Stanley Kubrick's iconic horror flick is noted largely for Jack Nicholson's terrifying central performance as a man losing his grip on reality, ending with a sequence in which he chases his wife and son around the hotel, intent on hacking them to pieces with an axe. Jack ends up freezing to death in a hedge maze while his family makes their escape, but the final image has been taunting and bewildering audiences for decades: a photo of Jack at the hotel with some guests, dated 1921. As if making Jack Torrance cinema's go-to-psychopath wasn't enough, Kubrick threw in this curve ball to keep audiences talking until the end of time. There are countless theories about the highly ambiguous image, perhaps chiefly that the Overlook Hotel has basically "claimed" Jack and trapped him there forever, though due to the nature of the picture, there's no clear, evident correct answer, and it will continue to baffle viewers forever. Creepy and thought-provoking, this is in effect even more unsettling than the earlier images of Jack hacking the door to pieces with an axe, or his goofy frozen grimace in the hedge maze.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
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