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Shelley Duvall has returned.
According to a Deadline article on Friday, Duvall, 73, will appear in The Forest Hills, an independent horror movie, in a long-awaited comeback to the big screen. Duvall can be seen looking directly at the camera in the film’s opening still.
In addition to Duvall, who is best known for his role in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 psychological horror thriller The Shining, the new film from writer-director Scott Goldberg also stars Edward Furlong, Chiko Mendez, and Dee Wallace.
According to Deadline, the main character of The Forest Hills is Rico (Mendez), “a disturbed man” who suffers from nightmares after suffering a brain injury while camping in the Catskill Mountains.
According to the source, Duvall portrays Rico’s mother, who acts as the man’s inner voice throughout the film.
Photo Credits – SCOTT HANSEN/ DIGITAL THUNDERDOME
In a statement to Deadline, producer-director Goldberg said, “We are enormous 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 amazing music and components that make them my personal favorites.”
The statement said, “Shelley contributed to The Shining becoming an absolute masterpiece by giving it everything she had and performing in a way that really portrayed the fear and agony of a mother in isolation.”
According to the publication, Duvall announced her acting retirement after playing her final movie part in 2002’s Manna From Heaven.
The Shining, which took 56 weeks to shoot and set a Guinness World Record for “most takes for one scene with dialogue,” was the subject of a lengthy interview with Duvall for The Hollywood Reporter in February 2021.
Prior to the profile, Duvall, who had spent nearly three decades avoiding the spotlight, revealed that director Kubrick had made her an offer for the part without even having met her or seen the script. She said, “He said I was brilliant at sobbing.”
She recalled having a “lovely meal” with Kubrick and his daughter prior to the start of filming, but once the cameras started rolling, it was all business.
“No prints are made by [Kubrick] until at least the 35th take. It becomes difficult after 35 takes of running, crying, and carrying a young boy “explained the actress. “and complete performance after the first practice. That’s challenging.”
Before each scene, Duvall stated she would “listen to melancholy tunes” to help her get in the correct frame of mind or “just think about anything incredibly tragic in your life or how much you miss your family and friends.”
“However, your body eventually rebels. Stop treating me like this, it demands. I don’t want to cry all the time. And occasionally, just thinking about it would bring tears to my eyes “She continued. “I would just start crying when I would wake up on a Monday morning so early and realize that I would have to cry all day since it was planned. I would say, “Oh no, I can’t, I can’t.” Still, I did it. I have no idea how I managed it. That is what Jack [Nicholson] also said to me. I don’t know how you do it, he said.”
Duvall said that while Kubrick had “that streak in him,” he was “quite warm and kind” to her, in response to inquiries about whether the filmmaker had been cruel or abusive to her throughout the course of filming.
The team would inform Stanley that there were roughly 60 people waiting, but the work was crucial. “He spent a lot of time with Jack and myself. He just wanted to sit down and talk for hours,” she recounted.
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