Stephen King has admitted not liking this version of his book.

Initially, the bathroom door Jack Nicholson was to axe in was an extremely thin one, made by the prop department to make it easier to destroy. However, Nicholson's technique with the axe was so good (he'd been a volunteer fire marshal) the door shattered into a million pieces, so they had to build a much stronger door to handle his swing.

The real Overlook Hotel is near Portland, Oregon. It has no room 237 because the owners specifically requested that a fictitious room number be used, believing that after people saw this movie (or read the book) no one would want to stay in that room.

Stanley Kubrick was very protective of Danny Lloyd, because he was so young. Through some careful and clever directing, Lloyd was unaware he was making a horror film until after the film's release.

The injured guest who frightens Wendy Torrance by saying "Great party, isn't it?" was played by film editor Norman Gay. Submitted by sebb

In the scene where Jack is writing and gets mightily upset when Wendy interrupts him, watch the chair behind Jack. It vanishes and then reappears. This was, however, intentional from Kubrick. The audience was supposed to get a subconscious feeling that something was wrong. Nice touch.

Stephen King attempted to persuade Kubrick not to cast Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance. King believed that either Michael Moriarty or Jon Voight could have played Jack's descent into madness more convincingly. Submitted by Cubs Fan

The "snowy" maze near the conclusion of the movie consisted of salt and crushed Styrofoam. Submitted by sebb

Stanley Kubrick's daughter, Vivian Kubrick, makes a cameo in the party scene. She wears a black dress and sits on the right side of the sofa closest to the bar. Submitted by sebb

The famous scene where Wendy reads through Jack's accumulated work naturally doesn't have the same impact if the viewer can't read English. Therefore, for every foreign language the film was released in, Kubrick remade this shot with an appropriate cliche in each language - French, German, etc. Also, every page of every manuscript was hand-typed to recreate the realism of typos and misalignments.

An outtake from the opening sequence was used in the "happy ending" version of Blade Runner, but removed from the director's cut. Submitted by wizard_of_gore

From the first shot to the last, Stanley Kubrick includes many references to special numbers. 12, 24, 21, 42 and 1, 2, 4 and 5 and it's multiples can be easily spotted close to 200 times. - - 1) We see Jack ax the bathroom door 12 times. 2) Wendy stops at line 21 on the page in Jack's typewriter. 3) We hear Wendy thumb through 24 pages of Jack's novel. 4) Wendy swings the bat 42 times. 5) Jack's locked up in storeroom C-1. 6) 2 girls, 2 elevators, 2 boilers, and 2 identical sides in Jack's vision of hedge maze. 7) Jack holds up 4 fingers in the last picture. 8) Jack says "5 months on the wagon" and The Overlook is closed between10/30 and 5/15. - - This is just the tip of an iceberg. Taken as time codes they point to shots in the movie and when the time code hits a :12 or :21 visions are seen (most almost exactly :24 seconds in duration). When the time code hits a :24 or :42 a cast member discovers something (durations end almost exactly with :12, :21, or :24 seconds). Just take a look at the vision in the very last shot of the movie (2:21) "Overlook Hotel July 4th Ball 1921" with a duration of :24 seconds, and you'll see what I mean. However, the timecode will only be accurate for NTSC versions of the film, as PAL versions are slightly sped up due to the differing frame rates. Go to the Forum-Mistakes-Check this out, for more examples. Submitted by ????

Dick Halloran's lamps and TV have no wires that can be seen just like the Overlook. Submitted by ????

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, The Shining holds the record for the film with most retakes of a single scene (with spoken dialogue) at 127 takes. The participant in those retakes was Shelley Duvall.

Nothing is actually seen plugged into a wall socket or outlet (TVs, radios etc.). This is because the house is alive with psychic energy. Submitted by ????

The title of The Shining comes from a line "We all shine on" in John Lennon's song "Instant Karma". Submitted by ????

Jack's limp at the end of the movie was a real injury sustained when Jack Nicholson got drunk and fell out of a hotel window the night before shooting this scene.