Both parodies and homages to The Shining are prominent in U.K. and U.S. popular culture, particularly in films, TV shows, video games and music.[231][232][233][234] Images and scenes including the Grady girls in the hallway, the word "Redrum", the blood spilling out of the elevator doors[235] and Jack sticking his head through the hole in the bathroom door, saying, "Here's Johnny", are frequently referenced in the media.
Director Tim Burton, who credits Kubrick as an influence, modeled the characters of Tweedledum and Tweedledee in his 2010 version of Alice in Wonderland on the Grady girls (like so many viewers of the film, Burton identifies the girls as twins in spite of Ullman's dialogue to the contrary).[236]
The Simpsons 1994 episode "Treehouse of Horror V" includes a parody titled "The Shinning". Similarities include Sherri and Terri, the twins in Bart's fourth grade class looking visually similar to the Grady girls, Homer writing "No TV and No Beer Make Homer Go Crazy" and Homer breaking into a room with an axe and uttering 'here's Johnny', only to discover that he had entered the wrong room and using the introduction for 60 Minutes instead.[237][238][239] The season 30 2019 episode "Girl's in the Band" has Homer, driven mad from working double shifts at the nuclear power plant, experiencing a Gold Room party scene with Lloyd followed by an axe-wielding Human Resources Director who resembles Nicholson's character.[240]
Dutch dance music duo Hocus Pocus sampled Nicholson's "Here's Johnny" line in their 1993 dance song "Here's Johnny".[241] In 1995, the song reached number one in Australia for six weeks, making it the first dance single to do so without radio support in Australia.[242][243]
American heavy metal band Slipknot pay homage to the film in their first music video for their 2000 song "Spit It Out", directed by Thomas Mignone. The video consists of conceptual imagery of the band members each portraying characters enacting iconic scenes from the film, with Joey Jordison as Danny Torrance; Shawn Crahan and Chris Fehn as the Grady sisters; Corey Taylor as Jack Torrance; Mick Thomson as Lloyd the Bartender; Craig Jones as Dick Hallorann; James Root as Wendy Torrance; Paul Gray as Harry Derwent; and Sid Wilson as the corpse in the bathtub. The video was banned from MTV for overtly graphic and violent depictions, including Corey Taylor's smashing through a door with an axe and the scene wherein James Root viciously assaults Corey Taylor with a baseball bat. Mignone and the band eventually re-edited a less violent version, which was subsequently aired on MTV.[244][245]
The film's haunted ballroom scene served as inspiration for English musician Leyland Kirby to create the Caretaker alias; his debut album Selected Memories from the Haunted Ballroom (1999) featured a prominent influence from the film.[246]
American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars produced a music video[247] for their 2006 single "The Kill" which is an extended homage to the film. The music video is set in a haunted hotel, and replicates imagery from the film including the black intertitles with white text, Jack's typewriter, Lloyd's bar, Jack bouncing a tennis ball against a wall, the ghostly woman in the bathroom, the murdered Grady sisters, and the hotel guest being fellated by another man dressed as a bear. The music video was directed by lead singer Jared Leto.
The film was played at the drive-in theater alongside Psycho as part of the Night of Horrors combo in Twister from 1996.[248] In the 2003 animated film Finding Nemo, Bruce the shark says "Here's Brucey!", which is inspired from the "Here's Johnny!" quote.[249]
The 2017 song "Enjoy Your Slay" by American metalcore band Ice Nine Kills is inspired primarily by the novel as well as the film adaption. The song also features Stanley Kubrick's grandson Sam Kubrick as guest vocalist.[250][251]
The TV series Psych has a 2012 episode titled "Heeeeere's Lassie" in which the plot and characters are based on the film.[252][253][239] "Here's Johnny!" was parodied by British comedian Lenny Henry in an advertisement for Premier Inn. It was banned from being screened on a children's TV network.[254]
Vince Gilligan, being a fan of Kubrick and his "non-submersible moments", has included references to Kubrick movies in many of his works.[255][256] "I'm happy to see that his inspiration has shown in noticeable ways in our work in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul", says Gilligan.[257] Breaking Bad's 2010 episode "Sunset" has a cop radioing for assistance and begins, "KDK-12" – the radio address at the Overlook, before being axed. The axe-murdered Grady twins in The Shining are turned into the axe-murdering Salamanca twins in Breaking Bad. The descent of the main character, school teacher Walt, into the dark killer has some similarities to Jack's arc. Reflections are used in both to show the characters change.[258][239] Better Call Saul has a "Here's Johnny" scare in a flashback. Gilligan has also likened his early writing situation, getting snowed in and not writing, to feeling like Jack while going insane.[259]
Steven Spielberg, a close friend of Kubrick,[260] included a sequence dedicated to The Shining in the 2018 film Ready Player One when they could not get rights to use Blade Runner for a similar sequence. The Overlook Hotel is recreated, including the Grady sisters, the elevator, room 237, the lady in the bath tub, the ballroom, and the 1921 photo, in addition to using the score. Spielberg considered this inclusion a tribute to Kubrick.[261]
In his 2019 novel The Institute, Stephen King refers to the film, writing, "The little girls, Gerda and Greta, were standing and watching with wide, frightened eyes. They were holding hands and clutching dolls as identical as they were. They reminded Luke of twins in some old horror movie."[262]
In 2020, the fifth-season episode "Our Mojo" of Lucifer paid homage to Kubrick and The Shining by having a young boy riding on a tricycle down a corridor in a hotel with wallpaper similar to the carpet pattern in the film.[263]
