Poster Analysis 3.

The film poster above promotes the slasher movie the “A Nightmare on Elm Street”. The film itself is a classic, released in 1984 and another remake was made in 2010.

Additionally to this, the front cover entails Freddy Krueger, a well known and well feared fictional character. This will be attracting to audience, and they will be able to recognise him straight away (brand recognition).

The poster itself follows many conventions of a film poster. The title is the biggest font within the frame, clearly indicating that that is the title of the movie, allowing the audience to focus on it and remember it. Smaller fonts including the institutional information, is placed at the bottom of the frame, out of the way in an undistinguished place so that the audience can focus on the main details. Such as the release date which is the last piece of text on the poster and is placed at the bottom so it is the last thing the audience will see and therefore remember. Lastly, the image dominates the frame allowing the audiences to have some sort of insight into the movie. In this case it is a medium close up of the antagonist, with his head tilting downwards with his hat covering his face so that his identity is covered up. However, from the jumper, the knives as fingers, and the scaly face the audience will easily be able to identify this as Freddy Krueger.

The image dominants the frame. It is a medium close up of the antagonist allowing for the audience to see aspects of the costume, as well as parts of the face. From this, the audience will have an insight to the killer and get a good look at him before watching the movie so they will know who to fear. The general mise-en-scene of this poster allows the audience to establish it as a slasher film. The first thing to give this is away costume which the main interest the audience will have is Freddy’s mask. Deposit it looking to be human like to an extent, it looks as if he has burns over his face masking his identity. The mask is the main item of clothing that signifies the genre, as masks are conventional in slashers. The main prop is the knives as finger, also main part of the iconography in this poster. Additionally to this, it is also apart of the “A Nightmare on Elm Street's” brand identity, as Freddy is renowned for having knives as fingers. Effectively creeping out the audience, allowing for them to remember. Lighting is made apparent just behind the antagonist, due to the forest scenery in the background, it is not easy to establish the lighting. However, I believe it to be ambient, which is made available from the moon. Allowing us to know that the killings are going to take place during the nighttime. Which is conventional within the slasher genre - it is very unlike for evil to lurk during the day.

The title of the film is “A Nightmare on Elm Street” suggesting all the events occurring during the film are going to take place in and around this address. This creates suspicion and curiosity for the audience as they will then be looking out for a street sign in order for bad things to start taking place. The font itself is written in a basic sans serif font, however it is written in caps lock which adds extra emphasis. It is written in red which

gives connotations of blood which the audience would expect to see plenty of as it is a convention of a slasher.

The tagline of the poster is presented just above the movie title. From the use of it being in a red font, this allows it to be more recognisable and stand out more within the frame, allowing for it to attract the audience's attention. The tagline itself helps to further anchor the image, by giving the audience a further insight to the narrative, without giving away too much information. The tagline states that the audience will be welcomed to their new nightmare. This almost sounds like a challenge. Despite this, it will heighten the audience's fear, but at the same time make them curious as to why it would be their new nightmare and further influence them to want to go and watch the film.It is written in a basic sans serif font, in capital letters which further emphasises the tagline and its importance. It is written in red which has connotations to blood, which complies with the conventions of a slasher film.

Institutional information is placed at the bottom of the poster, out of the way so it doesn’t distract the audience from reading the more important text on the poster such as the title, tagline and release date. Additionally, it is written in a smaller font, further highlight the idea that it is not as important as the other text presented on the poster. Just below the institutional information is the release date, which is written in a slightly larger font, which will manage to retain the audience's attention once again. It will be the last thing that the audience will see and therefore, this will stay in their minds.

This film poster successfully promotes “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and entices the audience to want to watch the movie but giving them a clear indication of the narrative, without giving the story line away.