The Shining Star Shelley Duvall Makes Return to Acting After 20 Years in New Horror Film

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Shelley Duvall is back.

On Friday, Deadline reported that Duvall, now 73, is set to make her anticipated return to film for the first time in 20 years in the independent horror-thriller The Forest Hills. In the first still image from the movie, Duvall is seen staring directly into the camera.

The upcoming movie is from writer-director Scott Goldberg and stars Edward Furlong, Chiko Mendez and Dee Wallace in addition to Duvall, who famously starred in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 psychological horror film The Shining.

The Forest Hills centers around "a disturbed man" named Rico (Mendez) "who is tormented by nightmarish visions after enduring head trauma while camping in the Catskill Mountains," according to Deadline.

Duvall plays Rico's mother, who is an inner voice to the man throughout the movie, according to the outlet.

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"We are huge fans of The Shining and it's honestly one of my favorite horror movies of all time, up there with John Carpenter's Halloween and George A. Romero's Day of the Dead with the dark tones they delivered in their movies, along with perfect scores and elements that make them my personal favorites," producer-director Goldberg told Deadline in a statement.

"Shelley contributed to The Shining being an absolute masterpiece by giving her all, and performing in a way that really showcased the fear and horror of a mother in isolation," the statement added.

Duvall's last film role was in 2002's Manna From Heaven, after which she announced her retirement from acting, according to the outlet.

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In February 2021, Duvall spoke to The Hollywood Reporter for a wide-ranging profile in which she reflected on making The Shining, which took 56 weeks to film and holds a Guinness World Record for "most retakes for one scene with dialogue."

Duvall, who had been living outside of the spotlight for almost three decades prior to the profile, shared that director Kubrick offered her the role before meeting her — or even having a script. "He said I was great at crying," she recalled.

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Although she remembered having a "nice dinner" with Kubrick and his daughter before production began, once the cameras started rolling it was strictly business.

"[Kubrick] doesn't print anything until at least the 35th take. Thirty-five takes, running and crying and carrying a little boy, it gets hard," the actress said. "And full performance from the first rehearsal. That's difficult."

In order to get herself into the right headspace, Duvall said she would "listen to sad songs" before each scene or "just think about something very sad in your life or how much you miss your family and friends."

Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Shelley Duvall

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"But after a while, your body rebels. It says: 'Stop doing this to me. I don't want to cry every day.' And sometimes just that thought alone would make me cry," she added. "To wake up on a Monday morning so early and realize that you had to cry all day because it was scheduled — I would just start crying. I'd be like, 'Oh no, I can't, I can't.' And yet I did it. I don't know how I did it. Jack [Nicholson] said that to me, too. He said, 'I don't know how you do it.'"

In response to questions about whether the director had been cruel or abusive to her during the course of filming, Duvall said that while Kubrick had "that streak in him," he was "very warm and friendly" to her.

"He spent a lot of time with Jack and me. He just wanted to sit down and talk for hours while the crew waited. And the crew would say, 'Stanley, we have about 60 people waiting.' But it was very important work," she recalled.