Horror Film Poster Analysis

Horror Film Poster

Analysis

I have selected 3 horror film posters, posters produced for the films, Amityville, The Conjuring 2 and Halloween 2. This selected of posters contains various sub genres, as two of the films are classed as Paranormal Slashers, and the other is the sub genre of which is the main interest to me as this is what my trailer falls into, Slasher. In this piece of work I will be analysis features of these posters and exploring codes and conventions, in greater details than i did in my film poster overview...

Horror Iconography -

Mise En Scene

The Main Image

Horror Iconography

Lighting

Colour Scheme

Mise En Scene

The Doll

The rocking chair in which the female character is sat on is usually associated with older people, stereotypically is a chair for old people. We cant see clearly by the female in the chair does sort of look as though she could be of an older generation, the chair contributes to this assumption built of her. The character is wearing fully white, there are no other colors to her outfit, the colour white is usually associated with innocence and purity, however in this case it connotes absence and supernatural behavior/characters.

The Main Image revolves around a female sat in a rocking chair. The female is isolated in an empty room, the fact that she is isolated on her own suggests that people want to stay away from her. This gives are a haunting look. She is also not showing her face, she is looking away from the camera suggesting that she inst aware that the camera is there, this could be because she is dead, a convention of the supernatural horror it is. It is also conventional for horror films as a genre to keep the identity of their villain concealed, suggesting thue have something to hide.

Nearly all film poster involve a face of a character (usually the villain) and almost all of these will involve direct address. In this poster the only human looking character, being the women in the chair, is not facing the camera, the Doll is the only face within the poster, suggesting that the Doll could have a very influential part to play within the film, perhaps more so than the female in the chair. The doll is sat on the women lap, she is on top of her, this perhaps suggest that she has authority over the female, this would only be able to happen if the doll was supernatural and possessed the women, this foreshadows the supernatural theme of the film. The direct address from the doll suggests she she could be trying to posses the audience. The doll is smiling at the camera, smiling is not only associated with humans, which gives the doll supernatural connotations, but also is associated with happiness, this gives the doll an evil essence as the theme of the poster looks relatively sinister with the colours and the background (will come on to this in a bit). The dolls head is spun around looking at the camera, looking almost human like as if it knows that camera is there and it has turned on its own, this complies with the supernatural theme of not only the poster but also the movie itself.

The Villain in the poster is holding a large knife up above is head. The inclusion of the knife on the poster conforms to typical conventions of not only horror but more specifically the sub genre the film Halloween falls into, Slasher. The knife gives the audience an indication of what will be used to kill the victims. Knife killing has connotations of victims being slayed and many gruesome blood scenes, some peope hunt for this in horror films and enjoy this very real way of victim execution.

Low key lighting is used in this image, this is done to help conceal the identity of the villain as not being able to see the villains face or only being able to see half is a convention of horror media. As is suggests they have something to hide, or that they have 2 sides to their personality. As well s this if the villain i lit in low key lighting then there is going to be a large proportion of the image that is concealed by darkness, darkness has connotations of evil, or the unknown which suggest fear.

It is clear that this poster is very convention to the horror genre, as the colour scheme is another convention that this poster seems to comply to. The colours, much like the other two horror posters are dark and there there is a dominance of blacks and grey's over the poster, reflecting the dark and evil nature of the killings that may occur within the film. As well as this the title is written in red, the colour red when seen on horror relate media is associated with blood, which in tern reflects violent killings/gruesome murders.

There is feature of the poster that isnt noticeable at first, however when looking at the image in greater detail you can see what appears to be a newspaper cutting behind the title of the poster. It is very faint and only one word stands out, "possessed" this hints to what the narrative of the film may revolve around and also reflects the supernatural nature of the film. Another convention of this poster that features in the other posters is the fact the villains identity is concealed, much like the other posters the villain is facing away from the camera, resulting in very little details about the villain being given away, adding to the mysterious factor and making them more scary, as most people associate the unknown with fear.

THE AMITYVILLE

THE CONJURING

HALLOWEEN 2

The Sky-line

The Title

Colour Scheme

The Title

Other Text

As the background of this poster is relatively plain and dull in terms of colour and subject matter, it isn't going to keep the audiences attention for a substantial amount f time, as there isn't a huge amount to look at, therefore the the Title (name of the film the poster is promoting) doesn't need to be particularly eye catching, it ca afford to be simple, the the audiences eye will be draw to it anyway, as it is content, something the background isn't offering great deal of. The colour if white, which contrasts to the dark black and grey background forcing the text to stand out without it being a particularly large font size.

The skyline features two other very well known and successful horror films. The names of the films Saw and Insidious are in bold where as the rest of the text in the skyline is not. This means that these two names are the fist thing the audience will be draw to as they see the skyline. they will be draw to read the whole skyline as they are well known horror films and wonder why they are mentioned on this poster. They will then discover then the conjuring is produced by the same director, this will widen the audience of the film as people that are fans of Saw and Insidious will have a desire to watch this film as well.

Dark Colours are prominent within this poster when looking at the background to the main image and the main image itself, this is convention to horror related media, as dark colours such as grey and black have connotations of death, which is a horror films links to murder. The colour orange is used for the title, I touched upon why this is used earlier however I feel there is another more complex reason behind it. Orange is very unconventional to horror related media, we are used to seeing red, this is because red has connotations of blood and orange is thought to be a happier colour. By using the colour orange the poster features Binary Oppositions, good vs evil, as orange is a bright happy colour and black an dark evil one. This is perhaps done to foreshadow a theme within the film ( a theme of good vs evil). As well as this the poster is very dark round the outside and gradually the tones/colours become lighter towards the middle (vignette) again this juxtaposition suggest a good vs bad theme within the film.

The title that features on this poster is conventionally the largest text on the page, this is so the audience don't have to hunt to find the name of the film, its jumping out at them straight away. The font used for the title is a bold fire pattern font, fire has connotation of danger as fire can cause serious harm, this hints at a dangerous narrative for the film. The bright orange colour is associated with pumpkins which has connotations of Halloween, linking to the title of the film. The film information below is in a bland colour that doesn't particularly stand out from its background this is done so the audiences' full attention is on the important aspects of the poster, such as the title, and also the main image, that I will come on to now...

I just mentioned the use of the colour red in the title when speaking about the colour scheme, however there is more to be said than the connotations the colour has with blood. Further reasons the colour red has been used is to stand out, the background is very bland and dark, consisting of dark tones only the colour red stands out against the background, drawing the audience eye to it. As well as this the positioning of the title contributes to how well it stands out to the audience, it is about 2 thirds of the way down the page, which complies with the rule of thirds guidelines suggesting that this is a point of interest, more likely for the audience to take notice of it. Now, although the colour red does have connotations of blood like i previously mentions, this isn't the only connotation is holds, it also reflects the hellish theme of the movie as the colour is heavily associated with hell.

There are other pieces of text on the page, other than the title, that are used to gain audience attention and interest. Firstly 'based on a true story' makes the audience feel that the narrative is more realistic and grabs attention, also, as it is a supernatural film, it makes the audience wonder what supernatural events actually happened in real life, it gives the film a unique selling point, a supernatural film based on a true story. The name of the director is also featured on the front, this is to give the audience confidence that this film will be good and credibility that thy will enjoy it, as if they have been a fan of some of the directors other work, there is a chance they will like this one. The words 'catch em & kill em' are written on the wall of a building in the background, this suggest a violence nature to the film and makes the audience question who is getting killed, why and by who. Also it is written on the wall like an order, suggesting someone may have order another person to kill, leading the audience think there is more to this film than a standard horror.

The Main Image

Colour Scheme

Image Background

The Main Image

More On The Title

The positioning on the title, central and roughly two thirds of the way down the page is not only conventional to horror posters but also just film posters in general. Just below the title is the sell line 'Based on a true story' this adds to the scare factor and haves the story more interesting. The whole poster suggests a supernatural narrative so the audience will question what supernatural events actually occurred, will have to watch film to find out.

The main image on this poster features the man character (who happens to be the villain) and one of the settings for the film. The third poser out of the 3 also includes the villain on the poster, it is clear that is a very common convention of horror posters. The main image gives a way a few key elements of what the film is about without giving too much away. Another convention of horror posters that is included in this image is the horror iconography, the shot gun in the villains hand. Its convention for the villain to have their weapon on display on the poster to give the audience an idea of how the victims are killed.

The whole poster is completely black and white, with low saturation tones, it looks bleake and lifeless, suggesting death which in a horror film, means murder. The posters colour theme could be considered as unconventional as there is no red on it, there is usually red somewhere on a horror poster to connote blood which of course has links to murder, or more specifically brutal murders. However there is no red only black and white tones, these tones connote sorrow. The fact there are no bright colours or vibrant tones indicates the seriousness or the sinister events occurring in the film.

The background features dark tones, black and grey are prominent. These dark tones along with the strong shadows are conventional to the horror genre. There are no interesting colours, content or subject matter i the background, its pretty plain and could be classed as boring. however the use of dark shadows contrasting with the ell lit lighter parts of the background create a depth to the image making the image more interesting and drawing the eye of the audience in. Looking closely at the backgroudn, which is two concrete walls and the corner where they meet, there are strains on the wall, potentially blood stains. This suggest that it could have been a place of murder in the past, this could happen again. The grey concrete walls almost look like a basement, a basement is a conentional setter for murders within a horror film.

The main image used for this poster is taken as a mid shot, a mid shot is used in this situation so that the top half of the villains costume, his head and his weapon are all in shot. The shot is taken from side, therefore only had the villains face is visible to the audience, this indicates that he has something to hide, or has two sides to him. The villain hiding their identity or showing half their face is a very common convention of horror film posters or more specifically, slasher poster as it can be used to help the audience infer a deeper meaning.