To celebrate the journey toward Halloween 2014 I’m going to do something I’ve wanted to attempt since I first started writing here on Halloween Love … put together a definitive list of my personal favorite horror movie moments and scenes.
I hope you will agree with some, maybe raise an eyebrow at others and fingers crossed a few will be pleasant surprises.
44 : The Shining 1980 : The Opening Credits.
Haunting, beautiful and crisp … The Shining starts with sunlight and stunning American landscapes, before plunging viewers into darkness, madness and death. I love this quote from the great man himself, taken from the book ‘Kubrick’ by Michel Ciment, which explains a little more about this legendary opening credits sequence.
Stanley Kubrick: “It was important to establish an ominous mood during Jack’s first drive up to the hotel … the vast isolation and eerie splendour of high mountains, and the narrow, winding roads which would become impassable after heavy snow. In fact, the roads we filmed for the title sequence are closed throughout the winter and only negotiable by tracked vehicles.”
“I sent a second-unit camera crew to Glacier National Park to shoot the title backgrounds but they reported that the place wasn’t interesting. When we saw the test shots they sent back we were staggered. It was plain that the location was perfect but the crew had to be replaced. I hired Greg MacGillivray, who is noted for his helicopter work, and he spent several weeks filming some of the most beautiful mountain helicopter shots I’ve seen.”
The Shining is more or less my favorite horror movie of all time, and you can be sure it will feature on this list again.
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