Comparing Steven Spielberg's and Stanley Kubrick's Techniques Used in Horror Movies

Both Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick are influential directors within the horror film genre, with their films The Shining and Jaws. Although both films are very pivotal within the genre they use some different techniques to create the horror of the films. Both The Shining and Jaws have the same general theme of being a psychological horror film. Some of the techniques used within the films are color, sounds/music, and suspense evoked from the panning of the camera and camera angles.

Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining creates a sense of horror partly through his use of bright colors.

The Overlook Hotel is one of the places in which the film has many distinct colors such as red, gold/yellow, and grayscale. The color that stands out the most and carries the greatest sense of danger along with it is red. Within The Shining, Kubrick uses different shades of red in the bathroom behind the “Gold Room”, on Lloyd’s jacket, and in the scene in which blood flows out of the elevator and into the hallway, etc. The use of red, especially in these scenes, allows for the film viewers to make a connection between red and danger. This connection is helped along by the fact the within everyday life red is also associated with a threat or a sense of danger. Along with color, Kubrick uses high pitched sounds and music that are an indicator to the viewers that something bad is about to occur. This then also creates a sense of suspense because of the association between the sound and actions. Another film technique is the angle of the camera in the film. For example, when Wendy locks Jack into the food storage room and the camera is angled below Jack this creates suspense due to the light shining on Jack’s face and the way his facial expressions look from that angle.

In Jaws Steven Spielberg also creates a sense of horror throughout his use of color and the soundtrack selected for the movie. As opposed to the red used in The Shining, Spielberg mainly uses the colors blue and yellow. Within Jaws blue is seen everywhere, on the clothing of the characters, within the furniture, as well as the ocean itself. The color blue serves as a psychological reminder that the ocean is always present in the lives of the people in the movie and has a significant impact on them; whether it be through the industry, the town profits on being the ocean or the imminent threat the ocean serves as long as the shark is active. In terms of the color yellow, when it is seen paired with blue that creates a sense of danger that can be seen with Sheriff Brody driving a yellow truck, one of the victims of the shark attack was floating on a yellow raft in the ocean, and the buoys being used to catch the shark were yellow floating in the blue expanse of the ocean.

Along, with color Jaws has an iconic sound that the viewers hear every time that the shark is near or danger is about to occur. The association of this sound with the shark and the shark attacks keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat and almost makes the film more “horror-esque” due to the anticipation and fear created by this music. One begins to identify the music as “scary” and that is part of what makes the movie that much more of a psychological horror film.

Between The Shining and Jaws the film that is scarier, would be the Shining because of the combination of the music, color, and the acting within the film itself. The Shining has the expressions and acting skills of Jack Nicholson combined with the differing camera angles that evoke a greater sense of horror than Jaws due to his unpredictability. Also, even though the idea of a shark attack is still scary it something that we as a society have knowledge about and explanation to; wherein The Shining there are more unexplainable supernatural occurrences such as Danny’s “shining” ability and the final scene in which Jack is seen in an old picture taken at the Overlook Hotel that just leaves an unsettling feeling following the conclusion of the film. In contrast, Jaws has a resolution at the end and everything is righted so that the lasting effect of horror from the movie isn’t as present. The unknown and unexplained of The Shining is part of what helps that film to surpass Jaws in terms of horror.