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While Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining has always been a deeply creepy watch, one fan theory makes the horror movie even scarier by positing that even the audience themselves are unknowingly playing a creepy role in its story. Stanley Kubrick’s take on The Shining was infamously divisive when the movie was released in 1980. While author Stephen King’s book was an acclaimed best-seller, Kubrick’s typically austere adaptation was met with a frosty critical reception. Reviewers at the time complained that The Shining was un-scary and that Kubrick’s cold, detached filmmaking style was a poor fit for the horror genre. However, these unimpressed write-ups were far from the last word on the movie.

In the decades since The Shining has become more than another great horror movie that critics dismissed. Nowadays, The Shining is seen as one of the most influential horror movies ever made. While King...

A fan finds a hidden detail in Jack Nicholson's performance in The Shining that has been overlooked. Based on the novel by Stephen King and directed by Stanley Kubrick, the 1980 horror film follows Nicholson as Jack Torrance whose sanity slowly begins to deteriorate during a stay at an isolated hotel with his family. Nicholson's performance is one of the most acclaimed parts of the movie and in one scene after Jack argues with his wife Wendy, he storms out of the room and briefly glances at the camera. Over the years, there's been debate over whether this was intentional.

Now, a new video essay by Filippo Ulivieri (ArchivioKubrick on YouTube) notices numerous instances throughout The Shining in which Nicholson looks right into the camera.

In addition to the aforementioned scene, the video points out every time that Jack Torrance looks at the camera, from early scenes when he first...