Wendy Torrance
Fictional characterWikipedia
111
MENTIONS
13
EPISODES
11
PODCASTS
Search complete. 111 mentions across 13 episodes found for "Wendy Torrance".
Oct 9, 2026
Ty McGowanHOST
My number three, um, as the years have gone on, she has become ...
Ty McGowanHOST
As I've gotten older, she has become my favorite character in this movie, but it's Wendy Torrance in The Shining, played by Shelley Duvall.
Ellen BeckHOST
Oh, yeah.
Ellen BeckHOST
Yeah.
speaker_3HOST
Mm-hmm.
speaker_2HOST
And he even called the film's version of Wendy Torrance one of the most misogynistic characters ever put on screen, which is a huge accusation.
speaker_3HOST
The weight of that criticism is heavy, especially aimed at Kubrick, but to really understand that frustration, we have to look under the hood of that Cadillac.
speaker_2HOST
We have to find the engine.
23 MINS LATER
speaker_2HOST
Because this personalization of the horror in the original text forces us to look closer at who these people really are.
speaker_2HOST
So let's deconstruct the Torrances, starting with Wendy.
speaker_3HOST
The metamorphosis of Wendy Torrance is arguably the most dramatic shift in the entire narrative.
speaker_2HOST
I'd agree with that.
Travis SnellHOST
So [laughs]-
Taylor FieldHOST
Well, that, and that makes the book more, like, from Jack's perspective, right? I think the movie is more from Wendy's perspective, isn't it?
Travis SnellHOST
I feel like the movie's just kind of almost like I think agree with Kirkland, other than the beginning.
Travis SnellHOST
I feel like it's kind of like from the house perspective.
12 MINS LATER
Travis SnellHOST
'Cause and even the stuff, though, at the beginning of... and I guess we'll talk about it more specifically, so I'll wait back.
Travis SnellHOST
But just even it's a layered performance throughout where it's this great thing of he's a dick, but you feel like he's maybe trying to be a little bit better at the very beginning.
Travis SnellHOST
But I can't remember, I think it was Jack Nicholson that described him this way of, like, he-- the way he played the character was like he got Wendy pregnant on a one-night stand, and he's just fucked now.
Travis SnellHOST
Like, and he, 'cause he's in the time period, well, she's pregnant, so you gotta marry the woman and be a guy and be a dad and a father.
WesHOST
The Shining follows Jack Torrance, a writer who takes a job as the winter caretaker of the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado.
WesHOST
With the hotel closing for the winter, Jack moves in with his wife, Wendy, and their young son, Danny, expecting the quiet surroundings to give him the time and space he needs to work on his writing.
WesHOST
But the overlook isn't quite the empty, peaceful retreat the family are expecting.
WesHOST
Danny has a strange sensitivity to the hotel and begins to experience things that suggest there is much more to the building than meets the eye.
24 MINS LATER
DonaldHOST
I'm still feeling it's probably a little bit overlong, but it gets to that idea of insanity and to some extent misogyny, which going back to the film I was talking about before, in terms of Mother, both deal with men who are misogynistic and completely self-obsessed.
DonaldHOST
And I think it's interesting that...
DonaldHOST
One of the key things I found in the film was that I wasn't sure about Wendy Torrance.
DonaldHOST
Is she a final female or a scream queen? And I just feel she's sort of urged towards that.
Knox ChandlerGUEST
Funny enough, I know his wife.
Knox ChandlerGUEST
I knew her from New York, and I was on tour with Cindy, I think it was about 2011, somewhere around there, and we were in Dublin, and she came to the show, and she was like, oh, I'm married to a musician, you know, Craig Walker.
Knox ChandlerGUEST
You might have heard of him, which I hadn't.
Knox ChandlerGUEST
But he's off on tour.
44 MINS LATER
Knox ChandlerGUEST
It sets you in this mode.
Knox ChandlerGUEST
And it's like the title, Dreaming.
Knox ChandlerGUEST
You know, it definitely transports me somewhere.
Knox ChandlerGUEST
And I think all good music transports you somewhere.
speaker_1HOST
Which is a huge structural difference right there.
speaker_0HOST
It is, but more importantly, the book forces you to look at what survival actually cost Wendy Torrance.
speaker_1HOST
Yeah, that part is rough.
speaker_0HOST
Really rough.
speaker_1HOST
Well, Dick Hallorann was murdered with an ax in the 1980 film, so in this adaptation, he's just a ghost offering cryptic advice rather than a living, breathing support system.
speaker_0HOST
That makes sense for continuity, I guess, but what really gets me is Wendy.
speaker_1HOST
Wendy.The treatment of Wendy Torrance's injuries is perhaps the most telling alteration of all.
speaker_1HOST
In the film universe, Wendy's physical scars are erased
JustinHOST
He's like-
NickHOST
Wendy, Wendy does more work than he does.
AshtonHOST
Yeah, it's a hate for me for Wendy in the movie.
JustinHOST
Well, there's Wendy.
JustinHOST
Yeah, Wendy's like, "Well, [coughs] it's, like, 8:45.
JustinHOST
Time to go check that boiler like I'm supposed to, and I got the, I got a chart here that says things." [laughs] Like, what is she doing?
NickHOST
Oh, yeah.
NickHOST
Stephen King ha- didn't like the movie.
Harrison GeorgeHOST
I highly recommend, Sunset, you watch, if not the whole movie, then at least this scene because it's so...
Harrison GeorgeHOST
What I didn't think of, what, what I think until I watched the movie, what I didn't realize was, like, how funny the actual scene is in The Shining 'cause Nicholson really is at full tilt, 100% Nicholson in this moment, and, like, the way he's talking to Wendy Torrance, uh, is, like, just so funny and over the top.
Harrison GeorgeHOST
Um, I, I r- this is my favorite scene in the whole Shining is this scene of them on the stairs.
Harrison GeorgeHOST
It's so creepy and also still so funny, just like it is in this episode.
Wesley IchishitaHOST
And there's a lot of talk about Piggy and Jack calls Wendy Piggy.
Wesley IchishitaHOST
And indeed, Sissy Spacek as Carrie is, I believe, is a model for Wendy Torrance.
Wesley IchishitaHOST
She has that really thin face and those darting eyes and the lank hair.
Wesley IchishitaHOST
Feels like a lot was taken from Carrie for The Shining.
James HartHOST
Homer begins to take Moe up on his offer and he... disappears.
James HartHOST
Marge goes looking for Homer and just like Shelley Duvall does as Wendy in The Shining, she comes across his typewriter to see what he's been typing and says maybe this will be a window into his madness and she breathes a sigh of relief because it just says feeling fine.
James HartHOST
However, the lightning cracks straight away We see that all over the wall has been written, no TV and beer make Homer go crazy.
James HartHOST
And Marge quips, this is less promising.
3 more episodes mention Wendy Torrance.
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