The Shining is the 319th episode of Screen Junkies comedy series Honest Trailers. It was written by Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr, Dan Murrell, Danielle Radford and Lon Harris. It was narrated by Jon Bailey as Epic Voice Guy. It parodies the 1980 psychological horror drama film The Shining. It was published on October 29, 2019, to coincide with the theatrical release of the film's sequel Doctor Sleep. It is 5 minutes and 45 seconds long. It has been viewed over 800k times.
Watch Honest Trailers - The Shining on YouTube
"Based on a Stephen King novel that Stanley Kubrick threw in the trash." ~ Honest Trailers - The Shining
Script[]
Based on the Stephen King novel that Stanley Kubrick threw in the trash, comes an iconic piece of horror cinema…
Jack Torrance: “Here’s Johnny!”
…that was probably scary before it got parodied to death. [shows references to the movie in other pop culture]
The Shining
Sit back, waaay back, for two and a half hours of Kubrick’s signature style. That’s either a masterclass at building tension or kinda boring. In a film that is largely made out of the same. three. shots. Characters staring at the camera [shows clips of characters looking at camera], characters pulling a crazy face [shows characters making crazy faces], or characters wondering around [shows characters wondering around the place]. But hey, everything feels creepy when you put that score under it. [shows Jack and Dennis in one scene, followed by a jumpscare text: “Wednesday”] D’ah! SH*T! Oh, it’s just you Wednesday.
Journey to The Overlook. An empty hotel on top of an Indian burial ground, with a long history of murder. So.. like a nice Motel 6? And settle in with the winter caretaker, Jack Nicholtorrence. Who in the book is a loving family man, who slowly goes mad over the season, as the dark secrets of The Overlook are revealed. Except in this movie, he never really liked his family. [Dennis: “I‘m hungry.” Jack: “Well, you should have eaten your breakfast.”] He goes crazy over the course of about a week, and the dark secrets of The Overlook were part of the job interview. But, Jack needs some time and space to write, dammit. And he’ll take all the dark paranormal energy he can get, if it let’s him procrastinate on his novel even more. [shows Jack doing other random crap instead of finishing his novel] Hmm. I could finish this chapter or I could kill my whole family. Then I’ll write two chapters. Honest, I swear.
Jack’s not alone in this haunted house. There’s Shelly Duvall’s Wendy, a woman living in growing fear of her abuser, Stanley Kubrick. Little Danny Torrance, who shows you don’t need fancy CGI to pull a Gollum. And Dick Hallorann, a cook with the shining. A psychic talent that’s kinda useless, if he couldn’t see this coming [shows Jack murdering Dick]. Guy got an axe to the chest after flying coach from Miami to Denver? That’s like dying twice.
Experience this complexed and baffling masterpiece, that could be an allegory for anything. The treatment of Native Americans, alcoholism, fate vs free will, alienation, writer’s block, Theseus and the Minotaur, the Illuminati, it’s all a dream, Kubrick’s confession for faking the moon landing, (deep breath) MKULTRA, they're in Hell and Jack is the devil, the Holocaust, the patriarchy, the destruction of Kubrick’s old neighborhood, a warning about staying in the bath too long, or the importance of regular snowcat maintenance. There we go. That’s the one. We cracked the code you guys! We can stop overthinking it. Check your snowcat.
So immerse yourself in horror that breaks all of the rules of today. No big shock moments, no elaborate backstories or explanations, and no unstoppable monsters. Just a sad dad who’s killed by the wrong choice of jacket. Imagine if this came out today, 100% chance this trailer has a weird minor-key version of ”Let It Snow”. [shows clips of the movie with creepy version of Let It Snow, followed by scary moment and text: The Shining coming soon]
Starring: Cut My Wife Into Pieces, This Is A Ghost Resort (Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance); Sir, This Is A Wendy (Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance); My Little Tony: Friendship Is Magic (Danny Lloyd as Danny Torrance); Groundskeeper Chilly (Scatman Crothers as Dick Hallorann); Blood In An Elevator (blood gushing from an elevator); Hotel. Motel. Homicide Inn (the Overlook Hotel); The Grady Bunch... The Grady Bunch (Lisa and Louise Burns as the Grady Twins); Furcon 1980 (a guy in a bear suit hanging out with another man); and Don’t Stay In The Bath Too Long or You’ll Wrinkle Up! (Lia Beldam as Young Woman in Bath and Billie Gibson as Old Woman in Bath)
So I Married an Axe Murderer
The honest title for The Shining was 'So I Married An Axe Murderer,' Titles designed by Robert Holtby.
They changed so much from the book, they really should have just let Stephen King have complete control.
Stephen: “If you want something done right, you oughta do it yourself.”
[shows the can shooting machine from Maximum Overdrive] Cocaine is a hell of a drug.
Trivia[]
Honest Trailers Commentary - The Shining
- This is the first Stanley Kubrick film to get an Honest Trailer.
- Other psychological horror films to get the Honest Trailers treatment include Get Out, mother!, Split and The Blair Witch Project (1999). See list of Honest Trailers for more.
- There are a couple other Honest Trailers about other Stephen King adaptations: IT (1990) and It (2017)
- The Alan raptor Easter Egg appears at 3:37 in the black and white group shot.
Watch the full Honest Trailer Commentary on YouTube
Reception[]
Honest Trailers - The Shining has a 98.2% approval rating from YouTube viewers.
Several commentators highlighted this Honest Trailer for its light-hearted take on a revered horror masterpiece. Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing called the Honest Trailer “funny.” Stack described the video as a “fun look back at Stanley Kubrick’s ‘complex and baffling masterpiece’.” Tom Foster of TV Overmind wrote “It’s kind of hard to see The Shining get the Honest Trailers treatment but at the same time it’s also kind of funny since you can run through this movie and see just what the narrator is talking about. So often the movie gets hailed as one of the best horror movies out there, but if you look at it again from a different perspective you can actually see that there are a lot of things that can be questioned.”
Ethan Anderton of SlashFilm appreciated the Honest Trailer for looking at The Shining from a modern perspective, writing “before you get all bet out of shape thinking that Honest Trailers is trying to knock The Shining down a few pegs, this is all in good fun. Personally, I think this particular Honest Trailer struggles to find things to mock with The Shining simply because it’s such a revered classic that brings with it a consistent impending sense of dread throughout. … At the same time, it can be hard for modern audiences who aren’t familiar with The Shining to take the movie seriously when it’s been parodied to death. This Honest Trailer reminds you of many of the more famous ones (and some of the forgotten ones too), but you have to wonder whether younger generations even know what’s being parodied in some of the more modern references to the movie that came out all the way back in 1980.”
Production credits[]
Video thumbnail for Honest Trailers - The Shining.
Voice Narration: Jon Bailey aka Epic Voice Guy
Written by: Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr, Dan Murrell, Danielle Radford & Lon Harris
Produced by: Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr, Dan Murrell, & Max Dionne
Edited by: Kevin Williamsen
Post-Production Supervisor: Kevin Williamsen
Production Coordinator: Ryan O'Toole
External links[]
- H-e-e-e-re’s honesty! The Shining revisited – Stack article
- The Shining’ Honest Trailer: Kubrick’s Horror Film Is Either A Master Class In Building Tension…Or Kinda Boring - The Playlist article
- An Honest Trailer for The Shining – Neatorama article
- Funny honest trailer about The Shining – Boing Boing article
- The Shining Gets an Honest Trailer That Ponders if it’s a Masterclass or Kinda Boring - Bloody Disgusting article
- THE SHINING Gets the “Honest Trailer” Treatment – Dread Central article
- The Shining Gets The Honest Trailer Treatment – TV Overmind article
- 'The Shining’ Honest Trailer: Procrastination Has Never Been More Creepy - SlashFilm article