Frame from an unused take from The Shining. This alternate take of Wendy climbing the stairs of the Staff Wing was used in an American television commercial advertising The Shining upon its initial release.
The shot is interesting in that it features Wendy’s shadow with an outstretched, claw-like hand pose that is reminiscent of a similar shot in F.W. Murnau’s classic 1922 horror film, Nosferatu.
Stanley Kubrick spoke about how he deliberately wanted to avoid the iconography of traditional gothic horror film in his design of the Overlook Hotel sets. Yet, during the climax of The Shining, he seems to readily embrace classic horror film images in both shots like this as well as the later scene where Wendy discovers cobwebbed skeletons in the hotel lobby.