Forever Scary - The Shining Twins

Warning - this post is a bit scary and rather gory.

Still here? Great. Please read on :)

Following on from my book review of Doctor Sleep (The Shining, Book 2) I thought I'd share with you a picture of the twins from the very famous film of The Shining. Don't they look like perfectly nice ladies, which I'm sure they are.

However, I will always see them like this.

What images remain with you, long after you have read them in books, or viewed them in films? Many say the scene of Jack looking at the window whilst Danny and Wendy play in the Overlook's maze is truly scary. It is - you see a man having a mental breakdown on screen. It is amazing cinema.

When I was writing my own horror, Dark Winter, I wanted to feature a demonic ghost girl too, and my 'Dana' looks like this. (Thanks to OS for this image). Dana is not just a ghost, she's a witch, a succubus, a demon, a vampire. Basically not girl-friend material, unless having your guts ripped out are your kind of thing.

Going back to the Twins for a moment, I wonder why it scares me so much. I can recall every detail of seeing them....the wallpaper design around them, the colour of their dresses, the dead eyed look of the one twin, and the half-smile of the other. My take on the scene was the the girl on our right was genuinely scared, and the other girl was thinking 'oh, that's a play-axe...Daddy wouldn't really kill us!'

Regardless of how Dana is, I admire her as a character and I think the story would have been weaker without her. That said...I was in a Subway the other day grabbing a sandwich, and the server was called Dana.

A bit too close to comfort for me. I paid for the sandwich and left. Quickly.

I promise to get back to less gory posts next time! So long as Dana leaves me alone....