Poster overview

Poster Overview

The six posters above have been designed successfully to promote films within the slasher sub-genre. By comparing them altogether, it is possible for me to identify shared

conventions in order for me to adapt and apply them when it comes to making my own poster.

The film posters themselves share similar stylistic features, layout and content. By recognising these in further detail, I will be able to recognise the effectiveness as well as establish what audiences like and look for in a slasher poster.

Four of the six posters contain the antagonist or reference to the antagonist. Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw 3D and A Nightmare on Elm Street all present the antagonist. Despite this, the identity is left unknow. This is due to the dark lighting as well as the use of a mask. The use of a mask is very conventional within the slasher genre and helps to create fear for the audience. Another convention is iconography, on all three of these posters, a weapon is presented; a machete, a chainsaw and blades (replacing Freddies fingers). From this we are able to establish how the antagonist intends on torturing and killing the protagonists within the film. Halloween makes some reference to to antagonist of the franchise ‘Mike Myers’ through the use of his signature murder weapon, a knife. More over the image itself is a pumpkin, anchoring the title of the film. The other two posters ‘Scream’ and ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ are similar in the sense that they both present the protagonist(s) rather than the antagonist. This gives the audience an insight to the characters they would need to keep an eye on throughout the movie on a bid for their lives. Unlike the others, ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ also presents an image of a cabin, the audience can guess that this is where the killings are going to take place, knowing this, they can gather that when the group of teenagers (protagonists) arrive at the cabin, things will begin to go downhill.

Each of these posters all contain a tagline. The main purpose of a tagline is to anchor the image which will lead to and result in the audience having a better knowledge and understanding of the movie without giving too much of the plot away. An example being the ‘Friday the 13th’ tagline, which is, “Welcome to Crystal Lake”, suggesting a location as to where parts of the film will take place, letting the audience's imagination go wild as to the amount of things that can go wrong at ‘Crystal Lake’. ‘Halloween’ and A Nightmare on Elm Street’ both have a tagline that implies horrific imagery. ‘The night he came home’ will scare audiences, but will freak them out even more the idea that the film itself is called Halloween and everyone is in disguise. Throughout the film this will then keep them on edge as to who is coming home and what they are going to do. “Welcome to your new nightmare” implies that the film itself is going to be so scary that the audience are going to feel like they are living a real life nightmare, which could result in them getting sleep deprivation. At the same time is luring as they would want to know what it is going to be a nightmare and exactly what Freddie is going to do. Texas Chainsaw 3D has a

tagline that will leave the audience curious, it says that “evil wears many masks”, it does not give any of the plot away but instead will lure the audience in as it will leave them with many unanswered questions. It also relates back to the convention of masks being apparent within the slasher sub-genre. Scream’s tagline is a lot longer and more complex than the others, it is almost a riddle that the audience have to figure out, “someone has taken their love for scary movies one step too far. This mystery will end up in murder”, it also implies that death is going to occur, which is very conventional within the slasher genre. The Cabin in the Woods does not have a tagline as such, instead, above the images of the protagonists they all have a role they have been given within the film that an audience would expect to see for instance “the whore” and “the virgin”, the audience would then be able to grasp the idea that one of the girls is a transgressor and will die for her rule breaking, whereas the virgin will more than likely out smart the antagonist and take on the role of the ‘final girl’ who will survive.

Another feature similar between all six of these poster is the use of colour. All the colours used seem to be very dark and dull suggesting the hidden, unknown and a sense of mystery. However, it could also be said that the crimes the antagonists commit are going to take place at nighttime, creating fear for audiences, not just in the world of the movie but in their own lives, it will create fear of what evil is lurking in the darkness. This can be backed up by the images on the front of Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw 3D being taken outside, at nighttime. Another colour that crops up a lot is the colour red, which is a strong masculine colour, which could relate to the idea that the antagonists are male. They are therefore dominant over their victims and are almost undefeatable. This can be related to Scream and Halloween which are franchises, whereby more than one sequel had been made indicating just how dominant the killer in each is. Red could also relate to blood which signifies the genre even further to the audience, due to their being so many killings it is obvious that the audience are going to be exposed to a high level of blood. Another colour frequently shown is the colour white which implies innocent, life and purity something that the antagonists are taking away from their victims.

The placement of the title is the same throughout all the posters other than Halloween. It is central, but more towards the bottom of the page. This is because it is going to be the last thing that the audience see and will therefore be the last thing they will remember. Whereby this is done on 5 out of 6 of the posters suggests that this is infact a layout convention. Other than Scream and Halloween, sans serif seems to be a popular choice for font type, as it is simple but is still effective. As is writing in caps lock for added effect. Other text that appears on all of the front covers is institutional information. Which is positioned at the very bottom of the page in a smaller font as it is not

necessarily important. It is not very effective in grabbing audiences attention, however, without it the poster would not look as complete or official.

Moreover, all the posters are successful in promoting the slasher genre and draw their audiences in without revealing too much information.