Kubrick stare

The Kubrick stare is a directorial technique used to portray insane or unstable film characters. Named after director Stanley Kubrick, who frequently utilized it, the technique involves the actor staring directly into the camera whilst tilting their head downwards. The stare can create the illusion that the actor is looking past the camera and directly at the audience.

The Kubrick stare has been described as one of Kubrick's visual signatures, but has also been used by other directors, both before and after Kubrick. It has been deemed "one of cinema's most recognizable shots".

Description and usage
A Kubrick stare involves an actor looking out from under the brow line and tilting their head towards the camera. Sometimes, the actor will also smile in a sinister fashion. It is often used to convey that a character has become dangerously mentally unstable. Thus, the stare has been described as looking creepy. It often heralds that something "intense" will soon take place, and has been described by The Telegraph as "one of cinema's most recognizable shots."

Origins and Kubrick
What would later be known as the Kubrick stare was first utilized by director Alfred Hitchcock in the ending of Psycho (1960), but the origin of the term lies in the making of Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971). According to actor Malcolm McDowell, whilst filming the movie, Kubrick requested that McDowell react to hearing music by Beethoven for a scene. After several tries, they agreed upon an expression with the eyes "kind of up and glazed over." Cinematographer Douglas Milsome dubbed it the "Kubrick stare", coining the term. Kubrick found McDowell's gaze compelling enough to put on the poster for A Clockwork Orange.

Manohla Dargis, however, states that the term "Kubrick stare" was actually inspired by Jack Nicholson's performance in The Shining (1980).

Usage by Kubrick and others
Kubrick extensively used the technique that bore his name in almost all his films, especially in Full Metal Jacket (1987), The Shining (1980), and A Clockwork Orange (1971). In the modern era, directors and actors have also relied on the technique to convey derangement as well. It can be seen in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Donnie Darko (2001), and Batman (1989). In particular, the supervillain the Joker has become associated with the Kubrick stare due to actor Heath Ledger heavily using it in The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Notably, the movie Smile (2022) revolves around a woman who is haunted by an many-faced entity that constantly smiles at her while giving a Kubrick stare.

Reception and analysis
Drawing on the theories of Jacques Lacan, Far Out argues that the Kubrick stare breaks down the barrier between the fictional world and that of the viewers, causing the audience to become further invested in the media. Similarly, Kubrick researcher Matthew Melia notes that an actor performing the stare will give the impression that they are looking past the fourth wall and directly at the audience. He describes the technique as "invasive" and "troubling". Slate remarks that the facial expression is perhaps unrivalled in evoking fear in cinema. Similarly, The Telegraph describes the stare as relishing in the viewer's unease.

In analyzing a specific Kubrick stare from Full Metal Jacket, scholar Jens Kjelgaard-Christiansen notes that the character's lowered eyebrows and smiling mouth seem to contradict one another, indicating both anger and joy at the same time. She adds that abnormal gazes can come across as creepy, as humans read emotions from the eyes.

Robbie Collin, writing in The Daily Telegraph opines that only actors with an innate "coiled menace" in their facial structures are able to perform a Kubrick stare well, regardless of talent or acting ability. He comments that Jack Nicholson appears to constantly look as if he were giving a Kubrick stare, due to the "hunch of his eyebrows and curl of his lip." Manohla Dargis, reviewing Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024), comments that Anya Taylor-Joy is suited to perform a Kubrick stare as she has large eyes, whose whites are accentuated when she looks up.

Film critic Roger Ebert complains that Kubrick's decision to film Alex, an amoral character in A Clockwork Orange, from above makes Alex look "messianic" instead of villainous. He also criticizes Kubrick for overusing the technique associated with him in a review of Full Metal Jacket, stating that it has become too predictable.

Outside of film
Former American president Donald Trump was arrested in August 2023 on charges relating to his conduct during the aftermath of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. A mug shot was taken of him, the first ever of any U.S. president. In the photograph, Trump tilts his head downward and stares directly at the camera, leading The Telegraph and some netizens to compare his gaze to a Kubrick stare.