Magazine Cover Overview

These 8 magazine front covers are promoting either horror films, or films that have some conventions of horror narratives like shadows or jumpy moments. Whilst I was researching magazine front covers, I noticed that there was a severe lack of front covers that promote horror films. I found some but not enough, so instead I had to find covers that have similar conventions to the horror film covers.

I have looked at a number of front covers and will explore the features these covers have in common decide what kind of repeated patterns they all feature.

All eight of these front covers look like typical magazine front covers, and all display magazine front cover conventions. For example the masthead is the largest and most predominant text on the cover and is always placed at the top of the frame. In some cases e.g. ‘Empire’, the masthead is tweaked, so that is could suit the theme of the issue, as shown in the cover for ‘Hellboy 2’ where the letters have a flame effect on them and ‘The Dark Knight’ where the letters have green outlines to match the ‘Jokers’ hair. The main image dominates most of the cover which is usually of a main character from the film the magazine is promoting. For example, the ‘Empire’s’ ‘The Dark Knight’ front cover features the main villain ‘The Joker’ and the other ‘Empire’ front cover features Daniel Radcliffe who plays the leading role as ‘Harry Potter’.

The cover has a main strap line that usually mentions the name of the film e.g. ‘The Shining’ cover has the film’s name in the style it is seen on the poster; and smaller sell-lines that tell the readership about the other content in the magazine. Many of them also have smaller images on the cover that relate to articles that can be found inside the magazine, for example, the ‘Shutter Island’ cover has images from the film ‘Avatar’ that tie in with one of the sell-lines that mention a possible review of the film. They also have barcodes on the front which is a convention seen on most types of magazines and many have strap lines that serve as the magazine’s slogan and appears on every cover.

Since all the covers are promoting horror films, or films with horror elements, they all try to create a creepy feel using the images. However, they do this in different ways. For example, the ‘Fangoria’ cover of ‘The Shining’ has the main character Jack, looking straight at the reader with his head slightly down. This causes his eyes to appear almost completely white which makes him look almost possessed. His mouth is open but his teeth are clenched and his hair is messed up. His fist is also clenched which makes him look like he has bottled up anger and is about to break. However, the other ‘Fangoria’ cover featuring ‘Insidious’ has the character’s eyes blacked out. This makes her look less human and the reader becomes drawn to the eyes in a tense gaze, expecting to see something. The ‘Empire’ cover with ‘The Joker’ Also has a similar affect like ‘The Shining’ cover. The main character is staring at the reader in a similar way, except he has a sly grin which makes him look malevolent.

The magazines also use a contrast between light and shadows, which is a convention of horror, to give the covers a more chilling effect. As shown on the ‘Harry Potter’ and the ‘Shutter Island’ cover uses shadows to convey mystery and the fact that the narrative has something dark about it. All of the posters use dark colours to show that there will be horror elements in the promoted films e.g. How the background of ‘Hellboy 2’ is all black, which makes the main character stand out because of his bright red skin, leading us to believe that the film will feature blood. Or how the Jonny Depp cover uses dark clothes, hair and grey background to create a cold and distant feeling.

The layout for most of the covers is quite similar, with the main character being in the centre of the frame and we see a close up shot of their face. We see this in the ‘Entertainment Weekly’ cover of Johnny Depp. The close up lets us see his facial expression in detail, which makes him look stern or almost angry. His pale face and messy hair creates a grim feeling. Or how the big close-up of the ‘Joker’s’ face makes it take up the whole frame, leaving no place for the eyes to wonder except to the sell-lines. This is an exception for the ‘Shutter Island’ cover, where a medium-long shot was chosen in order to show the misty scenery. This would not have worked with a medium or a close-up shot.

All of the text in the frame is pushed to the sides, letting the main image dominate the centre. But they still manage to grab the reader’s attention with sell-lines the mention words like ‘Sex’ on the ‘Hellboy 2’ cover, and phrases like ‘Massive Preview Special’, that make the magazine seem one of a kind.

I think these magazine cover do a good job in promoting their respected films and all follow the conventions of a typical magazine front cover. Looking at all of these front covers has given me many ideas on possible front cover main images and sell-lines for my own magazine front cover.