The Purge

Horror, Thriller | 31 May 2013 (UK)

In the future, a wealthy family is held hostage for harbouring the target of a murderous syndicate during the Purge, a 12-hour period in which any and all crime is legalized.

The main image on this poster is presumably the main antagonist from the movie. He is wearing a mask over his face, which connotes that this movie is a “slasher” horror genre as stereotypically, the main antagonist wears a mask to cover his face. This might be seen as scary because some audience might find just the idea of masks scary but it also its a mystery of what's underneath. The mask makes the character look evil and could suggest that the character may be psychotic, which also links to the stereotype of any antagonist in a horror film.

The colours used in this poster are very dark, there is a black/dark purple/ background, also the mask shadows the real features of the actor. The dark colours used represent danger and evil, the only brighter colours on this poster is the light shining on the mask, this is used to make the mask stand out more and for it to be the centre of attention on this poster. The black out backgrounf makes the poster look even more terrifying because it brings out the main image on the poster, which is the masked figure.

The only symbol used in this poster is the mask but the audience doesn't have any foreknowledge to decode them, the film was not based on a book so no on would have any information about the plot that they could use. You could say that knowing what a mask connotes is foreknowledge for a person to use but that doesn’t give any information about the plot of the film, just what the character is like as a person.

I think that the messages are mainly visual but do come across through the writing on the poster. This poster is filled with an image of a man in a mask, you cant see who the man is you can only see what others will see in person. The use of a tagline, the sell line at the top and the bottom give the audience more of an insight into the plot of the film and the creators. The sell line at the top says that the producer who made The Purge also produced Paranormal Activity and Sinister. Both films are very well known and have become a great success, this tells the reader that the film wont be standard, it will be a blockbuster film and one that they need to watch.

The Purge has a certificate of 15 by the BBFC as the film does have childish themes but doesn’t contain a lot of violence and brutal scenes that would have made it an 18. I think the target audience for this film are teenagers as the movie isn't that terrifying to be classified as 18. There are famous actors in this film which will help to attract more viewers, if someone likes a specific actor in this film then they are more likely to watch it.

The main actors in this film are: Ethan Hawke … James Sandin Lena Headey … Mary Sandin Max Burkholder … Charlie Sandin Adelaide Kane … Zoey Sandin Rhys Wakefield … Polite Leader

Attention s gained through the mystery of the man behind the mask. The actors names are not a big feature of this poster and you cant tell who the actor is, this makes the audience intrigues to watch the film so they can see who the character is.

The tagline used on this poster is “One night a year. All crime is legal” then it has the title of the film then returns to “Survive the night June 7th”. The use of the tagline is to give away an idea about the plot of the film, one of the official taglines of the film is “Survive the night” but they used the date June 7th because that was the release date of the film.

I don’t think that this poster would be offensive to anyone because it doesn’t really show much, just a man in a mask. There is not gore in the poster.