Horror Movie Plot Maps: Two Films, Jaws in 1975 and The Shining in 1980
My horror movie plot maps take a whole film and redraw it as a London Underground map, with each character as a line and each key scene as a station. There are two in the collection so far: Jaws from 1975 and The Shining from 1980. This post is about how the two differ on the wall, and which one suits which viewer.
The collection
Horror Movie Plot Map Art Prints
Each map in the collection researched and drawn by me.
I build each one from a scene-by-scene pass through the film rather than from a synopsis, then plot the result in CAD in East Sussex. A plot line map lets you see a film's shape in one look, which is something a poster or a still can't do.
Two Horror Film Plot Map Art Prints, Two Opposite Shapes
Put the two maps side by side and they almost mirror each other. Jaws starts wide, with a whole town on the network, and narrows to three lines on a boat. The Shining starts narrow, with a family of three, and the hotel keeps adding lines around them.
That difference is the most useful thing to know when choosing between them. One is a film about a crowd being stripped away. The other is about isolation filling up with things that shouldn't be there.
| Map | Film | The constant line | Where the network changes shape | Suits the viewer who |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jaws | 1975, Steven Spielberg | Chief Martin Brody | The Orca leaves Amity, the town lines stop and the map narrows to Brody, Hooper and Quint | Loves the Indianapolis speech and can quote the boat half line by line |
| The Shining | 1980, Stanley Kubrick | Jack Torrance | The Overlook's spectral cast joins the family's lines at the points where the hotel intervenes | Rewatches for the details and argues about what the hotel really is |
Jaws Is Really Two Films Joined at One Station
The first half of Jaws is a town film. Brody, Mayor Vaughn and the council argue over the beaches, with the Chrissie Watkins attack as the opening station and Vaughn's line standing for the town's refusal to close them.
The second half is a boat film with three men on it. Once the Orca is out of Amity, the town lines simply stop, and the map shows that change as a single interchange where the two plots meet.
Brody is the only line that runs the whole length. Hooper joins partway through, and Quint is the one who pulls all three together for the hunt.
The Indianapolis Speech Sits in the Quietest Stretch of Jaws
Quint's USS Indianapolis speech is a station on the map, and where it falls is telling. It comes in the calm on board the Orca, after the town has fallen away and before the final confrontation.
On a plot map, that stretch reads as three lines running together with nothing else around them. It is the most crowded the three men ever get, and the emptiest the network ever looks.
The Shining Hands You Its Own Timetable
Kubrick breaks the film up with title cards: The Interview, Closing Day, A Month Later, then days of the week, then clock times. For a map built like a transit network, that is close to a published timetable.
It also shows how the film tightens. The gaps between cards shrink from a month to days to hours, so the stations bunch up as Jack's line heads for the hedge maze finale.
Dick Hallorann's Line Leaves and Comes Back
Hallorann, the Overlook's chef played by Scatman Crothers, shares Danny's psychic ability and gives him the talk about shining on closing day. Then he leaves the hotel, and his line leaves with him.
He returns partway through the film, and that gap and return is the kind of thing I look for on my music maps too. A session player who vanishes for years and comes back makes the same shape on a discography map that Hallorann makes on this one.
Jack Torrance forms the central line, with Wendy and Danny running alongside him through the isolation. The typewriter reveal is one of the key stations, and so is the opening tour of the hotel.
Which Horror Movie Plot Map to Pick
Pick Jaws for someone who likes a film with clear acts, or who grew up on 1970s cinema. The two-part shape is easy to read from across a room, and the story of a town becoming a boat is visible at a glance.
Pick The Shining for someone who watches films closely and likes an argument. It is the busier network of the two, because the hotel's cast keeps crossing the family's lines, and it rewards standing close.
If they love both, they hang well as a pair. The mirrored shapes, wide to narrow and narrow to crowded, make more sense side by side than apart.
A Gift for the Horror Fan Who Knows Every Scene
These maps land well with the person who has seen the film thirty times and already owns the poster. There's no still from the film on them, just the story laid out so it can be followed from station to station.
A3 suits a desk wall or a small alcove. A2 suits a hallway or a shelf where someone will stand close, and A1 is better above a sofa or in a home cinema room, where it has to be read from further back.
Sizes, Paper and Framing
Each map is a Giclée print on 230gsm premium fine art paper, textured matte, archival and acid-free. The maps are landscape, so the width comes first: A3 is 420 x 297 mm, A2 is 594 x 420 mm and A1 is 841 x 594 mm.
Every size, A3 included, comes unframed or in a black wood frame.
For the US, Canada and Australia there are three separate inch formats, 16x12 in, 24x18 in and 36x24 in, priced the same way. They are their own formats rather than conversions of the A sizes.
Questions About the Horror Plot Maps
How many horror plot maps are there?
Two so far, Jaws and The Shining, with more films in research.
What is not on these maps?
The maps plot the film as released and nothing else, so there are no sequels, no deleted scenes and no plot points from the novels by Peter Benchley and Stephen King. That matters for The Shining, where the book's topiary animals are replaced in the film by the hedge maze. It's the same principle as my music maps, which plot studio albums only and leave out live albums and compilations.
Is Jaws really a horror film?
It sits in the horror collection because of how it is watched and remembered, though plenty of people would call it a thriller. The map itself doesn't take sides, it just shows the structure.
Are film stills or dialogue printed on them?
No. Stations are named for the scenes, but there's no artwork from either film on the prints.
Which is easier to read for someone new to plot maps?
Jaws, because its two halves are so clearly separated. The Shining has more crossings and takes a little longer to follow.
Explore These Art Prints
The Horror Movie Plot Line Maps collection holds both films. The prints themselves are the Jaws plot lines map and The Shining plot lines map, and either would make a gift a horror fan hangs rather than files away.
For more film maps, the Sci-Fi Movie Plot Line Maps collection includes Blade Runner and Back to the Future. The music side of the range sits in the Music Wall Art Prints collection.
