"YOU are the caretaker"

For tonight's second countdown to Halloween's post, one of my favourite scenes from one of my favourite horror movies. Again it belongs to psychological horror: there is no gore, not even a jump scene (although the film has a good deal of both). From this post's title, you will of course recognised The Shining, and more particularly that scene in the gentlemen's room, when Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) talks to a butler who turns out to be the ghost of Grady, his predecessor, who committed suicide after murdering his wife and daughters. Grady is played by Philip Stone, a great underrated British actor. He is the one who really makes the scene work I think, making Nicholson's character more and more uneasy as the scene progresses, until he looks genuinely worried and maybe a bit scared himself. And I love how gradually and so seamlessly Stone turns Grady from a helpful butler into this pure malevolent figure, fanatically devoted to the Overlook. The reveal happening, of course, with the fateful line: "I'm sorry to differ with you sir, but YOU are the caretaker, you've always been the caretaker. I should know sir: I've always been here." It gets me every time.