8 Intense Real-Life Stories Behind Famous Movies

Stanley Kubrick's infamous horror movie is well known as the adaptation of Stephen King's novel of the same name, The Shining. What's less well known, however, is that the basis for the story was born from a real life haunting. Or at least, as real-life as hauntings are, in whatever opinion you might hold.

In any case, The Stanley Hotel was the initial backdrop for King's narrative. Regarded as one of the most haunted buildings in America, King spent one night in the hotel in 1974 with his wife Tabitha - and as luck would have it - they were the only two guests for the night.

It's here that King experienced the room now made infamous up and down the country, number 217, apparently home to a chambermaid destined to eternally clean the place after being electrocuted in 1911.

King noted an experience of a range of different apparitions, including children roaming the halls and the ghostly ballroom scene that's featured in the cinematic version.

He also had a nightmare so poignant that it fuelled his will to write the novel: one of his three-year-old son being chased through the hotel by a fire hose. Importantly, it was also a point in his life where he was struggling with alcoholism.

It all comes together to make his story of a haunted hotel out to kill an alcoholic father, and his son, all the more resonant.