Movie Millisecond: The Shining, “Zing.” edition

The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980).

Movie Moment: The Shining, an introduction to the Overlook edition

“Now, Mr. Torrance, one thing you must know is that the hotel is haunted. Horribly, horribly haunted. That’s cool, right?”

Uh-oh, he’s not going for it. Sell it, sell it!

“But the good news is, the ghosts keep a full bar, and your tab is on the house!”

Jack is sold.

The actual lines go like this:

ULLMAN: My predecessor in this job hired a man named Charles Grady as the winter caretaker. He came up with his wife and little girls. And from what l’ve been told, he seemed ike a completely normal individual. But at some point during the winter he must have suffered some kind of a complete mental breakdown. He ran amuck and killed his family with an ax. Stacked them neatly in a room in the west wing, and then … he put both barrels of his shotgun in his mouth.

JACK: That is … quite a story.

ULLMAN: Yeah, it is. l think you can appreciate why l wanted to tell you about it.

JACK: l certainly can. l also understand why your people in Denver left it for you to tell me.

ULLMAN: Obviously, some people can be put off from staying in a place where something like that happened.

JACK: You can rest assured that’s not going to happen with me. And as far as my wife is concerned l’m sure she’ll be absolutely fascinated when l tell her.

Oh, of course. Yes, ol’ Wendy just loves a good scare. It is the most overriding facet of her personality, in my opinion: her ability to handle a frightening situation with a steady mind and plucky aplomb, and not descend into horror or panic and despair.

Oh, wait … I guess her most overriding characteristic is that she comes completely fucking unglued at the drop of a hat.