For my money, The
Shining (1980) is the scariest movie ever made, and the book is
frightening as well. There are numerous reasons for this, but one of
the main ones is that damn woman in Room 237 (217 in the book). When
Danny foolishly enters the room, the film cuts away, and later it is
left ambiguous who put those marks on his neck. The film does this to
heighten the psychological tension that results from Wendy's
suspicion of Jack. The book, however, is pretty unambiguous. Danny
sees a dead, decaying woman rising from the bathtub and stumbles away
in terror; huddled against a wall, he closes his eyes and reminds
himself that she will go away in a little while, like a dream, when
he opens his eyes; and that ghosts, the residues left by the dead,
can't actually hurt living people. And then fingers begin to close
around his throat...
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