5. All Work And No Play
One of the most important plot lines from The Shining does not involve supernatural incidences or terrifying visions, but rather the mental degradation of Jack Torrance, who suffers from serious cabin fever. It is conceivable that the film could still have this plot line even without the appearance of the supernatural, which makes it even more terrifying as at the start Jack is just a seemingly ordinary husband and father. The scene with Jack's typewriter and intimidation of Wendy envelops the theme of cabin fever displayed in The Shining. Wendy comes across the typewriter where Jack has supposedly been working on, however she soon realises that rather than work, the machine acts as a window into Jack's disturbed psyche. All that he has written upon a seemingly endless stream of pages is, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." The image of a man typing out the same line over and over again upon hundreds of pages of paper is a sobering thought; suggesting that he is mentally unstable and disturbed.
Upon viewing this, Jack appears behind Wendy and intimidatingly edges her further and further back until they are on the stairs, up until this point Jack has only terrorised Wendy with his sinister tone rather than any actual threats, but it is here that he menacingly torments Wendy: "Wendy. Darling. Light of my life. I'm not gonna hurt you. You didn't let me finish my sentence. I said I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just gonna bash your brains in. I'm gonna bash 'em right the f**k in!" The positioning of the camera here also contributes to the fear instilled in the audience, as it is placed just behind Wendy's shoulder, so it appears that Jack is not only coming for Wendy, but for the viewer as well.