Shelley Duvall, the actress who played Wendy Torrance in The Shining, is returning to the big screen for the first time in 20 years in the upcoming horror film The Forest Hills.
As reported by Deadline, Duvall will star in writer-director Scott Goldberg’s indie horror thriller and join a cast that includes Edward Furlong, Chiko Mendez and Dee Wallace. As for the film itself, it “follows a disturbed man who is tormented by nightmarish visions after suffering a head injury while camping in the Catskill Mountains.”
Duvall will play the mother of Mendez’s character, Rico, who is “mentally and emotionally disturbed.” Additionally, Duvall’s character will also serve as Rico’s inner voice throughout the film. You can see Duvall’s first behind-the-scenes look from The Forest Hills below.
Image credit: Dreznick Goldberg Productions/Deadline
“We’re huge fans of The Shining and it’s honestly one of my favorite horror movies of all time, up there with John Carpenter’s Halloween and George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead with the dark tones they brought to their films, along with perfect scores and elements that make them my personal favorites,” said Goldberg. “Shelley helped make The Shining an absolute masterpiece by giving it her all and performing in a way that really brought out the fear and terror of a mother in isolation.”
Duvall last appeared on the big screen in 2002’s Manna from Heaven as Detective Dubrinsky and announced her retirement from acting after the film’s release. Before her retirement, she had an impressive career that earned her an award at the Cannes Film Festival, a Peabody Award, and nominations for a British Academy Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
She has starred as Olive Oyl in Robert Altman’s live-action Popeye, as Dame Pansy in Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits, and more. She also appeared in supporting roles in films such as Steven Soderbergh’s The Underneath and Woody Allen’s Annie Hall.
The Shining is one of the most famous horror movies of all time, but according to Duvall’s conversation with THR, it was not an easy film to make. During the 56-week shoot, Duvall said she had to cry almost every day.
“After a while, your body rebels. It says, ‘Stop doing this to me. I don’t want to cry every day’. And sometimes just that thought would make me cry. To wake up on a Monday morning, so early, and realize you had to cry all day because it was planned — I would just start crying.” .
For more, see where The Shining ranks on our list of the 25 best horror movies of all time and our list of the best Stephen King movies.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and up Drawing.
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