This is one of the most disturbing scenes from Kubrik's superior version of Stephen King's The Shining. I read the book over ten years ago and cannot remember the relevance of this cutaway shot¹. I recall that these two characters had a greater role in the book than on screen. According to some notes I trolled across sometime ago, it was some sort of gay Sadomasochistic relationship. The scene occurs toward the climax of the film and represents what appears a break in the character of Wendy Torrance, wife of Jack Torrance (Nicholson). This incongruous image jolts her awake. She can no longer deny what her son Danny has been hinting at all along, that the hotel is haunted.It is a fine, terrifying accent to a movie that scared me to death when I was younger. There is something taboo about it.
