What We Already Know: The Unspoken Contract of Horror
Before the first frame of any horror film, an unspoken contract is established. We anticipate an unsettling atmosphere, characters under threat, and a visual language that promises danger and tension. At a deeper level, we anticipate a confrontation with the taboo: the violent, the unknown, and the psychological boundary between sanity and madness. Both Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (2025) operate within this foundational understanding, yet they channel these expectations into profoundly different explorations of horror, one cosmic, the other cultural.
Comparison and Contrast:
While both films masterfully use isolation and psychological tension, they fundamentally diverge in their core subject: The Shining presents horror as a slow, supernatural inevitability that erodes the psyche, whereas Sinners frames horror as a sudden, cultural and spiritual consequence that confronts the legacy of systemic trauma.
The Subject of The Shining centers on the horror of the external, architectural force of evil, the Overlook Hotel, which operates on an eternal, inescapable cycle. The hotel’s past is its present, and its subject is the consumption of a fragile male ego (Jack Torrance) by this cosmic evil. Sinners, conversely, focuses on Black resilience and cultural trauma in 1932 Mississippi. The horror emerges not merely from personal sin, but from an external, parasitic evil, vampires led by Remmick, that is specifically attracted to the powerful spiritual and cultural essence of the Black community’s music, mirroring the vampiric nature of white supremacy and systemic racism that seeks to consume and appropriate Black talent.
The Style of The Shining is defined by glacial, symmetrical stillness and environmental grandiosity, creating dread through observation. Sinners uses a style of visceral, fractured urgency, relying on sharp edits and high-contrast lighting to evoke both the joyous chaos of the juke joint and the raw violence of the subsequent massacre.
Modus Legendi: Teaching the Audience How to Watch
The Modus Legendi is established from the outset.
In The Shining, Kubrick teaches his audience to interpret stillness and space as inherently menacing. The Overlook Hotel is a character communicated through vast, symmetrical shots and lingering Steadicam glides. This visual grammar signals that the hotel is alive, observing, and patiently orchestrating the demise of the Torrance family. The horror is environmental and psychological.
In Sinners, the Modus Legendi is rooted in Black folklore, spirituality, and historical realism. Its visual language relies on sharper edits, handheld shots and high-contrast lighting to evoke the visceral reality of the Jim Crow South. The film trains its viewers to see the horror as a spiritual battle over culture and identity, with the music itself acting as a literal, powerful, and dangerous bridge to the supernatural realm.
Visual Techniques and Audience Expectation:
These differing narrative modes dictate the visual techniques that shape mood, pace, and audience expectation.
Kubrick builds dread through the glacial, inexorable pacing of The Shining. The long, silent takes create a suffocating mood where the audience feels trapped. The visual breadcrumbs are symbolic and environmental foreshadowing: the river of blood, the ghostly twins. These compel us to constantly read the environment, asking what the Overlook will do next to Jack.
Conversely, Sinners employs a fractured, more urgent pace. Quick cuts and jarring sounds amplify a mood of emotional chaos and paranoia. The visual breadcrumbs are intimate, personal, and allegorical, serving as unspoken truths that guide the audience toward the resolution. For instance, the names of the twin brothers, Elijah “Smoke” and Elias “Stack,” carry biblical weight, with Stack being the one who falls first, paving the way for Smoke to fight and protect the community. Furthermore, the appearance of a rattlesnake with glowing eyes in Hogwood’s truck acts as a chilling visual clue and a premonition of the supernatural elements to come, warning the audience of the danger lurking in their community before the vampires physically appear.
The Pivotal Moments:
The pivotal moment in each film serves as the dramatic fulcrum where the central theme is fully revealed and the narrative irrevocably shifts.
1. The Shining: The Reveal of Room 237
In The Shining, this occurs when Jack Torrance enters Room 237. The encounter shatters all ambiguity. The beautiful woman who seduces Jack before transforming into a rotting corpse is the Overlook unmasking its corrupting nature. This is the moment the hotel’s supernatural influence becomes undeniable and gains definitive control over Jack, shifting his descent from a potential mental breakdown to a supernatural possession. The hotel is definitely, actively evil.
2. Sinners: Sammie’s Music Summons the Evil
The pivotal moment in Sinners is the scene where young Sammie’s transcendent blues music “pierces the veil between life and death” at the juke joint’s opening night. This narrative detonation attracts the ancient Irish vampire Remmick. Sammie’s gift, tied to the tradition of the West African Griot, makes him a vessel whose music can summon spirits of the past (West African griots and ancestors) and the future (’80s breakdance). While this music is a source of light and cultural power, it also serves as a beacon for the evil that wants to consume his soul and exploit his gift for its own eternal survival. This event immediately sets the supernatural and historical conflict in motion, forcing the community to fight for their culture and their very lives.
Conclusion
In conclusion, The Shining and Sinners are two masterful yet distinct entries in the horror canon. Kubrick’s film is a chilling descent into a pre-ordained nightmare, where the horror is an external, architectural force of evil that patiently consumes a man. Sinners, in contrast, is a ferocious explosion of internalized cultural conflict and resilience, where the horror is the inescapable judgment for one’s own actions, while also illustrating the predatory nature of supernatural evil drawn to and attempting to steal the vital spiritual essence of Black artistry and heritage. One film warns us of the haunted places that can claim our souls; the other warns us that the greatest danger lies in the powerful forces that seek to consume our light and our culture.
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