Possession stars Sam Neill as Mark, a spy who returns from a work trip to discover that his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani) is having an affair and has decided to end their marriage. All of this happens in the first few minutes. What follows is a harrowing odyssey through Berlin as Mark tries to figure out why his wife is so determined to end things, and who—or what—has suddenly possessed her.
The Fly (1986)
(20th Century Studios)
Though it shares a title and basic plot elements The Fly is very different from the Vincent Price classic. One of David Cronenberg’s more overt works of body horror, The Fly stars Jeff Goldblum as Seth Brundle, a brilliant scientist who develops a teleportation device. Seth becomes romantically involved with Ronnie (Geena Davis), the journalist he’s invited to write about his new invention. During a test run, Seth unwittingly shuts himself in the device with a housefly and soon undergoes a series of increasingly disturbing physical and psychological changes. Some view The Fly as an allegory for the AIDS crisis of the ’80s, but I think it’s a deeply affecting story about a woman realizing she’s in an abusive relationship and fighting desperately to save the man she loves from himself.
mother! (2017)
(Paramount Pictures)
There was quite a bit of discourse around the release of mother!, Darren Aronofsky’s 2017 thriller starring then-girlfriend Jennifer Lawrence as a woman who keeps busy renovating the idyllic rural home she shares with her husband, a writer played by Javier Bardem. Paradise is disrupted by the arrival of a mysterious stranger, who soon invites his wife and children to join them. As more uninvited guests arrive, the writer welcomes them with open arms while becoming increasingly hostile toward his wife. Is it a movie about God (Bardem) and Earth (Lawrence) and the fundamental forsaking of the latter for (and by) the former? Is it an eco-thriller about climate change? Is it Aronofsky’s self-aware, brazen indictment of himself in relationships? (The opening shot, which features an actress who looks a lot like Aronofsky’s ex, Rachel Weisz, doesn’t exactly invalidate this notion.)
mother! is all of the above, really, and it’s also a great, anxiety-inducing movie about being in a relationship with an absolute narcissist.
The Invitation (2015)
(Drafthouse Films)
Everyone has at least a little baggage from previous relationships, but in The Invitation, Will (Logan Marshall-Green) has more than most. Years after a tragedy that contributed to the dissolution of his marriage, Will takes his new partner Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) to a dinner party hosted by his ex-wife (Tammy Blanchard) and her new husband (Michiel Huisman) in Will’s old home. As the evening gets underway, Will starts to believe his ex-wife and her new beau have ulterior motives—or is he simply unable to let go of the past? Directed by Karyn Kusama (Jennifer’s Body), The Invitation is a riveting thriller and a cautionary tale about staying touch with your ex.
Trouble Every Day (2001)
(Lot 47 Films)
Up front: This movie stars Vincent Gallo, a man with a history of behaving like a misogynist garbage person and supporting conservative politicians, so if you need to avoid that kind of ick, I get it. THAT SAID, French filmmaker Claire Denis makes excellent use of Gallo’s sleaziness in the 2001 horror film Trouble Every Day. Gallo plays a scientist who spends his honeymoon with his new wife (Tricia Vessey) in Paris searching for an old friend—a neuroscientist whose controversial research has been discredited—and finds him living with his wife (Béatrice Dalle), who he keeps locked up to prevent her from having sex with and violently murdering men.
There are cannibalistic elements to Trouble Every Day that are so visceral—I’m thinking of one scene in particular near the end involving Gallo’s character—that they’re difficult to watch. Denis is a masterful filmmaker and Trouble Every Day is a compelling existential thriller that stands apart from the extremism that defined French horror in the early 2000s.
Crimson Peak (2015)
(Universal Pictures)
If you enjoy period melodramas, Crimson Peak will check a few boxes. Guillermo del Toro’s beautiful Gothic horror film stars Mia Wasikowska as Edith, a young woman who joins her handsome new husband Thomas (Tom Hiddleston) at the victorian estate he shares with his sister, Lucille (Jessica Chastain). As she adjusts to her new life, Edith is plagued by visions of ghosts that might be related to the dark secrets Lucille and Thomas share.
Antichrist (2009)
(IFC Films)
A cabin in the woods is one of the worst places you can go in a horror movie, but Antichrist takes it a step (or 12) further with a cerebral and terrifying expedition through a marriage wracked by unspeakable grief. Following a horrible tragedy, a psychiatrist (Willem Dafoe) takes his distraught wife—whose depression is becoming increasingly volatile—to a remote cabin to heal. Instead, they end up contemplating the nature of evil and internalized misogyny. Directed by Lars von Trier (another man with a history of garbage behavior), Antichrist is filled with totemic imagery and psychoanalytic concepts: animals that talk, the conflation of sex and violence, and the exploration of gendered expression and dynamics. Dafoe and Gainsbourg’s characters are credited as “He” and “She,” evoking a near-mythical or Biblical sensibility.
Audition (1999)
(Vitagraph Films)
Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) is a lonely widower looking for a companion. With the help of his friend, a producer, Aoyama holds auditions for a fake movie as a way to meet prospective partners. And it works: Aoyama falls for the intriguing Asami (Eihi Shiina) and the pair begin a romantic relationship. Unfortunately for Aoyama, Asami’s demure demeanor is hiding a darker side that comes to the surface when she discovers how she and Aoyama really met. Directed by prolific Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike, Audition became a cult favorite in the early 2000s, renowned for its exceptionally violent climax.
The Brood (1979)
(New World Pictures)
Similar to Andrzej Żuławski with Possession, David Cronenberg wrote The Brood while going through a rough divorce. Released in 1979, the film centers on Nola (Samantha Eggar), a mentally ill woman fighting her soon-to-be ex-husband Frank (Art Hindle) over custody of their daughter. While Nola receives experimental therapy from a radical psychotherapist (the great Oliver Reed), a series of murders near the remote mental institution and strange visits with her daughter lead Frank to investigate the doctor and his unusual methods.
Despite its similar conception, The Brood has more in common with Antichrist and The Fly than Possession. Without spoiling anything, there’s a great, gory climactic reveal—which also makes it a fun watch on Mother’s Day.
The Shining (1980)
(Warner Bros.)
One of the most iconic horror films of all time hardly needs an introduction, but just in case: The Shining follows writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) as he accepts the position of caretaker at a Colorado hotel over the winter season. Jack brings his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and their troubled young son Danny (Danny Lloyd) to stay with him, hoping the getaway will clear up his writer’s block. Jack’s demons are prodded by the terrifying ghosts haunting the halls of the hotel, loosening the weak grasp Jack has on his deep-seated anger.
Stanley Kubrick’s (loose) adaptation of Stephen King’s classic novel has been criticized for depicting Wendy as mousy and not very bright, but Duvall (and the longest cigarette ash of all time) gives one hell of a performance as a woman in an abusive marriage trying to save her son from his violent father.
The Invisible Man (2020)
(Universal Pictures)
Leigh Whannell took one of Universal’s oft-overlooked classic monsters and gave him an unforgettable update in 2020’s The Invisible Man. The movie opens with an impressively suspenseful sequence in which Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss) executes a long-planned escape from her abusive husband, a brilliant tech billionaire named Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), in the middle of the night. When Adrian is declared dead of an apparent suicide and leaves everything to Cecilia, she is understandably skeptical—there’s no way her violent and narcissistic husband suddenly grew a conscience before mercifully dropping dead. Over the following weeks, an invisible assailant stalks and attacks Cecilia, who suspects that Adrian is using the advanced cloaking tech he developed to continue terrorizing her. And no one believes her.
With a cerebral plot that evokes Gaslight and (unfortunately) timeless themes concerning violent misogyny and abuse—not to mention a killer Elisabeth Moss performance—The Invisible Man is easily one of the best horror thrillers released in recent years.
(featured image: Warner Bros. / Drafthouse Films / Gaumont / A24 / Illustration by Britt Hayes)
Britt Hayes (she/her) is an editor, writer, and recovering film critic with over a decade of experience. She has written for The A.V. Club, Birth.Movies.Death, and The Austin Chronicle, and is the former associate editor for ScreenCrush. Britt’s work has also been published in Fangoria, TV Guide, and SXSWorld Magazine. She loves film, horror, exhaustively analyzing a theme, and casually dissociating. Her brain is a cursed tomb of pop culture knowledge.
The Shining (1980) is a psychological horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick and is based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name. It follows a family who is isolated in a haunted, snowbound hotel, where the father’s descent into madness leads to terrifying and supernatural occurrences.
Here’s how you can watch and stream The Shining (1980) via streaming services such as HBO Max.
Is The Shining (1980) available to watch via streaming?
Yes, The Shining (1980) is available to watch via streaming on HBO Max.
The Shining (1980) is a classic horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick. It tells the story of Jack Torrance, a writer and recovering alcoholic, who becomes the winter caretaker of the isolated Overlook Hotel with his family. As the hotel’s malevolent spirits begin to influence Jack, his descent into madness and violence threatens the safety of his wife and psychic son, Danny. The film is known for its eerie atmosphere, iconic imagery, and psychological tension.
The Shining features Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance, and Danny Lloyd as Danny Torrance. Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of Jack Torrance is particularly memorable for its intensity and madness.
Watch The Shining (1980) streaming via HBO Max
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The synopsis of The Shining is as follows:
“Jack Torrance accepts a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, where he, along with his wife Wendy and their son Danny, must live isolated from the rest of the world for the winter. But they aren’t prepared for the madness that lurks within.”
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As one of pop culture’s main “Queens of Spook,” Christina Ricci’s presence in anything haunted, eerie, ghostly or generally “demonic” is usually a no-brainer (this being why she chose to join the cast of Tim Burton’s [highly watered-down] Wednesday in a role apart from Wednesday Addams herself…though no one will ever hold a candle to her 90s-era performance). What does feel a bit “off-brand” for the actress, however, is appearing in a Doja Cat video just because it happens to have a scary premise. And, to be sure, the Christian Breslauer/Doja-directed offering is probably the most chilling narrative (even if more than slightly filched from Poltergeist) Ricci has ever been a part of.
Where other films of the beloved former child actress have always been in a more “light-hearted spirit” of scariness (e.g., The Addams Family and Casper), this particular addition to her “filmography” is a no holds barred fright fest with Doja in the eponymous role of one of the homogenous-looking demons that stalks the house. Opening with a “For Sale” sign that has a “Sold” sticker on it, the camera zooms in closer to said abode, its low angle pointed upward toward the bedroom before we find ourselves in the interior of that second floor, where an immediate homage to 1982’s Poltergeist can be seen as the static on the TV illuminates the room. The room that, we soon find out, belongs to Christina Ricci. Meanwhile, her children continue to sleep…totally unbothered by the demonic force that appears to relish plaguing only Ricci. Accordingly, a not-so-peacefully sleeping Ricci opens her eyes intuitively as Demon Doja crawls out from behind the TV, hangs upside down in the corner and proceeds to arrogantly demand, “How my demons look (how them demons)?/Now that my pockets full? (ayy, ayy, ayy, yeah, ayy)/How my demons look (ayy, yeah)?/Now that you bitches shook (bitch)?”
With a backing beat that has echoes of Busta Rhymes’ 1998 track, “Gimme Some More” (which itself samples from the Psycho theme), Doja’s aggressive tone punctuates the sinister sonic landscape produced by D.A. Got That Dope (which doesn’t have quite the same ring as Mike WiLL Made-It). And as Ricci lies in bed seemingly paralyzed by a combination of shock and fear (so often one and the same), Demon Doja inches closer to Ricci while still on the ceiling. She then taunts her with such “flexes” as, “You look like me…in your dreams”—while said in the guise of a horrifying hellhound (this somewhat harkening back to the absurdity of Doja posting an unflattering photo of her face and labeling it a “thirst trap”). From the ceiling, she then ends up back at the edge of the bed, her claw-like hand slithering up the side of the frame in what itself feels like a nod to Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street.
And, on that note, the next scene takes place in the bathtub, where “Human” Doja (if there still is such a thing) sits in black, sludge-like water as the demonic hand again slithers out from the water, Krueger-style. Breslauer and Doja then pan up into the attic where Demon Doja and two doppelganger hellhounds revel in their general evilness, crawling around and growling at the camera.
Having already directed Doja Cat’s videos for “Streets” and “Freaky Deaky” (which owes a great debt to Clueless and “Erotica”), Breslauer is no stranger to cultivating un certain aesthetic for Doja. One that often features vibrantly-hued cinematography that belies the seedy overtones of whatever theme Doja is focusing on (in the instance of “Streets,” that includes a slew of zombie-like men busting through concrete from beneath the streets to get a look at Doja writhing around on the hood of a cab). In this “Demons” scenario, that vibrancy still exists even if the muted color palette favors mostly blacks, browns and grays throughout.
Incidentally, the one noticeable pop of red (the color associated with the devil Doja reveres so much these days), veering near pink, is the top Ricci wears after changing out of her pajamas and making a beeline for the video camera (more specifically, the kind of video camera that requires a VHS tape). Because, clearly, she’s going to want to document this demonic presence if anyone is ever going to believe her (this, too, smacking of Casper). Climbing up the ladder that leads to the attic with her weighty video camera in tow, Ricci catches a glimpse of Demon Doja in her human form again—this time wearing a shirt that reads: “Cash Cow.” Needless to say, this is an undoubted reference to 1) the fact that her first big hit was called “MOOO!” (during which she declares, “Bitch, I’m a cow, bitch, I’m a cow”) and 2) how she recently wrote off her last two records, Hot Pink and Planet Her, as unapologetic “cash grabs.”
Pointing her flashlight in Doja’s direction, closer inspection reveals that she’s typing at a typewriter (will any of Doja’s Gen Z fans understand what that is?), in what appears to be another slight horror movie nod…this time, to Jack Torrance in The Shining. Among the “cheeky phrases” she’s writing out? “I’m a puppet, I’m a sheep, I’m a cash cow.” And yet, the animals she’s surrounded by in this scene are goats. This hardly seems like a coincidence as this particular animal is frequently associated with ritual sacrifice. And since Doja is on that dripping demonic titty lately, it makes sense. And yes, the other animals she mentions in her lyrics (cows and sheep) are also “favorites” on the ritual sacrifice front (you know, apart from virgins).
Continuing her typing, Doja adds (in her version of Kendrick Lamar singing “Humble” intonation), “I’m the fastest-growing bitch on all your apps now/You are tired of me ’cause I’m on your ass now/You are mad at me ’cause I am all they slap now/I can nap now/Lots of people that were sleeping say I rap now/Lots of people’s hopes and dreams are finally trashed now/Lots of people say they met me in the past now/I done took the spotlight and made ’em black out/I done took the whole dick and blew my back out.” If that’s true, it still isn’t stopping Demon Doja from being diabolical through her physical movements as the video switches into “nightshot” mode in conjunction with Ricci’s video camera. All while her two now-awake children are downstairs watching the static on the TV. Because, indeed, the Poltergeist tribute remains the most consistent, with all the appliances in the kitchen going haywire as Demon Doja whirls around on a chair among her fellow demons.
At this point, Ricci essentially throws her hands up in the air and flees the fucking scene with her kids. Recently-made down payment be damned. Better that than being damned herself due to staying in the house. It is here, too, that a deeper, more insidious symbolism arises if one is to look at the video as a study in how the proverbial white family is scared of any “black presence” that infiltrates its space. Of course, Doja doesn’t seem like the type to actually try at conveying this form of a Jordan Peele-esque statement, and yet, with “Demons,” it seems difficult to ignore such symbolism.
Red-eyed and causing mayhem by simply “expressing herself” (however unconventionally), Doja is scaring the white folks because she’s Black and belligerent (ergo the appropriateness of a line like, “How my demons look?/Now that you bitches shook?”). A Black rage that can only be expressed by getting up close and personal enough to make someone like Ricci’s “character” actually notice it. For, once the white person closes their door, they’re even blinder than usual to racial injustice. And then, apparently, when they’re forced to be confronted with it, they have the luxury of still turning (nay, running) away from it regardless. As Ricci and her brood eventually do by the conclusion of “Demons.” But that seems to suit Doja just fine, with this result also being an additional metaphor for how little she cares about alienating (demonating?) anyone.
When a book gets turned into a movie, there are, of course, going to be some creative liberties taken. However, the amount of creative liberties varies from film to film. Some directors choose to include as many details from the book as possible, altering very little — if any — of the source material. Others deviate greatly from the original book, resulting in a movie that ends up telling a drastically different story than the novel it’s based on.
Oftentimes, the most significant changes happen at the end of the film. Crafting a satisfying ending has often been a challenge of filmmaking, and sometimes, the ending of a book just isn’t suited for the big screen. This has the potential to divide fans of the original book, as some may have wished to see a more faithful adaptation of the ending. Those who haven’t read the book are experiencing the story fresh for the first time, so they may not mind the changes as much.
A book’s ending may be changed because it’s too bleak, or because it’s too complex to express in a visual format. No movie can capture every single detail from the book, and the elements that are omitted can have an impact on what the ending is. Just because a movie changes the ending from the original book doesn’t make it bad — there are plenty of excellent films that benefit from the new interpretation.
Here are ten movies based on books with endings that differ from their original stories. (NOTE: Some spoilers follow for both these movies and their books.)
10 Movies That Changed The Ending Of The Books They’re Based On
These movies are drastically different from the movies that inspired them.
Shelley Duvall is making a comeback, more than 20 years after her last movie role.
According to Deadline, the star of such big-screen hits as “The Shining” and “Nashville” has joined the cast of “The Forest Hills”, an indie horror-thriller from writer-director Scott Goldberg
Also starring Edward Furlong, Chiko Mendez and Dee Wallace, the film is about “a disturbed man who is tormented by nightmarish visions, after enduring head trauma while camping in the Catskill Mountains.”
Duvall will play the mother of Rico (Mendez), the disturbed man at the centre of “The Forest Hills”.
“We are huge fans of ‘The Shining’ and it’s honestly one of my favourite horror movies of all time, up there with John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’ and George A. Romero’s ‘Day of the Dead’ with the dark tones they delivered in their movies, along with perfect scores and elements that make them my personal favourites,” Goldberg said in a statement. “Shelley contributed to ‘The Shining’ being an absolute masterpiece by giving her all, and performing in a way that really showcased the fear and horror of a mother in isolation.”
During her heyday in the 1970s and ’80s, Duvall starred in such films as “McCabe and Mrs. Miller”, “Thieves Like Us”, “Annie Hall”, “Three Women”, “Time Bandits”, “Popeye” and “Roxanne”, and has won a Peabody Award, the Cannes Film Festival’s prize for Best Actress, two Emmy nominations and a BAFTA nomination.
In 2002, Duvall made her final film appearance in “Manna From Heaven”, starring alongside Louise Fletcher and Cloris Leachman, before announcing that she was retiring from acting.
In 2016, Duvall made a controversial appearance on “Dr. Phil”, revealing her struggles with mental health. “I’m very sick,” she said at the time, adding, “I need help.”
In a subsequent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Duvall admitted she regretted her “Dr. Phil” appearance, and appeared to agree with critics who blasted host Dr. Phil McGraw for allegedly exploiting her during a low point in her life.
“I found out the kind of person he is the hard way,” she told THR.
