The Shining

The Torrances have a good Thanksgiving, although Danny is still afraid of the Overlook. He makes an extra effort to stay in places that feel safe. Jack says Rangers will come check on them when they fail to respond on the CB. Danny senses that Jack is gratified. He knows that his father is happy that he did something difficult yet correctly, although Danny does not know what his specific act was. When he tries to understand, he sees shadows and movements that remind him of an octopus.

At the playground, snow falls on Danny as he explores a concrete structure. Then the snow falls off of the hedge dog just as one of the lion’s heads emerges. The other two lions are suddenly uncovered, and the dog has turned its head. Now the animals block his way, but he manages to run to the path. By the time Danny makes it to the Overlook’s porch, the lion is only five feet away. Something roars and scratches his leg. When Wendy lets him in, Danny’s leg looks like it has been scratched by branches.

Danny tells his parents about the animals, but Jack tells him that he imagined it and cut his leg on the sharp snow crust or the porch. Danny says that Jack saw something in the hedge animals as well, and Jack slaps him. They put Danny to bed and Jack and Wendy talk. He wishes she would ask about the hedges, so he could come clean about his experience, but she lets the matter drop.

Jack and Wendy wake to a humming sound; the elevator is moving. While they are waiting for the doors to open, images of a lavish party fill Wendy’s head. She imagines the elevator filled with masked people and she hears music. When the elevator stops, the door will not open. She tells Jack that she heard voices, and Danny confirms it. Jack pushes her down, then opens the elevator with a key, revealing that it is empty. However, Wendy finds a green party streamer and a mask on the floor. She asks Jack if he still thinks there is nothing to worry about.

On December 1, Danny is in the ballroom, looking at a clock flanked by ivory elephants and covered with a glass dome. Danny has designated areas as either “safe or unsafe.” He takes the dome off the clock and puts a key in it. The clock starts. Ballet dancers appear, dancing to “The Blue Danube” waltz. They begin having oral sex.

Danny thinks he is the key for the Overlook, just as the silver key started the clock. The clock face is suddenly gone, and Danny falls into the dark behind it. He is in a corridor, listening to the swing of a mallet as someone shouts. He sees Dick Hallorann, dressed in white. Danny asks him to come help. Hallorann walks through a wall and vanishes, and then a faceless figure appears and chases Danny. Tony says that “they” won’t let him near Danny anymore. Danny wakes in his parents’ room, which is destroyed. He goes into the bathroom and sees REDRUM written on the mirror. Its reflection in another mirror says MURDER. In his mind, he screams for Hallorann to come help him.