All work and no play makes for an incredible LEGO Shining trailer

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Ever since 2017, a lab technician by the name of Wim Laroy has spent a fair portion of his free time re-creating horror films using one of his favorite childhood toys, LEGOS. With bins of build-a-brick pieces at his disposal, Laroy has developed a stop-motion animated version of Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror masterpiece, THE SHINING.

“Something about the toys coming to life and doing unspeakable things to each other makes me like doing this so much,” Laroy told Fast Company via email.

In the past, Laroy has indulged his love of using LEGOs to re-create horror films with finished shorts related to A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, the zombie sub-genre, and newer frightfests like THE NUN. Personally, I can't even begin to imagine the amount of patience it takes to create one of these LEGO films, not to mention the amount of pieces Laroy must have at his disposal. The sorting of pieces alone must be a painstaking process and then some. I suppose that's why Laroy built himself a LEGO construction room consisting of a total of 237 sets.

According to Laroy, his re-creation of THE SHINING took him upward of 50-60 hours spread over three weeks, and about 10,000 individual LEGO pieces to complete. Undoubtedly, the project came with its share of challenges, as would any stop-motion effort worth its salt.

“Mostly, it came down to choosing the right pieces,” says Laroy. “I made this movie only with pieces I already had in my collection, so I had to do with just what I had laying around. For instance, the famous carpet pattern in the hallway could have been more realistic, but with the pieces I had, it became a little more abstract. I went with clay for the bloody elevator scene also because I do not have thousands of red translucent pieces.”

As you can see from Laroy's film above, his version of THE SHINING includes many of the classic scenes from Kubrick's film, such as Jack's typewriter freak out, Danny's spooky encounter with the twins, that famous bathtub sequence, and of course, Jack's journey through the Overlook Hotel's labyrinthine hedge maze.

“A good horror movie gives me the feeling of dread but also comfort in knowing that these things won’t actually happen,” Laroy says.

Boy, there's nothing like super talented people like Wim to make you stop and re-evaluate how you spend your spare time, eh? That being said, those video games in my nerd cave aren't going to play themselves, and I haven't the time nor the patience to create amazing stop-motion animated LEGO films like he does. Nah, I'll leave that task to the professionals, and admire their hard work and ingenuity from afar.