Horror Film Poster Analysis 1 world of the actors or even

from their own view (handheld

camerawork etc). It’s in this

captivation that we, as

viewers, are most vulnerable to

‘being scared’ due to being so

heavily invested that we deem

it real enough to be horrified.

The fonts themselves are all

serif, possibly representing a

more serious approach to

horror rather than say a

comedic horror film. The film

possibly aims to appeal to the

target audience of more

seasoned horror fans, as the

header of the poster reads

‘From the producer of

‘Paranormal Activity’ and

‘Insidious’, possibly to bring in

some viewers of the directors

previous work. Below the title

written quite small reads ‘Once

you see him, nothing can save

you’. Then upon closer

inspection of the blood in the

poster a pair of eyes can

faintly be seen, a clever use of

linking the main image and

title together quite creepily.

When looking at the colour

scheme of the poster, the

overall theme is a dull, cracked

grey with black and white fonts

which contrasts to the main

image of the poster showing a

woman dragging blood across

the wall. These colours

connote two possible things,

one being to divert focus to

the bloody aspect of the

poster hinting that the film

could be gory as an oppose to

other films of the horror genre.

The other thing that the colours

connote is an overall darkness

often present in horror films. The

poster ‘screams’ horror just in

the way the text and images

are presented to the viewer.

For example, the main title is

blurred and similar to the

background, which somewhat

makes you focus more on it as

an oppose to if the title was

bigger, bold and brighter in

colour. Part of watching a

horror film is about being

captivated in it, whether

you’re being placed within the

Horror Film Poster Analysis 2 the title in that the person

featured in it could have a

demon inside him trying to get

out or control it. A common

fear is things in every day life,

closer to home fears and add

to realism within the horror

genre to make events happen

in the film far more realistic,

despite often being fictional.

The header at the top of the

page says ‘based on a true

story’, whether this is true or not

is another story but the fact still

lies that often 21st century

horror films play on truth and

reality rather than fictional

mutants and monsters of

previous horror genres. This

leads onto the potential target

audience of a film like this,

possibly more seasoned horror

fans that have seen other films

by the same directors or of the

same genre. Based on the shot

of the main image, colour

scheme and the way it’s

presented to the reader you

can instantly connote that the

film is from the genre of horror.

The main image of this horror

film poster consumes the vast

majority of space on the poster

so it would be difficult to miss

the malevolence it shows, as a

hand leaves the mouth of the

character and clings to its face

using a relatively close up shot.

This main image links well to

the phrase reading ‘darkness

lives inside’ found above the

footer and beneath the main

title. Like most horror films, the

background, font and colours

of these are uninteresting often

dull greys blacks and whites

possibly to distinguish the

image from the rest of the

darkness that often resides in

horror films. Colour albeit lack

of plays an important part in

posters, especially of the horror

genre. Judging by the page

layout, it appears to be typical

of the horror genre. Smaller

main titles, larger moderately

disturbing images relating to

the content of the film, if it’s a

slasher of subgenre etc. One

connotation is that it links to

Horror Film Poster Analysis 3 horror films, suspense. All font

on the page is in white,

possibly to contrast best from

all the darkness in the

background but as with most

horror film posters, the font isn’t

really ‘in your face’ so to

speak, possibly, done to focus

view onto the image. When

looking at the target audience

for a poster like this, again

you’d expect more seasoned

horror fans to watch it, as at

the top it says ‘From the

director of Saw and Insidious’,

both films at the pinnacle of

the genre of torture films both

physical and mental torment.

The layout applies to common

convention of horror film

posters also, in the way that

the image is in the centre and

small headers, titles and footers

are above and below. The

image either fills the full size of

the poster or is smaller and is

also slightly offset to give

perspective, either against a

wall or in a corner like this one,

almost isolating the characters.

The third poster example I’ve

chosen to analyse is possibly

my favourite. The lacklustre of

the colour scheme and the

dreary, dull, black-saturated

background just scream

impending darkness. The main

image shows a long shot of a

girl and a doll in a rocking

chair, an age old horror prop

that remains iconic scary to this

day, possibly due to the slow

effortless motion of the chair

a n d s o m e t h i n g o f t e n

associated. The girl is facing

the other way but the doll

looks towards the viewer as a

direct mode of address. This

isn’t noticed at first but on

closer focus it is. This is a

common trend of horror film

posters, there’s a lot of hidden

detail as by looking at the

poster generally the intrinsic

horror doesn't look too obvious.

It’s captivating, the longer

you’ve spent looking the more

suspense you’re under despite

the fact that it’s a static print

image. This is a key element of