I have
looked at all of the horror film posters above, having made sure they all
belong to the supernatural sub-genre. I have found that all these posters have
certain conventions and features in common that have helped them to successfully
promote the films as supernatural horrors.
For
example, all the posters had the title of the film. Most of them were written
on the lower half in custom, signature fonts and have the largest font size,
making the title stand out as being the most important piece of text on the
poster. All the posters also had the main image which would take up most of the
space of the poster and would be the centre of focus. It usually shows us
something significant about the narrative like an important character. Other
common features are the tag lines that act as the movies’ slogans and sometimes,
often, horrific imagery.
We can
almost see a pattern across the main images that feature in the posters. Since
they are all supernatural horror posters, the most common subject of the image
is of a possessed or a disturbed child which is a common type of character in
supernatural horrors. For example, in ‘The Omen’ poster, we see a small image
of a young boy and his shadow that is malformed into the form of a cross. The
images of children that do feature seem to defy our expectations of what a
child should be like and this seems unnatural and scary. When we think of
children, we expect them to be happy and innocent, so when we see children as
evil and malevolent it becomes a timeless source of fear. All of the children
in the posters are standing lifelessly and staring blankly, making your staring
feel almost uncomfortable. The boy in the ‘Insidious’ poster has something
wrong with his eyes which emphasises the fact that he is not an innocent child
anymore. Other than that, the character featured is a significant female
character; this pattern is likely to be repeated as the protagonist of supernatural
horrors is usually female. In the ‘Silent Hill’ poster, to give another
example, the image is of a young girl with no mouth and eyes that lack pupils.
All of
the posters successfully show that the films belong to the horror genre and are
designed to scare the audience by either presenting them with horrific imagery
or by using imagery in a subtle way to create tension. In the ‘Sinister’
poster, we see the female protagonist in her white pyjamas, possibly trying to
show that horrifying and wicked things happen at night, when you’re most
vulnerable. She is smearing blood on a wall that drips down to create an evil,
malevolent face. The other posters do not have as horrific imagery but still
create a sort of fear and tension. For example, the ‘The Unborn’ poster has no
blood or deformed and decaying body parts, but it is still able to scare the
audience. It shows the female protagonist looking at a mirror where she sees a
reflection of a young boy looking at her. The boy looks deceased because of his
pale skin and dark circles around his eyes. However, because we don’t see
images of bloody victims or masked killers wielding weapons, but rather ghostly
apparitions and pale figures, it is clear that these posters are promoting a
supernatural film.
There
are also patterns in the colours used. All the posters have quite dull colours
which set a hostile mood. The colours make the posters look cold or
unwelcoming. The characters on the posters of ‘Silent Hill’ and ‘Gothika’ look
as though they are disappearing into the dark backgrounds. This could possibly
signify that they are entering a dark world of the unknown and that it will not
be easy to escape. The poster for ‘The Omen’ has a bright red background, which
is identifying that there will be a lot of blood and that possession by the
devil will feature within the narrative, and, just like that little boy, you
feel insignificant.
The
titles of the films are, as seen on these posters, usually placed at the
bottom. This is because you only see the title after being intrigued by the
image, which might urge you to take note of and remember the title. All of
these posters’ titles are all written in uppercase and in simple and large font
to make them clearly visible. Some of the titles have effects placed on them to
make them look more ghastly. The title of ‘Sinister’ looks like it’s rusting
away on the grey wall behind it. This makes the title look like its part of the
world depicted in the poster. This creates a feeling that evil is trying to
enter and take over the real world. The title of ‘Silent Hill’ looks like it
was drawn with chalk, and then smudged. This makes the poster look like someone
is trying to rub out the story from existence.
The
last things that most of the posters have in common are the institutional
information placed at the bottom and the tag lines that help to reveal
something about the narrative. For example, the tag line for ‘Insidious’ is
“It’s not the house that’s haunted”, which anchors the image of a dark looking
boy standing in front of a slightly brighter house; we are able to guess that
he is possessed. It also tries to tell the audience that this film if not a
typical supernatural horror based around a haunted house.
Other pieces
of text that are a common feature in these posters are the names of famous
actors that are appearing in the film. As predicted, actor names are only
presented when the film features an ‘A’ list actor. Such information could
entice fans of those actors to watch the film because of them. Some of the posters
also have text like “From the makers of Paranormal Activity and Insidious”.
This could also entice people to watch the film if they were fans of the
previous films. Other times, a poster could have the text “Based on a true
story”. This would interest the audience in seeing the film more because they
find the thought of something like that being possible even scarier. Again, it
is common to see that supernatural films have been based on real events. All pieces
of text don’t have the same effects as the title. Instead the text is written
in simple serif or san-serif font for ease of readability.
The
layout in these posters is very specific. In the ‘Insidious’ poster for
example, the title and the text around it create a sort of cross shape, with
the boy’s head looking like the top of the cross. This could be trying to show
that the evil is part of him and that he is possessed, ironically enough, by
the anti-Christ. Most of the time however, the layout of the poster tries to
make the entire piece seem less cluttered so as to bring forward the main image
to the front of the audiences’ view.
All of
these posters use specific lighting, so that lots of shadows are created and
that the image looks darker and colder. For example, the ‘Insidious’ poster
uses back lighting which causes the character’s face to become shrouded in
shadow and acquire an uncomfortable
disposition. Or how both of the ‘Silent Hill’ and ‘Gothika’ posters use key
lighting aimed directly at the character. Effects may also by placed on the
image after to create a bigger contrast between dark and light. This is visible
in the ‘Woman in Black’ poster, where parts of the protagonist are almost not
visible because of the dark shadows, and parts of him look as though there is a
source of light right next to his face, which is called profile lighting.
Obviously, the use of this type of lighting creates a scarier effect, but it
could also indicate to the audience that darkness and evil are going to enter
into and disrupt his life. An effect was obviously added here to achieve this.
The
posters also have iconography that helps to distinguish which sub-genre of
horror the films are. For example, ‘The Omen’ poster has the shadow of a cross
which could be connected to cults and exorcisms. It also had the number ‘666’
in the date, which is usually referenced when talking about Satan. Or how ‘The
Unborn’ poster also uses a child that looks as though he has risen from the
dead because of his pale skin, dark eyes and old fashioned clothes
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