Codes and conventions of horror movie posters & psychological horror movie posters

1. Codes and conventions of
horror movie posters
By Mahfuza

2. Camera, editing & mise-en-scene
 Usually, for example, if the main image is of a house or a person’s face, a low
angled camera shot is used to create a scary atmosphere and to create
suspense and tension. The addition of low-key lighting creates this effect more
and identifies it as the horror genre. This tells the audience what to be scared of
in the film and hints at what the problem is.
 There is usually a close up of the victim’s face to show a scared expression
which connotes that the poster is for a horror film. This is shown in the
‘Scream’ poster.
 The weather attributes to this effect. It is usually a dark, gloom and rainy
atmosphere, maybe with lighting sometimes.
 The lighting is low and there are shadows created either on the left of the
poster or all around. The shadows on the left usually connote evil and death
within the film, Another poster similar to the ‘Scream’ poster is the poster for
‘Orphan’ and ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ as they too have shadows around the
main face in the poster.
 The credits are usually at the bottom of the poster, including the names of the
actors and the production company, as well as the title and tagline of the film.
 There is also a release date at the bottom of the poster and sometimes a review
from for example ‘The Times’ or another famous news / review company.

3. Setting and layout
 Many horror film posters include the setting of the movie in the poster.
For example the ‘Insidious’ poster and ’The Last House On The Left’.
These settings are often houses/old mansions and are very old, dark
and gloomy. It creates the atmosphere of horror because of hour scary
the house looks itself. A dark and empty house is scary, especially f you
are on your own. This also creates mysteriousness.
 The poster usually consists of the victim at the front and the killer at the
back, or just the killer itself. Usually this is a close up picture.
 There is usually a close up of the main character at the front / centre of
the poster.
 The main image is of either a person or an object. In the insidious
poster it is of a boy whereas ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ poster has a evil
type of bug on the main character’s face.
 The title is usually at the bottom of the poster and the tagline is usually
placed at the top.
 Credits are usually at the bottom.
 The main colours are usually black and white with just a little hint of
other colours to connote the horror genre such as red.
 Most horror movie titles are in a white or red font.

4. Colours
 Horror movie posters usually contain the colour black, which identifies it as part of the
horror genre. Fiske says that ‘the assignment of a text to a genre influences how the text
is read’. For example, if the audience think that what they see belongs to a particular
genre (such as a knife on a poster), then they will interpret it according to their
expectations of that genre. This can apply to horror movie posters as people may thing
things that they may associate with the horror genre. For example if they see a lot of red
and ‘scary’ fonts then they will associate with the horror genre rather than for example
comedy.
 If a poster is of an eye, like the movie ‘Unforgettable’, then they usually exaggerate this
image. For example, editing it to make the pupil of the eye more bigger to create
tension and fear. This is to show that the character is traumatized and frightened of
something. The colour of the eye is more noticeable as it is edited brighter for the
colour to be noticed.
 The titles tend to be white / cream / yellow / red depending on the sub-genres and the
plotline. It could even be blue. It varies a lot.

5. Codes and conventions of a
psychological horror movie
poster
Sub - genre conventions - Mahfuza

6. Colours
 Most psychological horror posters follow the colour
code of red, black and white. This is a convention of
horror posters, where red connotes blood, danger and
killing, black connotes darkness and death, and white
connotes pure, which could mean that it’s always a pure
/ good person who gets attacked or possessed, or
whatever the plot is related to. Because the audience are
so used to seeing these colours associated with the
horror genre, they are hypodermically injected with
thoughts that if they see these colours on a poster then
it belongs to the horror genre, and from the fonts and
type of colours they may be able to figure out if it is of a
particular sub-genre. For example, if it was a comedy
horror then the font would be more comical compared
to if it was a psychological horror.
 The title could have separate words in different colours
and fonts to show the distorted mind relating to a
psychological horror movie.

7. Lighting
 The background is often dark, if not black with
grey tones. The low key lighting tends to come
from one side of the poster. Little lighting creates
enigma and climax. It adds to the code of the
poster relating to horror and psychological
because horror movies are based in the dark/ the
majority of the action happens in the dark.
 Again this links to Fiske’s quote as the audience
can make of this as the psychological horror genre.
 In psychological horror posters there tends to be
more shadows around the poster or mainly
coming from the left of the poster. This could be
to connote that there is something bad haunting a
person in the past.

8. Layout and font
 The poster usually consists of the victim at the front and the
killer at the back, or just the killer itself. Usually this is a
close up picture or a close up of the eye to be recognised
as a psychological horror sub-genre. This links to Gledhill as
he says that “differences between genres mean different
audience could be identified and catered to”. So what a
poster consists of can allow the audience to determine
which sub-genre it belongs to.
 The font tends to be either white or red which relates to the
common colour convention of the genre, and this also
makes the titles and credits (if any) stand out in the poster.
For example it the poster said ‘featuring Wes Craven’ then
the targeted audience would be more likely to watch it
because they know who the actor/actress is and will then be
persuaded to watch the film. This creates a mass audience
and shows that a poster can be successful in order to get
people to watch a film.
 The title and tagline tend to be at the bottom of the poster
as well as the credits.

9. Camera, editing & mise-en-scene
 Close up shots are usually used in a poster to show either emotion or
the main concept of film, for example the close up of an eye. This
acts as a direct mode of address to the audience and makes them
want to watch the movie as it creates an enigma of finding out who
the character is and what the plotline is. Close ups also show the
characters feelings and emotions which makes their target audience
want to find out more.
 As with the eye example before, they are edited. This creates enigma
as the original image then becomes unnatural and the target
audience would want to find out more. They would ask questions
such as ‘why is the eye like this?’ ‘What is scaring them?’ and ‘What is
the plotline to the movie?’
 The mise-en-scene in a poster would usually include the main object
used by the villain. For example on this poster on the left there is
blood tripping from the mouth which connotes death.