Ax from The Shining fetches $175,000 at auction

There are films that make history. Director Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, released in 1980, is definitely one of them, if not just because of its cinematic qualities. The film adaptation of the Stephen King novel is still a popular reference today, now with memes showing the smashed bathroom door with a grinning Jack Nicholson uttering one of the most famous exclamations in film history: “Heeeeeeeeere’s Johnny!”.

Now a murderous prop from the film has been auctioned off: the ax that Jack Torrance (Nicholson) uses to smash down that very wooden bathroom door to kill his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall). The ax brought in a total of 175,000 US dollars, for which a total of twelve bidders competed.

The ax was auctioned off by the American auction house “Gotta Have Rock and Roll“. According to the auction house, the tool is in very good condition. It will be delivered to the new axe owner in a shadow box frame along with some photos of the axe showing it being used in The Shining.

Let’s hope he doesn’t share the same fate as the movie character Jack Torrance and instead enjoys the purely decorative pleasures of the prop. However, in reality, the “The Shining” ax is probably not good for killing or splitting wood (depending on interest), since it is made of foam and resin. It should therefore be light enough so that anyone can recreate the film scenes without much effort.

Incidentally, Stephen King was never satisfied with the Kubrick film adaptation of his novel. Above all, he criticized the fact that the film’s main character, Jack Torrance, is the psychopath at the center of the story, and not the Overlook Hotel, as in the book, which turns the alcoholic writer and caretaker into a tragic victim of his addictions. King later wrote the screenplay for a three-part television adaptation of his novel.

+++ This article first appeared on rollingstone.de +++

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