Shelley Duvall, the actress who played Wendy Torrance in The Shining, is returning to film for the first time in 20 years in the upcoming horror film The Forest Hills.
As reported by Deadline, Duvall will star in the indie horror-thriller from writer-director Scott Goldberg, and she will 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 enduring head trauma while camping in the Catskill Mountains.”
Duvall will play the mother of Mendez’s character Rico, who is “mentally and emotionally disturbed.” Furthermore, Duvall’s character will also serve as Rico’s inner voice throughout the film. You can check out the first behind-the-scenes still of Duvall from The Forest Hills below.
“We are 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 delivered in their movies, along with perfect scores and elements that make them my personal favorites,” said Goldberg. “Shelley contributed to The Shining being an absolute masterpiece by giving her all, and performing in a way that really showcased the fear and horror of a mother in isolation.”
Duvall was last seen on the big screen in 2002’s Manna from Heaven as Detective Dubrinski, and she announced her retirement from acting following the release of the film. Prior to her retirement, she had an impressive career that earned her a Cannes Film Festival Award, a Peabody Award, and nominatioons for a British Academy Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
She’s starred as Olive Oyl in Robert Altman’s live-action Popeye film, as Dame Pansy in Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits, and many more. She also appeared in supporting roles in such films as Steven Soderbergh’s The Underneath and Woody Allen’s Annie Hall.
The Shining is one of the most celebrated horror films of all time, but, according to Duvall’s chat with THR, it was not an easy film to create. Over the 56-week shoot, Duvall said that she was required to cry nearly 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 alone would make me cry. To wake up on a Monday morning, so early, and realize that you had to cry all day because it was scheduled — I would just start crying.”
For more, check out where The Shining ranks on our list of the 25 best horror movies of all time and on 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 on Twitch.