Elements and structure of horror

There are many elements which are used throughout horror, however there are some which are included in every horror and the story/movie wouldnt quite be a horror if they weren't. 
The four main elements are:

• Isolation
• Desolation
• Lost Cause
• Redemption

Isolation is the complete separation from others, one dictionary definition stated the complete separation from others to prevent the spread of contagious or infectious diseases, this is the definition of the word quarantine. You can immediately tell the technique of isolation has been used in the movie Quarantine as its part of the definition of the title. However with isolation, it doesn't have to be an individual alone, it can be a group of people cut off from all others as is Quarantine, also in The Cabin In The Woods, a group of people cut off from everyone and everything.

The main shot used in this film is P.O.V, and the only real light inside the quarantined building is that of the camera which isn't allot, although they re in a group the building is very large and in the dark, who knows what to expect, what you are going to come across, the idea of isolation is simple, however put together with all the other necessary elements it provides a very effective scare. 

Desolation is when something is very barren, has little or no life around it, for example the desert of the arctic, it also mean deserted/abandoned. Yet another very simple idea, for example the house in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, in the whole scene , you see nothing apart from fields and one quite large house, in this movie in a short space of time you can clearly see where both the ideas of isolation and desolate/desolation come together, they are isolated as in there somewhere in Texas, cars broken down, far from any real help, in an unfamiliar area, then they approach a desolate house in which they hope to find some sort of help and meet a chainsaw murderer instead. 












Lost cause is someone or a hope that can no longer be salvaged, the films i am now going to refer to is very similar to the film Quarantine, its a film set in Spain, a seriously scary horror about an apartment block which is infected with a demonic illness which is contagious by bite, only throughout the film you find this out, the reason i use this film to describe lost cause is because, in this film to cure the infection they must find a test tube which contains a sample of blood, once they have found that sample in the film, they come under attack and the sample of blood is lost along with all hope.

Redemption is saving yourself or the actions of being saved from something bad/evil. The example i am going to give is from the film, Hostell number 2, an organisation who kidnap people on request for the rich who require them for sick fantasies such as human bloodbaths. In part 2, a girl is being cleaned up in one of the dungeons where the fantasies take place however whilst being taunted and tied up the anger and rage inside her forces her forward into the mans face where she bites his nose off grabs the key and manages to unlock herself. after all the build up of what happens to the kidnapped people and knowing whats going to happen to her, her redemption is breaking free whilst extremely close to torture followed by death.

Textual Analysis Of A Horror Trailer

The saw 6 teaser trailer includes most of the key conventions for move trailers. It is easy to find out what genre the movie is as all the saw movies have devoted fans that keep watching the sequel. The movie trailer begins with a blank screen and sound of thunder and a siren with screeches. This is a typical use in most movie trailers as it creates an edge of the seat impact on the audience willing to see what happens next. The next scene is a scene which all saw films begins with a man/women being tortured in some way. This trailer genre is horror but not a supernatural horror, it is more like a thriller where people are getting punished for being bad. The sounds used in the film trailer is of the victims creaming and shouting. At the end of the trailer the name of the movie pops up just after something horrible has occurred, this is the most dramatic bit of the trailer as you see something bad is about to happen but miss it as the trailer ends.

This technique is what we would like to have in our trailer as it creates a big impact on whether the movie is worth watching.

The mise en scene is based upon one room with extremely dangerous machines able to take a life of a person. There is one television screen which all films in the sequence have. On the screen there is the antagonist which pops up and tells the victims why they are in the situation.

Textual Analysis Of A Horror Trailer

The use of sound n the trailer isn't very loud or have many notes, the sound throughout is very subtle, the main reason for this is throughout there are a few loud noises, you recognise them and they have much more significance and effect when the rest of the noise is not so loud. The suspense throughout this trailer is maintained, you are given a taster of the film however the taster is watered down because allot of the noises are covered up through editing, my point being there is allot you see but there is even more you don't.
When the children are travelling in the car its basic, indie radio music very light in the background so you can clearly hear their speech above it. This music ends when they come across a girl/hitchhiker, then the music turns into heartbeat, this heartbeat although it isn't fast its a thumping beat, you hear this in the background when the hitchhiker says, "they're all dead." while the heartbeat noises are going on there are various shots of the group starting to conclude what to do next, what moves to make, also right at the beginning of the heartbeat, like in most horrors, they show some strange scenes, one is of a doll, a skeleton, a record player, the signature house, each shot perfectly matched with each heartbeat. 
When one of the females is in the house, is when she hears a loud bang which is when the heartbeats end and after the bang, an eerie noise is played, then not so long after there is the noise of the chainsaw which is only a couple of seconds. The eeriness remains while the group explore and come across some strange things, you get two views of what is going on from the trailer as the group split into 2 smaller groups. 
When the strange and eerie noises become revealed, each shot from then till the end of the trailer is ended with a photographic effect, snapshot of their faces for example, faded out in bright light then the next scene snapshot, fade out in bright light, the noise of the camera snapshot editing is very effective as the noise the camera makes is matched with the fade out light. This fadeout techniquee increases in speed till the credits at the end of the trailer begin when u hear a running girls footsteps and screams over the credits, u think the trailer is over then u hear slow footsteps and then it jumps back into the trailer where u see a chainsaw and many panic scenes of the children. 
Although the trailer is very fast pace after the first introductory scenes, editing such as the camera effects added in slow the pace right down. 

The editing techniques throughout the trailer are ones which i think are very effective also ones which i am hoping to have in our media piece to add the same effect. 
The representation of people throughout this film is interesting, because you have two groups of people. One group who are used to the crazed "Leatherface" and then the tourists who get caught up in all of it. The extreme clash of reactions physiologically gets into your head, you  have the tourists who are being slowly butchered, the one remaining tourist in the end seeks help from the occupants of the county, yet it is the occupant's who are sheltering "Leatherface." When she comes across the first of the people the state she is in is an extreme state of shock and fear, yet the reaction she got from the people was an extreme state of calm, when the two emotions clashed, the atmosphere was never at equilibrium, both parties where continuously trying to win each other over, the tourist trying to convince them "Leatherface" is coming and them talking about "Leatherface" as a local and that he wouldn't come into their home and disrespect them. Further into the movie you realise some of the characters are family members of this beast and feel very sympathetic and have no remorse for the lives he takes, again the clash of emotions, the antagonism of the tourist clashed with the sympathy of the family. 
It shows men nor women to be more brave, mentally/physically stronger, the contrast of 2 groups of people, those in Texas who know and are used to this crazy man and life, and those who are faced with this alien and crazed ways of this county. On both sides you have men and women, if there is one change throughout the movie, it is the main female character from the tourist group, she seems the very innocent and needs taking care of type, however in the end she is the only one remaining, not only does she soldier and make it through the rain and escape, she along the way tried to save two members of her group and wasn't successful however then realised a baby had been stolen from the hitchhiker form the beginning and so she saved the baby. So there was a big transformation in her character from the beginning to what she was in the end, the last one standing, managing to hack off "Leatherface's" arm during the manic. 

Personally i think the cast used to make the film, the tourist group, are the age group who this film is aimed at, the target audience, the age of the tourist groups is between 18-20 i would say, this is an age where when you do something, your more daring, you have those who don't for example Erin, from the movie but then what makes it a horror, even when you make good decisions bad things can happen, picking up the hitchhiker ended with most of them being killed in brutal ways, is when they don't want to do something but then they end up doing it anyways because most of the people you are with are doing it, peer pressure, not wanting to be left alone, all these things are the small things that lead up to the main thing, the main story where things always tend to go wrong and then they talk back and regret.

Textual Analysis Of Horror Trailer

Movie: The Strangers

Year: 2008

Director: Bryan Bertino

Production Company: Rouge Pictures

The Trailer for The Strangers uses several techniques ranging from the use of sound to the way lighting is used to create a successful horror trailer it does this by using these techniques in the following ways.

Firstly the trailer makes brilliant use of running pace for example, the initial pace at the start is normal and sustained for the first several seconds of the trailer but then very slowly speeds up to a pace which is still normal but slightly faster than that which it followed this starts to create the idea of  something bad happening, as a general rule of horror is after the acceleration of pace there is always a following scary moment. However in this trailer the acceleration portion of this common chain of events is slightly altered and shortened due to this the moment of shock is slightly earlier than anticipated and therefore catches the audience off guard.

Secondly the trailer makes extremely good use of dark and light as the light is like a metaphor for a safe environment and just when the audience feel comfortable in that environment they are brought out of there comfort zone into the dark which is extremely effective in keeping the audience on the edge of there seat. As well as the use of light as a metaphor it is also used extremely well to focus the viewers attention on specific aspects of the shot being seen for example at the the 1:08 (1 minute 8 seconds) marks there is a close up shot of the female in which her facial expression is one of great fear to emphasise this and to get the audiences attention to focus onto this the surrounding area in shot is very dark and the little light in the shot is focussed on the character to emphasise the fear she is feeling.

In addition another thing i believe this trailer does really well is the choice of shot used to create the perfect atmosphere, such as the use of a establishing shot at the start which shows the house to be alone it a area we would associate with a typical horror such as the texas chainsaw massacre. Another aspect in which i think camera shots are used very well is during shock moments in the trailer where a long shot is used to show the people on there own followed by another close up shot to show facial expression and fear.

Furthermore the trailer utilises the use of diegetic and non-diegetic sound very well as it completely follows horror music convention for example the first sound we here is a very simple recurring melody which is often associated with the exorcist theme tune which made having a melody such as the one used in the exorcist (Mike Oldfield-Tubular Bells) a must for a horror film. As well as the use of  non-diegetic sound the trailer also make excellent use of diegetic sound an example of this is the sound of the swing moving, this sound is very good in creating tension as it is repetitive and the swing is associated with children which have built a reputation of being vulnerable or demon like in horrors. Another use of sound in the trailer which i think is really good is the vinyl record which jumps at the end of the trailer and speeds up in unison with the pace of the video i think this works really well because as it speeds up the audience feel they are coming closer and closer to a scary moment which cannot be escaped which adds to the atmosphere of the horror. 

In addition i believe the success of  the trailer for the strangers is due to editing aspects as without this the above techniques would not be able to intertwine and allow the trailer to shine as a media peice . Firstly the use of quick cuts throughout works really well with the fast pace of the trailer as they both increase in speed leading to a climax if this didn't happen the trailer would be no way near as effective because a fast pace alone would not have provided as much depth leading to a duller trailer.Furthermore the editing works really well with the sound an example of this is between the 00:30sec and 00:50sec mark were with each new cut the sound of the swing starts again this loop works really we'll together because when the only sound being heard with each new cut is the same sound of a swing rocking again and again the result of this is that it gets the audience on the edge of there seat as it is the last thing you would expect to see which adds to the idea of the ''unknown'' which is often associated with the horror genre. Finally editing is effective in convergence with the lighting used as it allows the sudden switch from a shot were there is lots of light which naturally makes the audience feel safe and then instantly contrasting it with one of darkness which can completely throw the audience.

Overall i believe the trailer for the strangers is a very good one for several reason such as the fact that it keeps with almost all horror conventions, also it uses all the techniques stated above but does in convergence as to create one smooth peice which reflects horror in a perfect light, furthermore the addition of mask gives a ''classic horror'' feel which i think many people from an older age would like and be familiar with and therefore would want to see the movie this makes the trailer very successful in my eyes as it goes away from the stereotype which states only teens watch horrors. 

Textual Analysis Of A Horror Magazine Cover

This magazine cover is from the movie "All About Evil" I found this cover when searching for horror magazine covers. This Magazine cover came out more as a horror cover then others as it contains typical horror representations on the cover.

The character on the magazine stands out the most compared to the text. This gives the readers an image of what they would expect within in the movie itself. The background of the magazine is plain white.
the character is a typical representation of how the victims may look in the movie. In this magazine cover the lady is shown covered in blood from head down. This is a typical representation of a character involved with the use of blood. The top she is wearing looks old covered in a mixture of blood and mud. From whichever angle this magazine is looked at the character will always seem like she is starring at the reader. Also below her eyes is like eye bags but also mascara which is black and shows that the character may have been crying at some point. Other than that the rest of her face is really white but once her hair starts all the dark horrible colours begin.


The creator of this magazine cover uses a clever way of making people read the good stuff about the movie so after they can go and view the actual movie. The techniques that have been used are writing about the artists like "Hollywood’s most talented actress is back". This creates a good impact on the readers as they are quoted to be watching Hollywood’s best artist. The characters name is below the quote in the biggest font on the page of the magazine which they creator has purposely done to make the character seem like she’s the best actor and in some way special.

Nearly all the important information is written in smaller font and in the colour blue. Here the creator has used a clever technique, where once the big text has been read the readers are sort of forced to read the text below to see if they correspond in any way. Most the small writing is to-do with the genre horror, such as "Heroin, crack cocaine and a collapsed lung to a series of grisly shorts in all about evil". Compared to the poster we have actually received more information of what happens in the movie. This text tells us that this movie will contain the uses of all those drugs.

The whole magazine is about horror as everything other then the cast is related to horror. This is the reason why this movie is on this magazine. It brings back more of an audience as anyone that specifically looks for horror movies in magazines will see covers like this at the front. This is a good use of advertisement and will make people watch the movie. There are also strap lines and sub headings which are part of this magazine cover but doesn't have anything to-do with this movie.

The character in this magazine cover could have a representation of both an antagonist or a protagonist.
It is not easy to tell as the character is covered in blood wearing dirty or old clothing with her hair being all over the place.
She could be a antagonist as the way she is dressed and the blood all over her could show that she could have been possessed, or shes lost it and started attacking innocent people.
This character could also be a victim of a antagonist and she has ended up defeating the villain after shes been through some sort of pain.

Textual Analysis Of A Horror Magazine Cover

The images used in this poster along with the title are a clear give away of what the film is about, you have "Leatherface" walking down a Texas road with his chainsaw, you can see he is wearing something that looks a lot like an apron which is a shade of green, you can tell this due to the light coming through it, chainsaws are heavy bits of equipment used for logging etc, how the main character holds it in one hand and walks with it suggests that he may be quite strong. The typical horror colour conventions have been used but altered, its not the strict black background with the red writing swiped across it, blood, dripping, the cloudy skies have been given the colour of the dusty Texas plains.

The bottom right section where "Leatherface" you can see the camera image was edited as were "Leatherface" is walking the sky is of a lighter colour so you can see the back of the main character whereas the rest of the sky is seen to be charcoal grey. Right at the top of the poster where the sky is seen to be charcoal grey is where the title has been written in the colour of the sky in the bottom right section.

Although the title and the image give away the main ideas of the film, very cleverly underneath the title is written "The Beginning", so when you immediately see the poster you think you've got most of it worked out however when you see the writing below, it gives the effect that there is so much more to come which is very effective. On some movie posters they have certain magazines ratings on the film etc, on this particular poster they don't have that, which gives it that raw UN-rated effect, personally i tend to read or browse reviews when i am going o watch a film but with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre i didn't read and didn't see any ratings however still thought id watch it.

Everything on this movie poster is an indication of the genre, the colours, the props, the font in which the title is written, the strap-line, these are all indications that this is a dark, bloody horror. The way all of these things have been put onto this poster which is of high deffinition quality, but been given that old rigid effect that tops off the whole idea you can get from the poster, big built male walking casually down a deserted road splitting the Texas plains holding a chainsaw, old, ridged, rough, these are the word which come into mind when looking at this particular poster, the idea gained from the image of the main character is that he doesn't care, its clear he doesn't fear anything, but is that just because he has a chainsaw? Anyone could have a chainsaw, its the mindset that sets you aside from the rest, there is a clear case of that with this character, not just alone but in a city or busy town, in the middle of Texas, certain form of isolation.

The way the character is walking along, casually, doesn't give the impression he is in a hurry, and the fact that he is just walking down a road that seems so bleak, suggests that hes not really walking towards anything. This gives the impression that there is some sort of connection between man and location, hes a crazed man with a chainsaw..in the middle of nowhere, he doesn't seem to be walking to anywhere..there is nowhere to walk to.

The strap-line plotted right in the centre of the poster, "Witness, The birth of fear." suggests that this is where the fear begins, this is well co-ordinated with the way they wrote "the beginning" underneath the main title, when a film is released, and there are plans for a sequel, they don't tend to write the beginning or anything of that sort because right at the end of the film there is a scene which suggests there is going to be another one. "the beginning" and "Witness. The birth of fear" are both lines that give the effect that this is something else, not quite like any other horror you may have seen, not any other film or thought that has made you fear something or someone, gives it the "one of a kind" identity which is what i believe is this movies USP (unique selling point).

When you put all these thought and ideas together along with the poster of course you can clearly tell what kind of film this is and what target audience it is aimed at. The language used in the title is very strong, powerful yet rigid, just like the effect of the poster, old, rigid, slightly faded effect. They have set it as a real true story by adding "The" before the main name, when you think there could of so many other names for this film, even if the name remained this long there are so many other words that could be used to substitute, however they have matched up the poster effect with the style of the writing, the positioning of the character, the colours and the text perfectly, these all come together to back up the message that the text gives, there isn't a horror quite like this one.

Textual Analysis Of A Horror Magazine Cover

Magazine: Empire
Editor: Mark Dinning
Holding Company: Bauer Media
First Issue: July 1989

Empire magazine is a international film magazine. the magazine covers films of all range from comedy to romance.

A magazine cover has many tasks to carry out and does them so in many different ways.

Firstly the magazine cover can be seen as a promotional tool to promote a movie as it makes more people aware of the movie and this creates a demand for people to want to see it.

Secondly the magazine cover is in place to entice people to buy the magazine as a stand alone product  and enjoy it for its content with to refer to when deciding on what movies to watch.

In this issue of empire the cover page is focused on the movie Hellboy 2 . The main image is of the central protagonist from the movie. Instantaneously the audience can verify that the cover is for a horror movie this is because of several things within the images used on the cover.

Most obviously the character on the cover who we can assume to be hellboy is shown to be a large character with horns and a red skin, because of this use of the colour red and the size of the character we start to associate him with things we would associate with a horror such as blood which is also red, and raging dangerous animals such as a bull. this use of images to help aid non verbal communication works very well as a stand alone product but as soon as we combine the title hellboy and the character we immediately think of the devil and of sin, which again are things we would associate with a horror movie

Furthermore the font used on the magazine name is altered to that of which it is normal it is covered in fire and is damaged which again ties in very well with what we would associate with horror movies as during the course of a horror the set tends to degrade more and become darker as the story progresses and more evil/gruesome occurrences happen by doing this the audience are provoked to think about how the chaos may have happened in the movie thus making them want to see it which means the magazine cover is successful in its primary role

Regular Empire Magazine Logo Font

In addition on this magazine cover you can see the strap line ''you and who's golden army'' which is in reference to hellboys coverage although this is important in making up the cover as a whole it is less important then the line stating "Guillermo Del Toro Goes Epic" which is more noticeable as it is in large white font which contrasts well with the red image and therefore stands out more, the reason i believe this is in a larger more clear font is because it allows the audience to know its a Del Toro film so even if they are not a fan of horror they may still want to watch it. 

Furthermore the actual image of hellboy is in such a pose to show him in a way as if he was fearless this fits in perfectly with horror connotations as the evil being within the movie is often shown to be fearless and capable of harm which is also shown in the image through his large muscular body and horns.

overall i believe when all these elements come together they create a very successful cover as in my opinion it makes the audience want to buy the magazine and want to watch the movie.

Textual Ananlysis Of A Horror Poster

FILM TITLE: THE PACT
YEAR OF RELEASE: 2012
DIRECTOR: NICHOLAS McCARTHY
PRODUCERS: Jaime Burke, Jamie Carmichael, Ross M. Dinerstein, Sam Zuckerman 
Distributed By: Entertainment One, IFC Midnight, content Film International

This Poster gives very little information about what to expect in the movie. It gives a very brief idea of what to expect to the audience.

Its gives away enough information to tell the poster is to-do with the genre horror. The poster goes all dark and mysterious at the bottom of the poster which is typical as most horror movies have the main image going into the unknown like how it is shown in this poster. As soon as it gets dark nothing else is exposed about the character. This is another way to tell what genre the poster is about; the antagonist is shown but not fully as the creators want to persuade possible viewers to watch the movie.

Also the poster has quotes from a magazine which says "Scream Out Loud Scary" now this gives more credibility to the movie as the media have actually seen the film and actually think the movie is scary and therefore worth watching. that’s the reason the creator of the poster has included the quote, it’s so it persuades the viewers to go out there go to the cinema and watch the movie because the media think it’s worth watching. The movie has also won an award for one of the scariest movies out. This adds more credibility to the movie and gives the possible viewers something to think about as the movie is winning awards for being a horror. This award will bring in more people as well as the quotes from the magazine both about how scary the poster the movie is. This is an excellent addition to the poster and makes it one not to miss.

The colours used for the title of the title of the poster is also a common use in movie posters as there is always something mysterious on the poster. The way the text is written on the poster and the font used also gives information that the movie the poster is a horror movie. I have personally seen the movie and the antagonist in the movie is also similar to the way its shown in the poster, the antagonist is hidden throughout most of the film and it will give away too much if the face was revealed in the poster because it will no longer be a mystery of how the character looks in the movie.  

This poster is one we may compare ours with not fully as this poster is more of a thriller whereas our trailer and poster will be more of a supernatural approach. We will make it more mysterious and add more in our poster. The Pact poster has got little on it and is hard analyse it as not much is given away.

Textual Analysis Of A Horror Poster

The images used in this poster along with the title are a clear give away of what the film is about, you have "Leatherface" walking down a Texas road with his chainsaw, you can see he is wearing something that looks a lot like an apron which is a shade of green, you can tell this due to the light coming through it, chainsaws are heavy bits of equipment used for logging etc, how the main character holds it in one hand and walks with it suggests that he may be quite strong. The typical horror colour conventions have been used but altered, its not the strict black background with the red writing swiped across it, blood, dripping, the cloudy skies have been given the colour of the dusty Texas plains.

The bottom right section where "Leatherface" you can see the camera image was edited as were "Leatherface" is walking the sky is of a lighter colour so you can see the back of the main character whereas the rest of the sky is seen to be charcoal grey. Right at the top of the poster where the sky is seen to be charcoal grey is where the title has been written in the colour of the sky in the bottom right section.

Although the title and the image give away the main ideas of the film, very cleverly underneath the title is written "The Beginning", so when you immediately see the poster you think you've got most of it worked out however when you see the writing below, it gives the effect that there is so much more to come which is very effective. On some movie posters they have certain magazines ratings on the film etc, on this particular poster they don't have that, which gives it that raw UN-rated effect, personally i tend to read or browse reviews when i am going o watch a film but with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre i didn't read and didn't see any ratings however still thought id watch it.

Everything on this movie poster is an indication of the genre, the colours, the props, the font in which the title is written, the strap-line, these are all indications that this is a dark, bloody horror. The way all of these things have been put onto this poster which is of high deffinition quality, but been given that old rigid effect that tops off the whole idea you can get from the poster, big built male walking casually down a deserted road splitting the Texas plains holding a chainsaw, old, ridged, rough, these are the word which come into mind when looking at this particular poster, the idea gained from the image of the main character is that he doesn't care, its clear he doesn't fear anything, but is that just because he has a chainsaw? Anyone could have a chainsaw, its the mindset that sets you aside from the rest, there is a clear case of that with this character, not just alone but in a city or busy town, in the middle of Texas, certain form of isolation.

The way the character is walking along, casually, doesn't give the impression he is in a hurry, and the fact that he is just walking down a road that seems so bleak, suggests that hes not really walking towards anything. This gives the impression that there is some sort of connection between man and location, hes a crazed man with a chainsaw..in the middle of nowhere, he doesn't seem to be walking to anywhere..there is nowhere to walk to.

The strap-line plotted right in the centre of the poster, "Witness, The birth of fear." suggests that this is where the fear begins, this is well co-ordinated with the way they wrote "the beginning" underneath the main title, when a film is released, and there are plans for a sequel, they don't tend to write the beginning or anything of that sort because right at the end of the film there is a scene which suggests there is going to be another one. "the beginning" and "Witness. The birth of fear" are both lines that give the effect that this is something else, not quite like any other horror you may have seen, not any other film or thought that has made you fear something or someone, gives it the "one of a kind" identity which is what i believe is this movies USP (unique selling point).

When you put all these thought and ideas together along with the poster of course you can clearly tell what kind of film this is and what target audience it is aimed at. The language used in the title is very strong, powerful yet rigid, just like the effect of the poster, old, rigid, slightly faded effect. They have set it as a real true story by adding "The" before the main name, when you think there could of so many other names for this film, even if the name remained this long there are so many other words that could be used to substitute, however they have matched up the poster effect with the style of the writing, the positioning of the character, the colours and the text perfectly, these all come together to back up the message that the text gives, there isn't a horror quite like this one.

Textual Analysis Of A Horror Poster

Film: Strangers
Release Date: May 30, 2008
Production Company: Rouge Pictures
Producers: Doug Davidson, Roy Lee, Nathan Kahane
Director: Bryan Bertino
Actors: Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman

The primary purpose of a poster is to advertise they can be seen all around us in a wide range of places from public transport to magazines. A poster is one of the primary form of promotion for a movie, as well as other forms of media. Although there has been enormous leaps forward in technological development a poster has become a traditional way of promotion for a movie, as it has the power to portray the essence of an entire movie in a single snapshot, and work brilliantly in synergy when accompanied with other forms of promotion such as the use of a trailer.

Instantaneously this poster informs the audience that the movie it is advertising is a horror, this is achieved through many different media techniques and the use of specific images that fit with horror conventions.

Firstly the poster uses but also alters typical horror conventions of dark backgrounds and gory foreground text or images, it uses dark colours to surround the central image in the same way a vignette filter usually does in many horror films this further solidifies the audience belief that the poster is for a horror film and also focusses the viewers attention on the central image which shows two people confronted by three people wearing masks although we are not explicitly told who are the victims and the perpetrator because the audience are familiar with media conventions and are aware the perpetrator is often anonymous and victims are often shown as helpless, it allows them to differentiate between the two without explicitly stating so.

Secondly the font used in the poster is white which contrasts with the black extremely well, furthermore the font and colour could be considered a visual metaphor with the white representing light and the black representing darkness referring to a typical scene in most horror movies where the victim is show in darkness with usually a small lightsource such as a candle.

Equally the lack of text works just as well as the text that is present an example of this is the lack of
ratings and review quotes which are often present on promotional posters this poster has neither which i think adds to the mystery and horror as it suggests that the movie is too frightening to have ever been watched, this works very well as many people tend to watch movies to prove to friends that they are fearless this may cause people to watch this movie in particular as a measure of how brave they are.

Furthermore the non verbal communication in the poster works extremely well. i think this is because the perpetrators are wearing masks with prevents any emotion being show and provides a sense of of being in the presence of the unknown which is something portrayed in many horror movies. The use of light once again works very well in synergy with this as it focusses the viewers attention on to the masks worn by the perpetrators.

At the same time there is also a sense of mental instability portrayed in the poster this is achieved through the way the perpetrators are shown stood with there arms by there side in a almost innocent way however are in a situation that we believe could result in the murder of someone. Due to death and innocence being contrasted insecurity and mental instability is portrayed as these are things we would never associate with each other  

In addition the costumes worn in the poster with the exception of the masks appear to seem very natural and normal this adds to the to the realism portrayed by the poster as it provokes the audience to think that what is happening in the poster could very easily happen to them and creates fear which is exactly what horrors are meant to achieve.

Furthermore the poster provokes the audience to stop and think through the use of unique tagline 'Because You Were Home' the use of this tag line creates a sense of mystery as people think they are safest when at home however this suggests otherwise and creates a sense of insecurity which adds to the viewing pleasure associated with media of the horror genre.

Overall the poster teases the audience by touching on almost every element that makes up a good horror as well as adding new elements unique to this poster alone which when coupled together with each other and create a extremely enticing atmosphere, which when displayed on the poster makes an outstanding piece of promotional media which is more then capable of completing its task.