2. Tony & Lloyd (The Shining)
Like father, like son, eh? When the Torrance family become the temporary caretakers of the Overlook Hotel, it seems that all those open rooms, all that snow and all that boredom (and maybe just a smidgen of that pattern on the carpet) has a less than desirable effect on the male mind. For Danny (Danny Lloyd) a boy gifted/cursed with ESP, the hotel seems to be warning him of imminent danger. So it's a good job he's got an imaginary friend to keep him company. In Danny's words, Tony is ''a little boy who lives in my mouth''; a creepy and croaky voice Danny adopts as he bends his finger to mime talking. His mother Wendy (Shelley Duvall) is aware of Tony, but she's certainly not prepared to hear her son squawk ''Redrum! Redrum!'' like a parrot or answer her with the spine-tingling ,''Danny isn't here, Mrs Torrance''. For his writer father (Jack Nicholson, clearly rehearsing for The Joker), the life free from distraction should have been the perfect opportunity to stay hunched over a typewriter. Instead, he finds himself drawn to the Gold Room; once the site of decadent masquerade balls and now an empty, cavernous hall. Well,
almost empty. Jack pulls up a stool and is greeted by a ghostly bartender named Lloyd (Joe Turkel), who lends a supportive ear to his sole customer's whining and ensures he never runs dry. Solemn and subservient, he may or may not be a figment of Jack's imagination. Of course, the more Jack drinks (''You set 'em up and I'll knock 'em back!'' he grins), the quicker his thoughts turn sour- and soon he's chasing Wendy and Danny around the hotel with an axe. Probably not one for the photo album, then.