© Getty Images

Stanley Kubrick -

Stanley Kubrick may have been a genius, but he was notoriously difficult to work with.

© Getty Images

Ambitious production -

He put his whole cast and crew through a huge amount of extra work by deciding to film the scenes in chronological order. Most movies are filmed as efficiently as possible, coordinating the filming of scenes that include the same actors, costumes, and settings.

© Getty Images 

Over time and over budget -

Kubrick filmed most of the scenes in their correct order so he could make changes to the script if necessary, as the story played out in front of him. This more than doubled the predicted production time.

© BrunoPress

Kubrick's many takes -

He had a reputation for pushing his cast to the edge in order to get the best performance out of them. He reportedly drove 70-year-old actor Scatman Crothers (right) to tears when he forced him to repeat a scene with no words 60 times.

© Getty Images

Scatman Crothers -

Crothers simply had to sit on a bed and pretend to receive a telepathic communication. He eventually broke down, unable to understand what the director wanted from him.

© Getty Images

Scatman Crothers -

Kubrick also had Crothers repeat a relatively simple scene 148 times. The scene showed Crothers explaining his telepathic abilities to the child actor who played Danny, himself named Danny Lloyd.

© BrunoPress

Poor Danny -

Danny Lloyd retired from acting shortly after this movie. Too much for him?

© Getty Images

Shelley Duvall -

Kubrick is said to have had the most tense relationship with late actress Shelley Duvall.

© Getty Images 

Wendy -

Duvall played Wendy, a woman isolated in an empty hotel with her young son and her husband as he slowly descends into madness.

© Getty Images 

True hysteria -

Kubrick made the cast repeat their scenes endlessly to create a more authentic sense of desperation and distress. In the scene where Wendy waves a baseball bat at Jack as he approaches her with threats to bash her head in, her hysteria is probably real.

© BrunoPress

Unbearable -

Kubrick had Shelley Duvall repeat this scene 127 times. After the film was released, Duvall said that working with him was almost unbearable.

© NL Beeld

A nightmare year -

It took more than a year to complete the production. Duvall said that she spent the final nine months of filming crying hysterically (as her role required) for 12 hours a day, five or six days a week.

© Getty Images

Nicholson's naps -

Fellow crew members say that lead actor Jack Nicholson used to sleep on the floor in between scenes because he was so exhausted.

© Getty Images 

The ax incident -

In one of the takes of the scene where Nicholson’s character has to break through the door with an ax, he nearly axed a crew member by accident!

© Getty Images 

The ax incident -

Nicholson was hyping himself up for the scene by jumping around and started to swing the ax. A crew member had to jump out of the way, making a narrow escape.

© Getty Images

The twins -

Lisa and Louise Burns who played the ghost twins told the Daily Mail that they only had one chance to get their famous scene right.

© BrunoPress

One shot -

They only had one set of their iconic blue dresses, so the scene where they were drenched in blood couldn’t be repeated! This must have been a lot of pressure, considering Kubrick’s preference for doing multiple takes.

© BrunoPress

Nicholson's scene -

While the movie was based on the book by Stephen King and the screenplay was written by Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson, one scene was actually written by Jack Nicholson.

© Getty Images 

Real-life inspiration -

There’s a moment in the film where Jack flips out at his wife for interrupting his writing, showing the first signs of his deterioration. Nicholson revealed that he had a similar fight with his own wife when he was writing a screenplay, and Kubrick had him write the dialogue based on his experience.

© BrunoPress

Husband of the year -

If you’ve seen the movie, then you’ll probably be feeling sorry for Jack Nicholson’s ex-wife right now...

© Getty Images

The locations -

Stanley Kubrick is said to have been terrified of flying, so he had ‘The Shining’ filmed in London. Only the outdoor shots of the hotel were filmed at the Timberline Lodge in Oregon. He sent his crew over so he didn’t have to fly.

© Getty Images 

The haunted room -

In Stephen King’s book, the most haunted room in the hotel is number 217. The Timberline Lodge owner requested that this number be changed, so future guests weren’t too scared to sleep in that room!

© Getty Images 

Room 237 -

Kubrick changed the haunted room number to room 237, which doesn’t actually exist at the Timberline Lodge.

© Shutterstock

The London set -

Since most of the movie was filmed in London, elaborate sets had to be built to create the vast rooms of the hotel.

© NL Beeld

The fire -

In a nightmare accident, a fire broke out at the studio and destroyed much of the set. Filming had to be halted while they were rebuilt.

© BrunoPress

The snow -

The scenes filmed in the snow were also part of the set.

© Getty Images

The snow -

The fake snow was made out of formaldehyde and roughly 900 tons of salt. In some places, the salt was 12 inches (30 cm) deep.

© Getty Images

Months of work - Kubrick’s secretary, Margaret Warrington, had to spend months on a typewriter creating hundreds of pages covered in the famous text: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

© iStock

The unsung hero of 'The Shining' -

In the movie, Shelley Duvall’s character discovers a huge stack of papers with these words typed over and over again. As usual, Kubrick forced her to do this scene multiple times, so Warrington had to type fresh copies for each scene.

Sources: (Cinemablend) (E!) (Ranker)

© BrunoPress

What next? - Check out this list of 30 of the greatest horror movies of all time.

© Getty Images