Comparing Lisa and Louise Burns from back in their movie days as the Grady twins to now is like night and day since they’re no longer the creepy kids that asked Danny Torrance to come play with them, but grown women that still attend the conventions now and again so as to uphold their legacy as it were. Honestly, if you were a kid riding your Big Wheel down a long hallway and were suddenly approached by two young girls that had no earthly business being there, how in the world would you react? It’s been stated that Stanley Kubrick kept Danny Lloyd away from the more horrifying visions that he filmed, but one has to wonder just how much Danny actually saw during his time on the set. The Grady twins were after all, as Michael Kennedy from ScreenRant reminds us, the poor young girls that were chopped down by their father after he went around the bend. As just two of the ghosts that inhabit the Overlook they’re also among the creepiest since they do manage to come back in Doctor Sleep, the movie that just opened up today and is already being discussed by a number of columnists and opinion writers.
The twins don’t have any regrets it would seem about the fame that they gained from the movie since quite honestly it did allow them to go down in cinematic history no matter how much the movie was never really endorsed by the author. But honestly, omitting their part in the movie would have been a huge mistake that thankfully the director of Doctor Sleep didn’t make. The Grady twins were among the creepiest of the ghosts since their dead-eyed expression and the fact that Danny actually ‘saw’ their dead, hacked apart bodies is enough to think that there was a good reason why his imaginary friend “Tony” needed to take over from time to time. If nothing else, the imaginary friend was there to spare Danny from the horror that might have sent him around the bend. The fact that the Grady twins are among the most disturbing ghosts in the hotel wasn’t really something that made it into the first movie since Kubrick had a very odd but distinctive vision that may or may not have really come through for a lot of people given that some folks liked it and others wondered why he didn’t stick closer to the book.
When you think about it though the technology of the time wasn’t exactly up to the task of creating absolutely everything that was needed from the book and there were likely a few things that Kubrick might have included had he been able to produce the means to make such things possible. The topiary animals for instance would have been nice to see, but again, the technology back then just wasn’t great enough that it would have panned out. In fact if you watch the movie carefully you might see a few errors here and there that might have been done on purpose but could have just as easily been huge mistakes. In fact if you watch carefully you might notice that the famous hedge maze is somehow not present at some point in the movie, near the beginning when we’re given a better look at the place. Whatever you want to say about Kubrick, and there’s plenty depending on who you ask, he did create a chilling masterpiece, but it wasn’t without its faults.
Another thought is that the twins were yet another indication that when it comes to the movies, especially horror, no one is exempt in any way. Some people might want to think that children might be off limits when it comes to horror movies, but that’s only if the writers are told to give them an out, no matter how inexplicable it might be. Kids in horror movies aren’t safe no matter how much people might want them to be since the truth of the matter is that kids aren’t immune from the horrors of real life unless someone takes steps to make it possible. The Grady twins are an example of how the rules apply to everyone, no matter how grisly it might seem. The fact that their father cut them down, literally, like cord wood shows that kids can be affected by pretty much anything or anyone when it comes to a horror movie. This trend goes back before The Shining, but for some odd reason we’re still given the idea that young kids might still be made immune to the touch of the dread and the absolute danger that stalks so many people in these types of movies. Had the Grady twins not been there however it does seem as though something would have been missing.
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