Jack Torrance

Jack Nicholson's Jack Torrance is the most terrifying portrait of a father in cinema — a struggling writer who takes a winter caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel and gradually descends into homicidal madness. Kubrick and Nicholson created a villain who is simultaneously a victim of supernatural influence and a man whose darkness was always there. The axe through the door, the frozen maze chase, and Nicholson's operatic performance turned a haunted hotel story into the defining horror film of its era.