Poster Analysis

Horror Poster Conventions

The colour scheme is primarily chiaroscuro, and the lighting is low-key throughout. This helps to create a mysterious tone and it helps inform the audience that the posters are all for horror films. The fonts are all fairly simple, because it is more important to get the message across than to look attractive, when displaying the film's title. Most of the text is centralised, apart from the slogan in the "Halloween"poster. This has been done because the middle of the page is a focal point. The poster for "The Final Destination" is unlike the other two, because it doesn't have a credit block. This means that the audience may not know what cast members have been involved in the production of the film. In addition to this, credit blocks help the audience realise that the poster is an advert for a film, so this may not be apparent if the credits are missing. All of the posters include imagery that is typical of the horror genre, for example there are skulls, a haunting antagonist and a knife, reinforcing the idea that this poster is advertising a horror film. Direct address is somewhat evident throughout the posters, which helps to engage the audience, as it seems like the poster is aimed at them directly. When creating our own horror poster, we need to ensure that we include these conventions, so that it looks professional and effective at advertising our film.