Note: Minor spoilers for The Shining and Ready Player One lie ahead…

Think about The Shining. What springs to mind? Is it the river of blood flowing through the Overlook Hotel? The sinister Grady Twins tormenting poor Danny Torrance? Maybe it’s Jack Nicholson crashing an axe through the bathroom door and shouting “here’s Johnny!”?

Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror strikes a chord with different viewers in different ways, mainly because it’s just so jam-packed with unforgettable screen moments. That’s a big reason why The Shining has become a legit masterpiece – we keep coming back to it again and again, revisiting these iconic sequences and finding new things to love each time.

The making of The Shining? Well that’s another remarkable story. Sure, putting together any film is a monumental challenge, but Kubrick’s perfectionism meant that The Shining took over a year to film, with the gargantuan Overlook Hotel sets taking over the entirety of the UK’s Elstree Studios.

At the heart of it all was Jack Nicholson as Overlook caretaker Jack Torrance, slowly losing his grip on sanity as winter takes hold. Kubrick did his bit to push his stars to the edge, resorting to wind-up merchant tactics like feeding Nicholson only cheese sandwiches on set for two weeks (which he hated!) and, according to Shelley Duvall, spending three days (and 60 doors!) getting the “here’s Johnny” scene just right.

Incidentally that line – the catchphrase of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show announcer Ed McMahon – was improvised by Nicholson. Kubrick had been living in the UK since 1962 and had no idea what the reference meant – but he kept it in the final cut and a legendary movie line was born.

Here, then, are a few extra geeky facts you might not know about The Shining in video form…

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Oh, and those endless pages reading “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”? According to editor Gordon Stainforth, they were all painstakingly typed up by the production secretary and several assistants (who sadly didn’t have the benefit of CTRL V and CTRL C at the time!).

The attention to detail didn’t end there. For foreign language versions of the film Kubrick refused to just translate that phrase with subtitles, instead coming up with different sentences to put on the reams of paper. So if you saw The Shining in Italy, you’d have been confronted with “Il mattino ha l’oro in bocca”. Translation? “The morning has gold in its mouth.”

The Shining was first shown to the world on May 23, 1980 and became a box office hit, making back more than double its production budget. It’s lived on far beyond that summer, though – 38 years later and it still casts a spell. Kubrick’s film, to paraphrase the Gradys, invites to you to come play forever and ever and ever…

It helps that the film has celebrity fans who continue to champion it. Martin Scorsese named it as one of his scariest movies of all time, Pixar Oscar winner Lee Unkrich runs a brilliant fansite dedicated to it, and Steven Spielberg counts his viewings in double figures. He even gave The Shining a loving tribute in Ready Player One, taking us on a dazzling virtual reality tour of the Overlook that brought Kubrick’s masterpiece to a new generation.

The final word? Let’s give that to Mr Spielberg. “I have seen The Shining 25 times, it’s one of my favourite pictures,” he says. “Kubrick films tend to grow on you, you have to see them more than once. I defy you to name one Kubrick film that you can turn off once you start it… it’s impossible.”

King Arthur hasn’t had a particularly easy ride at the cinema recently, but The Kid Who Would Be King is here to put his crown back on. 

The film will mark Joe Cornish’s second directorial effort after 2011’s Attack The Block, so expectations have been building for the last seven years to see what he does next. 

Pitched as a family fantasy action-adventure, the film stars 14-year-old newcomer Ashbourne Serkis (son of Andy) as a regular modern-day kid who finds Excalibur in a building site and inadvertently summons an army of Medieval demons, led by Rebecca Ferguson’s witch queen, Morgana.

The first trailer has arrived and it looks like everything a King Arthur movie should be – mixing Harry Potter-style kid magic, genuinely funny jokes and a whole lot of fantasy action involving dragons, big battle scenes and moving trees. If nothing else, it looks a lot better than Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur… 

The film also stars Patrick Stewart as Merlin (or one version of Merlin, according to the trailer), but the real hero looks to be Serkis, who already seems to be doing a great job of not acting like most other British child stars.

Find out for sure when the film opens on February 15^th, 2019. 

This review contains spoilers.

11.3 Rosa

When it was revealed that the third episode of this year’s Doctor Who run would feature the story of Rosa Parks, you could hear the collective clenching from the other side of the internet. After all, there were so many ways in which this could go horribly, horribly wrong. More than any historical figure the Doctor has met on their travels, Parks is such an important figure to so many people, and her fight such an emotive one.

In tackling events and subjects such as these, there are two major pitfalls that need to be avoided: First, the history needs to be handled with appropriate respect and reverence, and Parks not robbed of her agency. It’s all too easy to imagine a story written with the best of intentions which culminates in the Doctor having a hearts-to-heart with Rosa which inspires her to take a stand, and to do so would rob Parks’ actions of their meaning. The second pitfall is that it needs to do all of that while still working as a Doctor Who story.

The good news is that ‘Rosa’ absolutely does justice to the events that took place on that evening in 1955. To set the scene, we get a prologue of sorts as we witness Parks’ first encounter with James Blake in 1943, and it quickly becomes apparent that there’s very little sugarcoating for kids here – racial slurs are bandied around, and Blake’s actions are shockingly violent and aggressive from the outset. It’s uncomfortable viewing, and deliberately so – which should perhaps come as no surprise given that the episode was co-written by former Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman, whose Noughts And Crosses series of novels is set in a dystopian future fuelled by racism.

Rosa is played by Vinette Robinson, who manages to embody Parks with apparent ease. Though her accent is a little inconsistent at times, Robinson exudes both a quiet strength and a weariness at the continued injustices thrown her way. There’s a fire in her when she meets the TARDIS team, as she tells them in no uncertain terms to leave Montgomery or face the consequences.

Alarm bells may ring when the Doctor detects artron energy surrounding Parks – the notion of Rosa Parks having travelled in time is one that would rightly make this episode the subject of much scorn and derision – but for the most part the Doctor and her friends don’t have any direct influence on Rosa. They’re running around in the background, undoing the meddling and making sure that history runs its course. It’s a fine line to walk, having the Doctor and friends going to great pains to engineer the situation on the bus, but Blackman and Chris Chibnall make sure that the time travellers are silent observers to the pivotal events.

Which brings us to the one scene everyone will remember this episode by in years to come. I recently rewatched David Tennant’s swansong ‘The End Of Time’, and the most heartbreaking moment isn’t the Doctor whining a teary farewell in the TARDIS – it’s the four knocks from Wilf, trapped in the radiation chamber. In that moment we see the inevitable tragedy that’s about to happen, our characters trapped in events that they – and we – are powerless to stop.

It’s the same here; the Doctor realising they have to stay on the bus and be present for Parks’ protest and arrest hits the team – and the audience – square in the stomach. Bradley Walsh has been somewhat inconsistent as Graham, but when he’s good he’s fantastic – and his protestations that “I don’t want to be a part of this!” are gut-wrenching. It’s then down to Vinette Robinson to deliver the killer blow, which she does – and it’s every bit as powerful as it needs to be, set to the strains of Andra Day’s ‘Rise Up’. As the episode ends, it is unlikely that there is anyone watching who will forget the story of Rosa Parks.

So, how does ‘Rosa’ fare as a Doctor Who story? It’s at this point that we need to talk about the nature of Doctor Who as a series. A key part of the show’s original 1963 remit was that it would be as educational as it was fantastical; and as such the Doctor and his friends would regularly encounter real-life historical figures and situations with no concession towards science fiction other than the TARDIS itself.

Of the eight stories that comprised the first season (as they were referred to by the production team of the time) of Doctor Who, three were pure historicals – focusing on Marco Polo, the Aztecs and the French Revolution. Indeed, three of the four episodes that made up the very first serial revolved around cavemen and the discovery of fire. This idea continued through the first few years of the show, until it was phased out in favour of the heavier sci-fi and monster-led installments. Between early 1967 and today, there’s been exactly one ‘pure historical’ story – 1982’s ‘Black Orchid’.

However, Chris Chibnall has spoken repeatedly about his desire to return the educational focus to Doctor Who, and while ‘Rosa’ isn’t quite devoid of sci-fi elements, it’s arguably the closest the post-2005 series has come to the old historical format by a comfortable margin. For all the nerves around the episode’s subject matter, it’s here that the episode is most likely to prove divisive; in deviating so far from the style that we’re used to, viewers tuning in specifically for a slice of sci-fi adventure are going to be left sorely disappointed.

Simply put, the plot involving Krasko (Joshua Bowman) is almost insultingly flimsy. Tooled up with a vortex manipulator like a cut-price Captain Jack, Krasko’s meddling is so low-key and mundane that, rather than being a menace, he never rises above the level of minor nuisance, subjecting the TARDIS crew to minor inconvenience at every turn. With his technology taken away and it established that he can’t harm or kill anyone, no amount of dialogue from the regulars telling us how clever Krasko is can stop him from being one of the most impotent villains the series has produced.

All of which wouldn’t be so bad if the character had any discernible personality or charisma to add to proceedings. Flimsy motivations are papered over with a fan-pleasing continuity reference (The Stormcage being the prison where River Song was locked up), and Joshua Bowman’s lines are so workmanlike that it’s little wonder the Doctor is apathetic enough to let him walk free after their last confrontation. The fact that he’s dispatched with such ease by Ryan ends up being annoying not because it’s an anti-climax but because the manner of his departure suggests we may end up having to see him again.

Ultimately, the Krasko storyline feels like an afterthought. It’s as though the Rosa Parks story was written with great care and attention as a purely historical tale, and then at the last minute someone got cold feet and threw in a bit of sci-fi. Perhaps a better tack to take would have been to have the Doctor’s arrival and initial interaction with Parks threatening history, Back To The Future-style. That way the Doctor and friends would still have needed to set things back on the right course, but in a way that focused on the core team rather than needing to shoehorn in a ‘baddy’.

Because really, these events didn’t need outside assistance to contain a sense of menace. ‘Rosa’ is unflinching in its depiction of the casual – and not-so-casual – racism prevalent in 1950s America. With one or two notable exceptions, Doctor Who’s handling of racism has, until now, been largely allegorical – see the xenophobia of the Daleks, or the slavery inflicted upon the Ood. But here it’s starkly painted. Violence is inflicted upon characters for the colour of their skin, authority figures are the enemy and we hear words that would have no place in pretty much any other Doctor Who episode.

For many, this will seem jarring and uncomfortable – and it’s supposed to be. Because for many others, the events and behaviours in this story will be upsettingly familiar – you only need to look at the footage captured this week of a passenger hurling racial abuse at a woman in her 70s aboard a plane to realise how much progress there is still to be made, and how important it is that we don’t shy away from tackling these issues.

It should be said that, for all of the discomfort and real-world evil in this episode, it’s not a complete gloomfest. The four regulars all possess real comic chops, and there’s some real laughs to be found in the darkness – the Doctor hinting at being Banksy and Ryan repeatedly calling Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King by their full names being two of the best examples of this. Put simply, the characters bring the lightness with them – there’s even a hint at a potential romance between Ryan and Yas.

‘Rosa’ is not a typical Doctor Who episode. The subject matter is heavy, the pace is slower than usual – presumably to allow the full horror of the setting to sink in – and the sci-fi elements are sorely lacking. But as a one-off it’s a powerful piece of drama, and one which is sure to have families talking to one another about it long after the end credits have rolled.

Read Pete’s spoiler-filled review of the previous episode, The Ghost Monument, here.

How do you make the scariest film ever? Slap a priest in the chops, injure your leading lady and unexpectedly spray pea soup right in the kisser of your leading man, according to the notorious production history of William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. And boy did it pay off.

William Peter Blatty’s screenplay, adapted from his novel about about the possession of 12-year-old Regan MacNeil was hot property in Hollywood right from the off, with a range of top tier directors courted for the gig. It was Blatty who insisted on Friedkin though, because of Friedkin’s uncensored honesty on a previous script of Blatty’s. The story goes that Friedkin turned down a directing gig on TV show Peter Gunn because it had, according to Friedkin, “the worst script I ever read.” It was Blatty’s script. Blatty thanked him for his honesty and went to bat for him. When Friedkin’s The French Connection hit big, the studio acquiesced.

To say the shoot was challenging was an understatement. Renegade Friedkin used all manner of unorthodox techniques to eke iconic performances from his cast. Including, yep, slapping real life priest William O’Malley across the face before a key scene, blind-siding star Jason Miller by unexpectedly directing Regan’s pea-soup puke into his face, and including the real life-screams of Ellen Burstyn after a stunt gone wrong caused her an injury.

Unconventional? Um, yes. Not to be encouraged? No sir. “I got fired about five times from The Exorcist!” Friedkin even told The Guardian back in 2013… No kidding…

But you can’t argue with the results. The movie smashed it at the box office becoming one of the two highest grossing films that year, was critically adored (and still tops ‘scariest ever’ lists) and even attracted the attention of the Academy.

Here are some more extra-nerdy facts…

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So why so damn scary? Is it the semi-subliminal image of demon Pazuzu that pops up when you least expect it? It it Regan’s foul mouth, green vom, spinning head and terrifying visage? Is it the unshakable feeling of creeping dread throughout? Yes to all those things. But for us at Den of Geek it could be the indelible images of a priest punching a 12-year-old and the hesitation of a mother, afraid to comfort her weeping child.

“You take from The Exorcist what you bring to it. If you believe that the world is a dark and evil place, then The Exorcist will re-affirm that,” Friedkin says. Is it about a crisis of faith? Catholic guilt? Fear of teenage girls going through puberty? Or is it literally about a little girl who gets possessed by a demon? You don’t have to just pick one! Whatever you bring to the film, you’re sure to leave with the bejesus scared out of you…

Hello! We have a very quick favour to ask. We’re running a TV survey that’s incredibly helpful to us and – we promise! – will hardly take up much of your time at all. There’s even a chance to enter a draw and win some vouchers at the end of it (just in time for a pre-Christmas spending spree!).

If you have the time to help we would be eternally grateful.

Here’s the link to those questions:

https://www.demographix.com/surveys/TWHI-SO67/QYE9VLTA?source=1

As always, thank you for your help!

Hello! We have a very quick favour to ask. We’re running a TV survey that’s incredibly helpful to us and – we promise! – will hardly take up much of your time at all. There’s even a chance to enter a draw and win some vouchers at the end of it.

If you have the time to help we would be eternally grateful.

Here’s the link to those questions:

https://www.demographix.com/surveys/TWHI-SO67/QYE9VLTA?source=1

As always, thank you for your help!

Contains spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War. 

The end of Avengers: Infinity War was so shocking that most of us forgot about what happened at the start. No more that a few minutes into the film, Idris Elba’s Heimdall and Tom Hiddlestone’s Loki both get savagely killed by Thanos. 

It was a brilliant way of letting us know what the stakes were for the rest of the film, but it was also a pretty sad way to send off one of the MCU’s best good/bad guys. Loki has died before (and vanished before, and turned “good” before), but this time it really did seem to be the end for Thor’s brother. We all know that most of the supers who “died” at the end of the movie are coming back to life in Avengers 4, but since Loki quite visibly had his neck snapped, it seems unlikely that he’ll just magically turn up with the others.  

Unless… 

One popular fan theory calls attention to the fact that Loki tries to stab Thanos with his left hand, instead of his right – suggesting that he might have been using a projection of himself as a distraction. According to Screen Rant, Hiddleston looked visibly surprised when someone asked him about it at ACE Comic Con in Chicago last weekend, and refused to say anything but, “your guess is as good as mine”. 

Not exactly a confirmation, but since we know that Hiddleston is probably set to reprise the role of Loki in a spin-off MCU TV show at some point in the future, it does seem to offer a glimmer of hope for fans of the God of Mischief. With Avengers 4 reportedly tying up so many loose ends, it’s unlikely that Marvel is going to want to set the TV show in the past.  

Is anyone actually staying dead in Avengers 4? Apart from the obvious, probably not.