Razzie Award Founders Stand By ‘The Shining’ Nomination, But Would Rescind Shelley Duvall’s ‘Worst Actress’ Nod

Rachel West -AP

More than 40 years after the Razzie Awards nominated Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining", the organization's founders say they stand by the film's nod for Worst Director, but not its Worst Actress nomination for Shelley Duvall. Ultimately, the film won neither award, with Duvall losing to Brooke Shields in "The Blue Lagoon" and Kubrick losing to "Xanadu" director Robert Greenwald.


Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, and Jack Nicholson in "The Shining"

Though the critically-acclaimed adaptation of Stephen King's novel is considered a classic horror film, founders John J.B. Wilson and Maureen Murphy are adamant in their displeasure of the film, saying they "didn't care for" Kubrick's adaptation.

"The voting membership the very first year were largely people that Maureen and I worked with at a trailer company," Wilson tells Vulture of the inaugural 1980 awards that recognize the "worst" in film. "A group of us who had read Stephen King’s novel went to see ‘The Shining’ the night it opened at the Chinese, and we didn’t care for what Kubrick had done with the novel. The novel was far more visually astounding, far more terrifying, far more compelling, and we couldn’t understand why you would buy a novel that had all of that visual opportunity in it and then not do the topiary thing, not do the snakes in the carpet, not do the kids’ visions. If you’re going to say it’s ‘The Shining,’ you have to have certain key things in there that were not."

"And as I understand it, Kubrick was the one who decided what they cut out from the novel. So I don’t feel that badly about Stanley Kubrick," Wilson adds, while Murphy calls the famed director "overrated."

Murphy says she would rescind Duvall's nomination for Worst Actress in "The Shining".

"Knowing the backstory and the way that Stanley Kubrick kind of pulverized her, I would take that back," she says. "We’re willing to say, 'Yeah, maybe that shouldn’t have been nominated.' Everybody makes mistakes. That’s being human."

Two years ago, Wilson wrote about Duvall's nomination in a 2020 Razzie Retrospective, writing, in part, "Shelley Duvall’s shrill, one-note, over-the-top hysterical performance as Nicholson’s wife was among our ten inaugural Worst Actress nominees. In defense of Duvall, we learned later, that Kubrick apparently drove her to the brink of madness due to his abusive behaviour. He subsequently got labelled a genius (by some) and she coo-coo. We suspect he badgered her into a cowering performance and in retrospect, we would like to place the blame solely on him."