Mark VS Wendy Torrance

So here I am, over at my dad's house, and we've just finished sitting down and enjoying the classic that is 'The Shining'. Now, don't get me wrong here, The Shining is not only one of my favourite books, but I also think the film is almost as good (bits missing aside.) It's a great film, but who on earth wrote Wendy's script/casted her for the film/done anything involving her? The worst, and admitedly most funny part of this film has to be Wendy's antics. For all of you that don't know, Wendy is Jack's wife - there's a lot of backstory concerning their marriage that I don't need to get into here. Throughout the entire film, she spouts off a load of increasingly worse lines, moans, noises - it's no wonder Jack's going insane here. I've managed to compile a list of sorts, of Mrs. Torrance's greatest moments and blunders. (It's almost spoiler free, if you haven't seen/read the Shining then be advised, there's a few lying around)

1. The scene where she 'interupts' Jack writing - One of the funniest moments of the bombshell of a marriage that Jack and Wendy share. As Jack happily types his new book, Wendy comes fleeting in, all 'hey Jack, you wanna go for a walk?'. Now, I do understand that Jack is beginning to go slightly crazy by now, but still, I think i'd have the same reaction to this. As she tries to reason with him, she gives crap arguments 'Jack, maybe i'll make you a sandwich!' I'm guessing she has absolutely no previous knowledge on arguing with a slow-turning-insane-madman, but making him a sandwich will probably not deter him from attempting to kill you with an axe. Unless it was a good sandwich. Maybe if Jack agreed then she made him a lovely BLT then the entire mayhem could have been stopped. Who knows.

2. The scene when she pathetically swings a baseball bat at Jack to stop him from approaching - Not only does this do no good for the majority of the scene, but the acting at this point just stoops below below average. She is instantly transformed into a whimpering flop. The actual scene basically speaks for itself. It goes a little like this -

[Wendy] "Jack! Stay away! Jack! Jack! *swings bat* Jack! Stay away!"
   ....5 minutes later....
[Wendy] "Jack! Stay away! Jack! Jack! *swings bat* Jack! Stay away!"

Of course it does end up quite well after she knocks him down the stairs, but she's hardly creating a frighening persona.

3. Wendy forgetting the concept of a lock - When trying to stuff Jack's body in the food store, did anyone else notice how she took at least (what felt like) four years to try and open the door? How she pulled and pulled but it just wouldn't open? And then, suddenly, she realised 'It's locked'? I don't need to comment much further on this.

4. Wendy throwing away the knife - Sure, her son was safe, but she didn't know that, did she? She could've kept the knife just for safety precaution, she was of course being chased by an insane axe-wielding Jack Nicholson for the past ten minutes! But, no. She doesn't need a knife.

Perhaps you really need to see the film for any of this to make sense. But seriously, those are my 4 favourite 'Wendy' moments. I might make that into a phrase! 'She's doing a Wendy!' Got a nice ring to it.
...Seriously though, what was Kubrick thinking?!

Mark, out.

xxxx