“Here’s Johnny!” – Students will have the opportunity to watch a classic film at The Athena Cinema that was made before most of them were born.
The Shining will screen at the Athena, 20 S. Court St., on Tuesday at 7 p.m. as part of the Science on Screen series. The event is free for all who attend.
The horror film was released in 1980 and stars Jack Nicholson as the main character, Jack Torrance. When Torrance gets a job monitoring a hotel during its off season, he and his family move to the isolated hotel, which drives Torrance to insanity.
The film was directed by Stanley Kubrick, and is based on a novel by Stephen King. The Shining is particularly well-known for one of Nicholson’s lines: “Here’s Johnny.”
Following the film there will be a discussion led by Kimberly Rios, an associate professor of psychology. Rios will talk about people’s responses to threats to their self-concepts, interpersonal relationships and group identities, according to the Athena’s website. She will open the discussion by talking about why people watch scary movies.
“It’s not just a movie you’re watching to get scared — it’s something that as you watch you think about ways the characters’ experiences can relate to your own life and what are some ways that you might deal with threat in your everyday life,” Rios said. “I mean we won’t all go and try to kill our families, but we all have different coping mechanisms.”
Rios was recommended by a colleague to lead the discussion be she is a fan of scary movies, she said. Watching horror films, she said, is a bonding experience because everyone feels similar emotions while watching.
“I like the feelings of anticipation without any real threat to my own sense of self or livelihood,” she said.
The Shining was the first scary movie Anna Onderisn watched at the age of eight. Ondersin, a junior studying applied nutrition, said she likes the look of the movie because it is “mesmerizing.” She also likes the fact there are no cheap thrills in the movie.
“It’s scary for no reason. There is nothing that is outwardly spooky,” she said. “It just leaves you with a creepy feeling.”
Ondersin is interested in watching the movie at the Athena because she has "never seen the film in a movie theater. Watching the movie in a theater would be terrifying “in a good way” and better than viewing it on a laptop.
“I like the adrenaline. I like to get so wrapped up in something,” she said. “It’s strange that I like to scare myself but I do.”
