two girls, one hallway, no prisoners…

if there’s one unbreakable rule of horror, it’s that kids = terrifying. “come play with us, danny…” i like playing, that’s a given, but not with two axe-chop-ridden corpses! i mean, most of the time i don’t. and that’s exactly the position young danny torrance finds himself in, whilst in the middle of a relaxing, therapeutic morning trike ride. unfortunate. very unfortunate.

so what lasting damage did this sequence do to me? now, i’m scared of going around corners and i’m scared of gongs. i’ve always been scared of girls. especially dead ones. that’s one of those good fears that keeps you safely within the boundaries of the law.

you may also recognize this scene from another, more recent brilliant film: you may recall an enormous screen, a drive-in movie theater… bill paxton, helen hunt, philip seymour hoffman… tornados. yes, the wind-and-cow epic, twister, called upon the might of this the shining scene, a natural decision because tornados can appear around any corner just like axe-chop-ridden corpses. neither of which can be wished away by closing your eyes, danny! and your little psychotic-break of a friend, tony, can’t “redrum” the terror off your young, way-too-much-expression-wearing face.

so you might wonder what happened to this young lad, whose mind was so besieged by unmerciful scares… the answer? he moved to the midwest and became a middle school biology teacher. no joke.

life is cruel, danny. life is cruel.