The final shot of The Shining is about as deliciously unsettling as one could imagine, striking a perfect balance between terrifying and thought provoking. But (spoiler alert for any clowns who still haven’t seen it) the classic image of a mad, grinning Jack Nicholson was never meant to be the end of the movie. There was another scene afterward, set in the hospital where Shelley Duvall’s character, Wendy, and her son, Danny, are recovering from their ordeal. It culminates in a similar sort of ambiguous dread, except with the focus more on Danny’s ability than Jack’s fate. You can read the creeptastic script from that scene and find some continuity Polaroids like the one above here.

Kubrick reportedly hated the original ending so much that shortly after it hit theaters he sent assistants to physically cut out the offending frames from every print and destroy them. Rumor has it one copy still exists somewhere. If it’s out there though, it hasn’t been played in quite a while. And you know what they say about no play…

(The Overlook Hotel via Fangoria)