There are two horror film plot maps in this collection so far, and they are opposite shapes. Jaws spends half its runtime in a town, then abandons it completely. The Shining never goes beyond the hedge maze outside the front door.
I research and draw these myself in East Sussex, working scene by scene through the film rather than from a synopsis, then plotting the result in CAD. Characters become lines. Key scenes become stations.
This post is about which of the two suits the viewer, and what the format shows that a poster cannot.
What a Horror Film Plot Map Actually Draws
The visual language is the London Underground map, borrowed wholesale. Each character gets a coloured line, and each key scene gets a station on it.
Where two characters share a scene, their lines cross at that station. Where a character leaves the story, the line simply stops, and you can see exactly where.
That last part is what makes horror a good fit for the format. The genre is built on people being removed from the story, and a transit map is honest about it.
Jaws Is Two Films Joined at One Station
Steven Spielberg's 1975 film has a structure most viewers feel rather than notice. The first half is a town argument about closing the beaches, and the second half is three men on a boat.
The join is the point the Orca leaves Amity. Before it, the map carries the town: Brody, Hooper, Quint, Mayor Vaughn and the pressure of the summer season. After it, the map narrows to three lines and stays there.
Watching the film, that change registers as a shift in mood. Drawn out as a route, it is a measurable narrowing you can point at from across a room.
Brody Is the Only Line That Runs the Whole Film
Chief Martin Brody, played by Roy Scheider, is on the map from the opening beach closures through to the final hunt. His is the one line that never breaks.
Matt Hooper, the marine biologist played by Richard Dreyfuss, joins partway through. Quint, played by Robert Shaw, brings the boat and pulls the three leads together for the second half.
Mayor Vaughn's line is the town's resistance to closing the beaches, and it stops at the harbour. He is the reason the first half happens, and he never goes to sea.
The stations along the way include the Chrissie Watkins attack that opens the film, Quint's USS Indianapolis speech aboard the Orca, and the final confrontation with the shark.
The Overlook Never Lets a Line Leave, Except One
Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film does the reverse of Jaws. Every station sits inside the Overlook Hotel or immediately outside its doors, so the map has nowhere to travel to.
Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, forms the central line, with Wendy, played by Shelley Duvall, and Danny, played by Danny Lloyd, running alongside him through the isolation. None of the three lines goes anywhere.
Dick Hallorann is the exception. Scatman Crothers plays the Overlook chef who shares Danny's gift, leaves, and comes back, and his is the only line on that map that departs and returns.
The hotel's spectral cast runs as its own set of lines, meeting the family's at the points where the hotel intervenes. Jaws needs nothing like that, because its threat is offshore and singular.
Key stations here include the opening tour of the hotel, the typewriter reveal, and the hedge maze finale.
Which of the Two Horror Film Plot Maps Suits Which Viewer
The two prints are the same format doing opposite jobs. This is the shortest way I can put the difference.
| Map | Film and director | Named character lines | Where the shape changes | Suits the viewer who |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jaws | 1975, Steven Spielberg | Brody, Hooper, Quint, Mayor Vaughn | The Orca leaves Amity and the map narrows to three lines | likes a story that visibly changes gear halfway through |
| The Shining | 1980, Stanley Kubrick | Jack, Wendy, Danny, Dick Hallorann | Hallorann leaves and returns, the only line that does | rewatches for detail and argues about the order of events |
If you are buying for someone who can quote the Indianapolis speech, it is the Jaws plot map. If it is for someone who has opinions about the geography of the Overlook, it is the The Shining plot map.
A Present for the Viewer Who Pauses and Rewinds
These land well with the person who already owns the poster. There is no artwork reproduction on them, no ranking and no opinion, just the order of events and who was in the room.
A2 works in a hallway or a stairwell where someone will stand close enough to read the station names. A1 is the one to pick for a room where people sit down, because both films carry a lot of small text.
The pair also hang well together, since the contrast between the two shapes is the point.
How the Film Maps Are Printed and Framed
Each one is a Giclée print on 230gsm premium fine art paper, textured matte, archival and acid-free.
A2 is 420 x 594mm and A1 is 594 x 841mm, both printed landscape for the film maps, with US sizing of 24 x 18 in and 36 x 24 in.
Prices start at £42 for A2 unframed and £58 for A1 unframed. Both sizes also come in a black wood frame, ready to hang.
Questions About the Horror Film Plot Maps
How many horror maps are there so far?
Two. Jaws and The Shining are drawn, and more films in the genre are in research.
What is not on these maps?
Sequels are not mapped, so Jaws 2 and Doctor Sleep do not appear, and neither do deleted scenes nor the Stephen King novel. The music maps on the rest of the site follow a matching rule, carrying studio records only, which leaves live albums and compilations off.
Do they give the ending away?
Yes. The stations run in story order, so the final scene is on the sheet. That is worth knowing if you are buying for someone who has not seen the film.
Which scenes become stations?
The turning points rather than the shots. On Jaws that includes the Chrissie Watkins attack and the Indianapolis speech, and on The Shining it includes the typewriter reveal and the hedge maze finale.
Are these official film merchandise?
No. They are my own drawings, researched scene by scene and plotted in CAD here in East Sussex.
Which is the better first print?
Jaws, usually. Its two-part shape reads quickly from a distance, where The Shining rewards someone who already knows the film well.
Explore These Art Prints
The Horror Movie Plot Line Maps collection holds both prints as the series grows.
The same format applied to a different genre sits in the Sci-Fi Movie Plot Line Maps collection, and every film map I have drawn is in the Movie Plot Map collection. The one map in the range that covers a whole series rather than a single film is Bond, and I have listed the James Bond films in order.
If the format is new to you, I have written a guide on how to read one of these maps, and the background to the drawing style is in what tube map art is.
The music side of the range sits in the Music Wall Art Prints collection.
