"In that showdown, and at several other times in the film, Kubrick indulges his favorite closeup, a shot of a man glowering up at the camera from beneath lowered brows. This was the trademark visual in A Clockwork Orange, and Jack Nicholson practiced it in The Shining. What does it mean? That Kubrick thinks it's an interesting angle from which to shoot the face, I think."
Dragon Ball characters do this quite a lot, usually right before Kicking it Up to Eleven but most notably Goku first goes Super Saiyan 3. This tends to be Frieza's default expression.
Dr. Hell from Mazinger Z displays this expression quite frequently, usually when mad or after thinking of some devilish scheme.
Light Yagami gets a few of these in Death Note. Notice how devilish he looks especially when it is combined with those glowy red eye effects. Near◊ and Mello◊ as well.
Used in the first episode of Darker Than Black. When the viewpoint character of the episode meets Lee/Hiei, he is stargazing and has a very normal conversation with her, and helps her escape her pursuers even. When she leaves, his expression slowly changes to this as he stares at her back, lending hint to the fact that he is chasing her himself, only much more subtly.
Femto's Kubrick Stare during The Eclipse is terrifying, since although he's raping Casca, Guts' love interest purely out of spite, he's also staring at Guts the entire time.
What's even more creepy: We saw some warning signs before the Eclipse when Griffith was giving them the SAME STARE when it became clear to him that Guts and Casca were a couple who were in love, and not just the blind admiration that people gave to him, which probably helped to set him off.
Yuno of Mirai Nikki does this through Yuki's letterbox - while wishing him a good nightafter he discovers the room in her house that contains the corpses of her parents, and her second self who she murdered.
Buruge from Ginga Densetsu Weed does this when part of his army is ready to intercept the incoming Ohu soldiers.
Robotech: The Robotech Masters do this occasionally. In the episode "A False Start", Captain Komodo does this before his decision to disregard orders and open fire on the Masters' Bioroid dropships.
Commonly done by Mewtwo in Pokémon: The First Movie, though his most famous is arguably the one right before he proceeds to reduce the lab he's in and everyone in it to rubble.
An (intentionally) hilarious one is pulled off in the blooper reel of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Alex Louis Armstrong pulls one on Ling Yao at a normally serious moment when the heroes are discussing the homunculi. However, by messing around with the script, Greed instead says "You could say he's used its energy to claim the power of God for himself. Now will you please put on a fucking shirt?" What was a Kubrick Stare suddenly became a look of shame. Has to be seen to be believed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppw6zvwmUzU (Clip starts at 6:26, video contains spoilers)
When he walks away from Mr. Incredible in a later scene in the movie, grumbling an Ironic Echo.
Bob uses it a couple times too: during the scene where his boss is chewing him out and forbidding him from trying to stop a mugging, and later, after Syndrome mocks him, immediately after everyone thinks Bob's family has died. He gives Syndrome the stare as he lunges in for an (attempted) kill.
When Quasimodo is finally pushed over the edge by the gargoyles, he looks down into the street, grimacing for one of the few times in the film as the chorus begins to break out in Latin chants.
There is an instance where Esmerelda gives Frollo one when he essentially offers to save her from burning if she sleeps with him. Just before the stare, she spits in his face.
In Ratatouille, Anton Ego somehow manages to do this to Linguini when the two first meet, even though Anton's standing—looming, really—over a seated Linguini.
Hannibal Lecter gives a cold, emotionless one in The Silence of the Lambs with an emphasis on creepy because he doesn't blink.
Kevin, the sociopathic cannibal (no, not the one above) from Sin City, gives an indescribably creepy Kubrick Stare right before he ambushes the protagonist Marv. Marv does one right back upon overhearing the cannibal's name from his prison. "See you later, Kevin."
Robert Patrick's T-1000, throughout the entirety of the second movie, is a prime example.
Terminator's face in the opening credits, even though it lacks eyebrows, is permanently grinning a skull grin.
The Joker in The Dark Knight, as his posture is often slightly hunched over, is practically built to give these stares. Perhaps this is most noticeable when he's sitting in the holding cell, even more so when he joins in the clapping for Gordon's promotion. As it happened, Gary Oldman told Heath Ledger after this was shot that his performance was reminding him of Alex in A Clockwork Orange; Ledger admitted he had just been watching that film in his trailer.
Star Wars: When Anakin Skywalker turns evil, he gets yellow eyes that he always displays by using one of these.
Sir John Gielgud gives one of these in the movie Arthur, although it looks more disapproving◊ than scary.
The Defence Secretary gives such a stare to M when he levels various complaints against her and her agency in Quantum Of Solace.
One of the new Star Trek movie posters has Chris Pine in this pose◊, which unfortunately makes Captain Kirk look like a dead ringer for Dexter.
Hugh Jackman in the X-Men films deliberately adopted a subtle version of this, but he came upon the idea independently. In an interview he said something about always trying to keep his head just slightly bowed, to imitate the way a wolf looks at you over its nose.
Evil from Time Bandits does this a few times while apparently trying to cast a spell. He lifts his arms up and his face glows red, but he's interrupted before he can finish what he's doing. In the end, it turns him into a crumbling statue, and the Surpreme Being appears to clean things up.
Played for sexy by Lauren Bacall in To Have And Have Not, reportedly because Bacall was nervous about working with Bogey and was trying to keep from shaking. Considering that they later got married, that's adorable.
In The Transporter, the villain manages to do this off camera. That is to say, he stares villainously into the camera for his driver's license photo. He insured that every cop who pulled him over would realize he was evil. He also pulled it off several times on camera, but the driver's license deserves special mention.
The Thing (1982) (1982). Used as a Red Herringwhen Windows is receiving the blood test; he's shown staring at Mac in this fashion as if he's about to attack him, but as soon as the test proves negative Windows visibly relaxes.
Frodo does one in Return of the King for just an instant, when he claims the Ring for himself in Mount Doom.
Merry gets the effect when he's yelling at the Ents for refusing to fight, though it's actually incidental due to him having to look up at them.
Try to find a photo of James Cagney where he's in character and isn't doing this. (No surprise that he was one of Kubrick's favorite actors). See Gary Oldman's Tonight Show appearance below for a description of the Cagney version of the Kubrick Stare.
Loki does this throughout The Avengers. It's especially terrifying in his first appearance.
Connor Macleod gives one of these in Highlander (the first film), when The Kurgan reveals he raped Heather. (she never told Connor, likely fearing he'd go after The Kurgan and get killed.)
Thorin Oakenshield is much given to these in The Hobbit. Of course when you're a dwarf you don't have much choice but to glare up at people.
Ms. Appleyard at the end of in Picnic at Hanging Rock - an especially disturbing example.
Literature
Employed by Krook, the unpleasant rag-merchant in Bleak House:
His watchfulness of [Jarndyce] was incessant... he got opposite to him, and drawing his hand across and across his open mouth with a curious expression of a sense of power, and turning up his eyes, and lowering his grey eyebrows until they appeared to be shut, seemed to scan every lineament of his face.
The Harry Potter series refers to this as well; in Order of the Phoenix, Bellatrix Lestrange's mugshot apparently shows her with a Kubrick Stare (judging by its description).
Greg House from House almost always wears a Kubrick Stare, as shown in many publicity shots. It works to make him look like a strung-out crazy asshole. Which isn't far from the truth.
The League of Gentlemen's Papa Lazarou does this from time to time. It's incredibly frightening.
Patrick McGoohan is seen with a Kubrick Stare at least once in the opening credits of The Prisoner.
Cheers. Diane does this a lot when speaking/listening intently to someone—and as such, it's usually played for cute (and sometimes for sexy, a la Lauren Bacall). There are moments, however, when she really is ticked off when giving the Stare—though it's usually just a quick flash of one, in those instances.
NCIS. Gibbs is comforting a crying woman whose deceased husband was a cannibalistic Serial Killer... until he's informed that some of the bodies buried in her backyard had been buried after the husband died. Cue instant Kubrick Stare from the woman, revealing her true evil self.
iCarly: Freddie of all people, in iWin A Date. They are trying to comfort Gibby, who's crazy for a girl named Shannon who actually likes Freddie. After Gibby runs off, Carly comments on how sad it is to be in love with someone who won't love you back. Freddie gives her a well-deserved stare, and Carly goes 'Sorry'.
Alias: Allison Doren delivers one during the epic fight scene in the second season finale.
One example in Stargate SG-1 is a genetically modified human called Khalek who upon the protagonists realizing his true nature, gives this look. The main light in the room is above him, which enhances the look.
Gary Oldman taught Conan O'Brian how to do something like this during an interview near the end of Conan's run on The Tonight Show (Oldman also related a story how he used it to scare off a paparazzi reporter). Seeing the normally upbeat Conan do this was unnerving.
Oldman credited this version to James Cagney. Step one: turn your head to face the opponent, keeping your eyes glued elsewhere. Step two: the eyes follow.
Mr. Morden flashes one of these at the brig's security camera at the end of the episode "In the Shadow of Z'ha'Dum", right at the point where Sheridan is looking at him in the monitor and sees the two Shadows among him detectable at different wavelengths—it is almost like Morden knows exactly when Sheridan was looking at him, and what he saw.
Sheridan also gives a haggard but defiant Kubrick Stare a couple of times while under Earth Government interrogation in the episode "Intersections in Real Time".
Angel: Wesley is impersonating the titular hero and gets cornered by two threatening goons. Since he isn't actually supernaturally strong or fast like Angel, he has to bluff them by playing on Angel's reputation and tries a standard death glare on them, hoping to look scary and demonic. He fails. Then he uses the Kubrick Stare instead, and suddenly he really does look scary and demonic, even though the difference in expression is quite subtle. (This is, in fact, the story that marks the beginning of his transformation from comic relief to tragic hero.)
Horatio Hornblower, "The Even Chance": Jack Simpson, a depraved tormentor of his fellow midshipmen, has this disturbing and ominous look when he comes aboard the Indefatigable and confronts poor Archie Kennedy. Horatio, the only one who stood up to him back on their old ship, makes it clear to him that these are new times and that he's not going to bother them any more. Simpson then makes a swinging move, tilts his head down and looks up beneath eyebrows, being half-hidden in a shadow. During his next scenes, he tries to murder both Archie Kennedy and Horatio when they take part in a covert night raid and Boarding Party of a French ship.
In The Walking Dead, you can tell Shane's gone off the deep end when he starts using the stare near the end of the second season.
Music
This, combined with a Slasher Smile, has become the trademark pose for the electronic artist Aphex Twin, first featured on his "Richard D. James Album".
Featured heavily in EPICA's "unleashed" music video, mostly coming from Simone Simons, but also the rest of the band at the end of the video.
Cobra Starship frontman Gabe Saporta has become famed for leveling "The Psycho Stare" at any camera in his vicinity. This has done nothing to quell the rumors about his basement of unspecified horrors.
Oomph!'s singer Dero Goi does this at the end of the music video of Labyrinth.
Also worth noting that for the majority of the video, he looks like a cross between Alex DeLarge and the Mad Hatter.
They Might Be Giants singer John Linnell is pretty much made for this with his crazy sparkly eyes and slightly ridiculous forehead.
Blur's video for "The Universal" contains several references to 'Clockwork Orange', so Damon Albarn does one or two of these, as well as a rare side-angle version.
Jay Reatard gives a creepy Kubrick stare on the cover of his album 'Watch Me Fall' in what is clearly an homage to Nicholson in The Shining. Can be seen here◊
Rob Zombie does his own imitation of Alex's stare in the music video for Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy) which itself is based on A Clockwork Orange.
The art on the CD of Jerry Cantrell's Boggy Depot features him giving such a smile.
Quite a few of the talking heads of Fallout and Fallout 2 had this as their "angry" animation.
In FO2, the Kubrick Stare ratchets up in increments as you pushed their buttons. In particular contrast with President Lynne's "superior civilization" poise, which would fade until her lips were locked in a snarl.
In Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Soma Cruz's character image get this expression when he's influenced by Dracula, but not the rest of the time. Same with the sequel, Dawn Of Sorrow.
Cyrus does this in the title sequence of Pokémon Platinum. It tells you exactly what kind of guy he is before you even learn his name.
And Red's sprite is a bit of a variation in all games except Fire Red and Leaf Green.
Shinji Naruse does this from time to time in Lux Pain. You'll know you're seeing it when you can't see his pupils.
Mass Effect 3: When questioned by Admiral Hackett on how s/he got the krogan and salarians to cooperate (answer: by sabatoging the genophage cure), Shepard's response of "careful diplomacy" is accompanied by a Kubrick Stare and Psychotic Smirk.
Hazama of BlazBlue usually reverts to his Terumi state when he's the kind of angry required for this trope, but that doesn't mean he can't do it. One of the most infamous instances is the true ending of Slight Hope, when he lost all of his plans to, and has finally run out of patience with, Makoto Nanaya.
In Doom House, when the terrorist begins chanting in Arabic, his head is slightly tilted down as his menacing eyes stay fixed on Reginald P. Linux, and the camera films this from an above angle, accentuating this even further.
One of the Machinimators stated that the reason he liked to do Carolina in machinima so much is because her helmet is very good for doing shots like this.
Robot Chicken parodies this in one sketch, "Just The Good Parts": a segment of that dealing with The Shining consists near-entirely of the Kubrick Stares from the film.
In The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror V", Homer does this during a Shining parody. The creators mention in DVD commentary that they made Dan Castellaneta do this while recording those lines. "Tilt your head forward and look up, you'll look like a lunatic."
In Code Lyoko, William Dunbar performs one of these just after (faking) escaping from XANA's possession for a moment. The screenshot◊ has reached Memetic Mutation as his "rape face."
Many animals will express their aggression by taking this position. If an animal flattens their ears back while giving a Kubrick Stare, they may be planning to attack.
Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers describes his "seductive stare" as the "Classic Kiedis Chin Tilt". Needless to say, it is very much a Kubrick Stare.
Often used by fashion models as a stock pose of seduction.
