CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/31/2026

Halloween Horror from The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

When it comes to cinematic realism and horror, you can’t do better than Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 masterpiece, The Shining. Pictured here, from Halloween Staff Pick The Horror Show, Jack Nicholson as family man Jack Torrance on his steady descent into madness. “Psychological horror’s appeal makes it deeply personal,” Tananarive Due writes, “which is why so many modern horror classics use the characters’ psychological issues, including those rooted in familial and spousal relationships, as the engine even when a supernatural element is also present. Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, adapted from the novel by Stephen King, chronicles the mental breakdown of an alcoholic writer, Jack Torrance, as he is possessed by the spirits in a haunted hotel. Jack’s history of alcoholism and child abuse makes him vulnerable to malevolent entities. The fantastic horror imagery of creepy twin girls or an elevator gushing blood is unforgettable, but many viewers are equally terrified when they watch his wife, Wendy, discover that ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’ is the only sentence typed on page after page of Jack’s ‘novel’—a shocking illustration of his madness even before he picks up the axe.”