The Story Behind the Infamous Blood Gushing Elevator Scene From Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING

One of the most terrifying visual images ever put on film comes from Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic The Shining. There are a lot of crazy visuals in that film, but when those elevator doors slowly open and tons of blood comes gushing out… that is a crazy-ass, nightmarish visual that is seared into my memory and the memories of anyone else who saw the film!

Well, bringing that scene to life was no easy task for the production team involved with making it happen. These days, it would have all been done with CGI, but back then, they had to pull it off practically, for real! There was a lot riding on the scene, and when they shot it, it was so nerve-racking for Kubrick that he walked off the set before they started shooting. There was so much preparation that went into the scene and any number of things could have gone completely wrong.

In an old interview with  Yahoo Entertainment, Kubrick’s longtime personal assistant, Leon Vitali, opened up about the scene and how it came together and played out while shooting. When talking about Kubrick walking off set, he said:

“Stanley couldn’t bring himself to watch it. When we were all on set, Stanley said, ‘Keep an eye on it and tell me if anything goes wrong.’ And then he walked out!'”

This scene was not in Stephen King’s novel. In the novel, elevators at the Overlook contained party favors and confetti; they were the ghostly remnants of a party long since over. Vitali went on to talk about why Kubrick opted for the blood saying:

“What they were doing was trying to get to the essence of the story and do it in such a way that [each scene] had a dramatic purpose. All of that blood pouring out of the elevator told a little bit about the hotel becoming a character itself in a way.”

Vitali went on to talk about the preparation for shooting the scene saying:

“We spent weeks and weeks and weeks trying to get the quality and colour of the blood as natural as it could be. You didn’t want it too red. The consistency was also quite important, because we were pouring out hundreds of gallons of the stuff. And then, of course, there were the mechanics of it, because if you have that much pressure inside something like an elevator, it’s going to blow if you’re not careful.”

As for how the day of the shoot turned out, “the crew topped off the elevator compartment and then set up four cameras to capture the whole bloody affair, each one equipped with a different lens and film speed. Vitali remembers the camera operators climbing inside oversize wooden chests to avoid being doused in the red liquid that was doubling as human hemoglobin. And they had to work fast, because the elevator wasn’t going to be able to hold its liquid contents for long.” Vitali went on to say:

“The elevator was starting to leak before the doors actually opened. I think you see it in the film; it starts to seep through.”

Once action was called and Kubrick left the set, the elevator doors opened and a tidal wave of blood perfectly came pouring out:

“I tell you, it worked in a way we never thought it would work. That deluge of blood was picking up things like the sofas. It was such a violent volume of this red liquid coming at you; those of us who were in there thought, ‘My God — we’re doing to drown!’ When Stanley saw the footage, he was so happy. But at the time it was happening, he couldn’t watch.”

Damn, it must’ve been freakin’ wild to be on the set of the film that day to watch this scene being shot! It’s a shame Kubrick didn’t stick around to watch!