Revisiting The Shining reveals Shelley Duvall’s Wendy as a proto-action hero
A new analysis of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film argues that Shelley Duvall’s performance as Wendy Torrance is the true anchor of the movie, not Jack Nicholson’s. Duvall, who died in 2024, portrayed a grounded, resourceful woman trapped in a dangerous marriage, creating a realistic horror dynamic that contrasts with Nicholson’s flamboyant, B-movie style acting. The piece suggests that Duvall’s subtle, evolving portrayal made Wendy a competent survivor and de facto action hero, a role that predated similar female leads in Alien and The Terminator by several years.
