2. Poster Overview
By: Miriana Younan
The posters I have presented above are all possession horror genre, as this will help because my
group will be creating a possession horror movie poster, by doing this overview I will get a better
understands of what is presented in a possession poster. I will also gain knowledge of what to
include in my film poster to make it more effective and successful for the audience.
The seven film posters have been designed to successfully promote the film within the possession
sub-genre. Through carrying out an investigation of them and comparing them, it is possible to
identify shared features within them and to establish repeated patterns. We see general
conventions in all, such as a title, always the largest and most significant text in the frame for
example ‘The Exorcism’, an image that dominates the frame and that signals something important
about the film’s narrative for example ‘The Possession’ the image of the protagonist shows that
she is the one under control by the evil spirit that is coming out of her mouth and a slogan to
anchor the image, for example on ‘Sinister’ poster the slogan is, “once you see him, nothing can save
you”. This anchors the image as the girl is walking across the room and blood is dripping from her
hand, this suggests ‘him’ could be the face that emerges from the blood.
In addition to this, we see other repeated patterns. Interestingly enough, almost all of the posters
feature a main child character, who is generally suffering some kind of possession. In The Possession
poster, for example, the mise-en-scene presents an image of a girl and she is overcome by an
ancient spirit who visibly tries to take over her soul, hence mouth opened as a demonic hand is
coming out of her mouth. In the poster for Sinister we see a face in the form of blood on the wall as
the little girl drags her hand on the wall. This suggests that the narratives of these films, like several
other possession horrors, focus around a child or person protagonist whose role is to present the
threat to the family. Another thing that can be noted is that, in many cases, the evil spirit attacks a
family, this scares the audience more as the audience have their own family and worries them as it
could come true.
In five of the seven posters we see possessed children, this reinforces the idea that such characters
are common in possession horrors and that children often appear as conduits of evil. This could be
because children are supposed to be innocent and adorable, evil children are not normal and
terrifying to the audience. In each of the four posters, the four children have their back facing us or
you can’t see the face. This suggests that the innocence inside of them has been taken away from
them and evil lurks within.
The images presented in the seven posters are horrific and designed to both to tell the audience
what horror genre the film belongs to and to scare the audience. In the poster for ‘The Possession’
we see a disturbing image of a decomposed hand coming out of the girl’s mouth and is clawing at
her face. This will terrify the audience as it is not normal to see a hand emerging from someone’s
mouth. From what the girl is wearing, the dirty green gown suggests to the audience that the film
could place in a hospital because you see patients in those green gowns. In the seven posters we
don’t see any masked protagonists wielding knives and no bloodied victims. Instead we see decaying
hands, ghostly figures, tormented souls and bending of the body and this suggestion is that the
threat in these films is the evil spirit that is never seen. In three of the posters all the girls are
wearing gowns which could suggest the main characters innocence’s.
3. Poster Overview
By: Miriana Younan
There is a consistent pattern with regards to colour too. They use cold colours, lots of red, black and
white, there are also some greys. They are common to help and create a sinister and terrifying look,
makes the audience feel unwelcomed. On the following posters The last Exorcism, The Exorcism of
Emily Rose, The Possession and Insidious 2 the protagonist seems to be disappearing or blending into
the cool colours of the background. This shows that the protagonist is being consumed by the evil
around them and they are being taken into a world of darkness and it’s hard to escape from there.
In each poster, the title is the largest text on the page and is placed in a conspicuous position. In five
of the seven posters the title is placed at the bottom of the poster, beneath the image this is usual
because the image is meant to grab the audience attention and then draw their attention to the
title. For every title on the posters they are presented in uppercase font that is bold, simple or
merging with the background. They also use text effects such as on ‘The Possession’ title, the title
looks like it’s been scratched and distorted as if someone has tried to hide what the text reads, as if
trying to hide a terrible secret. In The Rite, the ‘T’ is used to create a crucifix to represent religious
imagery and also connects with the image on the poster.
Five of the seven posters introduce the production information that is placed at the bottom of the
poster and six out of the seven posters have a tagline to anchor or reinforce the meaning of the
image or to reveal more about the narrative to the audience. The tagline on ‘The Possession’ poster
reveals that “Darkness Lives Inside” which relates to the image of the hand coming out of the girl’s
mouth. Other text, such as “Based on a True Story” or “From the makers of Paranormal Activity and
Saw”, are used to draw the audience in. The idea that a film is based on true story by a real
possession makes the film so much scarier and more real to the audience. And it makes the audience
feel that the same thing could happen to them.
All the posters presented are effective, they have a lot in common and have minimal text and an
image that dominates the whole poster. The image lures the audience in and the title and slogan is
stuck in their minds. For example, the image on ‘The Possession’ poster inspired me because it sends
out a strong message to the audience about the genre and also the image is also terrifying which is
really effective and I would like to create an image like that to terrify my audience and want them to
come watch the movie.
