These two films were released in order to have a strong affect on the audience. In order to accomplish this, both of these films use the common theme of evil. However, the types of evil are very different. In The Shining, the evil is more spiritual and paranormal while in Schindler’s list, the evil aspect comes straight from humans. This difference provides two completely different feelings when watching the movies. The Shining gives the viewers a creepy, hair standing up on the back of your neck kind of feel and Schindler’s List makes the audience feel helpless and sad for the victims of the evil. Either way, these movies provided the audience with some real and overwhelming emotions.

The Shining is an iconic horror film from 1980. The film is about a family that goes to watch an empty hotel during the winter in Colorado. The hotel is haunted and starts changing the main character and father Jack Torrance as well as his son Danny. The movie is completely unpredictable and keeps the audience on their toes. Jack steadily gets crazier and crazier as the plot proceeds until he ends up wanting to murder his family because a ghost or spirit tells him to. This is an example of the evil Kubrick portrays. These articles about The Shining discuss how Kubrick went about making this film and the role he played in all aspects of the movie. http://www.horrorfilmhistory.com/index.php?pageID=shining   https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-shining-stanley-kubrick-room-237-rodney-ascher/Content?oid=9206124

A certain spirit or energy takes control of the story during The Shining and drives Jack to the point of insanity. His insanity eventually turns into violence which strikes fear into anyone watching the movie. The fear it creates is the main factor why The Shining became iconic. It was one of the first truly frightening movies of its time and really kick started a new feeling within the horror movie genre, a paranormal evil.

The other movie that uses evil to en-capture the audience is Schindler’s List. This movie is about a man who does whatever he can to save as many Jew as he can during the holocaust. He puts these Jews in factories and labels them as “essential workers” so they will not be put death in concentration camps. This movie is very dark, although is should be because it’s about the holocaust. Holocaust films could be put into a completely different genre. Here is an article the explains how holocaust films are made and presented. externalfile:drive-ff00fca913a774d42cc10317ec2e94fdc96bf244/root/91-396-1-PB.pdf

The darkness in Schindler’s List can be traced back to one factor, which is the evilness of the Nazi Party. The murder scenes are truly gut-wrenching and are extremely graphic. They show just how brutal the Nazis were which gives the audience an uneasy feeling whenever they are in the scene. However,  this evil gives the movie a unique feel that traps the audience in and gives them a reason to keep watching.

An analysis video I found talks about the the black and white structure as well as the filming startegy used in Schindler’s List. This video offers great insight into the film and why certain choices were made during the creation of the film. 

Both these films use evil to capture the audiences attention. Although the types of evil were very different, the affect was the same. It created an intense movie that forced the audience to keep watching.