Poster Overview

   

All the six of these posters have been design to appeal to a specific target audience. They have all been created with the codes and conventions of supernatural horror in mind. By analysing and comparing how they are used I will be able to pick out repeated patterns and effective techniques that I will be able to use in my own Poster.

The colour schemes throughout them all stay relatively similar to each other staying within the conventional palette ranges of red, grey, white and black. This is because these colours all connote fear and danger, which is why they are used so widely in anything regarding horror films, giving the target audience a clear impression of what is being advertised. This can be seen especially in the poster for ‘Trick ‘n treat’ as not only is it red but its looks to be burning not unlike when something has been branded into the skin with a red hot poker already sending warning signals to the audience as this would not have been a pleasant experience. Most of the poster’s titles are in red which contrasts to their black or dark backgrounds meaning the title is highlighted and grabs the audience’s attention effectively. It is also the largest text seen which also promotes the name of the film so that the audience will know what it’s called when they go to cinema to see it. Some of the titles are in fonts that are very bold making them even more visible. However ‘The Rite’ in cooperates a cross as the ‘T’ indicating the narrative will involve some sort of religious references and ‘Trick ‘n treat’ has a sort of distorted font indicating that the antagonist is distorted. The titles all seem to be placed at the bottom of the poster given a clear convention for layout. This is because the audience will first focus on the image and then relate the title to the image allowing them to already piece together a narrative teasing them in to finding out the full narrative.

In three of these posters the background is a relatively normal looking house which has been tainted by the editing; either making it look grey and drab or by covering in mist and smoke leaving it hidden implying that whatever is happening within the house is so terrible it has to be hidden away. Also by using something that will be so familiar to the audience gives the film a sense of realism. It is in such an ordinary setting that it implies that the goings on in the film could happen to the audience. This is a convention of supernatural horrors which is why it has been repeated in these supernatural film posters. The other three posters do not contain a house but instead in cooperate a lot of the colour red to signal suffering, pain and danger. In most of the posters the antagonist almost blends into the background implying that the dark colours and overall cold, moody feeling created is emanating from the antagonist. They are tainting normality. The lighting in the background is also very dark showing that the world inside the film is very dark and full of evil or the unknown.

Four out of the six posters show the antagonist and even though they are shown they are usually masked by the darkness. For example ‘The Amityville Horror’ shows only the outline of the antagonist just like ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’. Meaning the audience knows that there is something to fear but they do not know exactly what it looks like creating a sense of fear and curiosity leading them to go and see the film so they will be able to see them clearly. It seems to be a convention to have the antagonist shown but not in clear view so the audience is still left afraid of the unknown. The images that include people’s face show them to have a cold expressionless look showing that the world within the film also has no warmth or compassion.

In all of the posters a repeated pattern of placing the institutional information at the bottom and is in very small text as to draw less attention to it. This is because drawing attention to these things will make the fact that it is only a film become more prominent to the audience therefore making the film lose its realism and therefore its scare factor.  The tag lines secure the fear created by the image by reinforcing the developing ideas in the audience’s imagination. It is also the audience will remember effectively making it stick in their mind creating a stronger brand identity for the film.

All these posters are effective in the way they use conventions in order to create a poster that appeals to an audience that enjoys supernatural horror. There are definitely clear patterns that occur within them all which I will be using in my own poster.