The creepy twins from “The Shining” are all grown up but still down to play 37 years later

The creepy twins from “The Shining” are all grown up but still down to play 37 years later
The creepy twins from “The Shining” are all grown up but still down to play 37 years later

Ask almost anyone who has seen The Shining, and they’ll tell you: though competition from the naked bathtub lady in room 237 and Jack Torrance himself is stiff, no one out-creeps those terrifying twins.

The Grady girls, famous for standing hand-in-hand in hallways together in matching frilly blue dresses, pink ribbons, knee-high socks, and hair clips, really wanted to play with Jack’s son Danny, and they sure weren’t going to take “no” for an answer.

Murdered by their father Charles Grady years before the Torrance family’s also doomed stay at the Overlook Hotel, scenes involving the unnamed girls are some of the film’s most iconic and unnerving, though they’re literally in the movie for less than one minute.

But just as the Grady twins have become an eternal part of the pop culture landscape, actresses Louise and Lisa Burns, who portrayed them, have long since disappeared from the public eye.

The sisters booked the role at an open casting call even though the script didn’t call for twins — in Stephen King’s book the Grady daughters are a couple of years apart, and even in the final cut of the movie, Stuart Ullman refers to them as “about eight and ten” — after director Stanley Kubrick saw them and realized that identical twins are significantly more unsettling than a big-and-little sister duo.

Their Shining success didn’t lead to long-term Hollywood careers, but both Burns sisters are around if you know where to look. Just a few years back they appeared on the red carpet at a 50th anniversary screening of Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, and in 2015, Lisa and Louise — who hail from London — gave an exclusive interview to the Daily Mail, with Louise explaining that she quit acting when she was rejected from London’s RADA (The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art), and pursued a degree in the sciences instead.

According to a 2009 “where are they now”-type VH1 special, Louise eventually enjoyed a career as an IT manager, while Lisa negotiated “licenses for pieces of intellectual property.” Both were married as of 2009, but they’re still best friends and spend a significant amount of time goofing around with each other.

If you want to keep up with Lisa and Louise, they don’t make it difficult — they have public Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts, with all three using some sort of variation of @Shining_Twins handle.

Gr8 Ts guys....many thanks !

A post shared by The OFFICIAL Shining Twins (@the_shining_twins) on Mar 11, 2014 at 12:47pm PDT

They occasionally attend horror conventions when time permits, and love seeing how fans still cosplay as their characters…or even tattoo them on their bodies.

They’re clearly still fans of Kubrick’s, as they’ve shared photos of themselves posing at movie screenings and museum exhibitions that honor his work.

Us in the archive. .....that's Stanley in the photo!

A post shared by The OFFICIAL Shining Twins (@the_shining_twins) on May 29, 2014 at 12:05pm PDT

They also are really, really down to recreate their famous scene — whether you want them to or not.

We’re happy to see that they’ve clearly moved on with their lives outside of Hollywood, but also get to enjoy the benefits of being the creepy twins from The Shining.

Arrived in Krakow in style!! Courtesy of Mercedes Benz Poland.

A post shared by The OFFICIAL Shining Twins (@the_shining_twins) on Jul 25, 2014 at 10:46am PDT

(Though seriously, ladies, enough is enough.)

Whilst in Kraków we haunted another hotel corridor!! Hotel Campanile in Planty!

A post shared by The OFFICIAL Shining Twins (@the_shining_twins) on Aug 2, 2014 at 1:31am PDT

We’re going to be sleeping with the lights on tonight.