2. THE STRANGERS This film is based on a couple in a house in the middle of no
where who get terrorised and tortured by these 3 masked people.
This film, in my opinion is a very jumpy, scary horror and has gave
me inspiration on ideas for our trailer.
From just looking at the poster we can see that the title „The
Strangers‟ does not give us a clear indication of what the film will
in tales, the poster itself is very ambiguous, but we can
immediately tell its linked with the horror genre. The people
wearing the prop of the mask look scary and intimidating, making
them have no emotion, the male standing in the middle shows
authority over the two women beside him, in a way being shown
as his partners in crime. Not being able to see the actors other
two actors faces give the onlooker a sense of unease again
arising questions. The medium close up, again leaves you the
viewer with so many questions and, more importantly, ideas of
what this film could be about. There is no way of knowing what
the actors are experiencing as we cannot see their faces. This is
effective as facial expressions are vitally important to express
emotion in a still image and to have them hidden has the
audience guessing what they are experiencing. Again this applies
to 'the strangers'. 'The Strangers' this gives the audience an
indication that people may appear and they are real strangers that
no one knows who they are or what they want.
3. The costume being shown on the supposed attackers are fairly
normal, so these beings are normal day to day people, nothing to
suggest they are not from this world etc.... „BECAUSE YOU WERE
ALONE‟ almost gives these killers a sense of justification for their
actions which your about to watch, its seen as reasoning before the film
has already started and is the kind you would use as a child to get out
of trouble. The tag line creates a sense of fear within the audience
because these people “knew you were home”, its like they were
watching you, and this creates primal fear with people because most
people don‟t like to be watched or stalked. The font is bold, and plain
which stands out and grabs out attention. Also the word “home” gives
the audience the idea that the film is based at “home”, which scares
them more because people are scared by strangers in there home. .. It
being in capital letters projects its powerfulness to the audience. „Were‟
in this poster is used almost past tense, suggesting to the onlooker that
the 2 main characters may survive, encouraging the audience to watch
the film and find out. The setting of the film in this poster is also very
ambiguous as there is, again no indication as to where the film is set as
you cannot see anything to suggest any main setting.
The title “the strangers” is in a lower case font, but the font has a glow
to it which makes it stand out. The glow however looks like a candle
glow, so this shows elements of the horror genre.
Everything about this poster is very secluded and ambiguous as well as
lacking identity which is a very effective way to gain an audience. The
colours used are very dark linking closely with the darker clothes
chosen for the actors in the poster giving off a scary essence about it.
4. SORORITY ROW
Sorority row is an American horror based on a murder of a sorority
member „Megan‟ who gets killed by the members of her friend group.
Each individual then gets tracked down by a man in a black hooded
graduation robe and viciously killed.
This poster is very effective the colours used are mostly brown for the
background and slightly black which represent fear. All the dirt
suggests something to do with being buried. The extreme close up
emphasises the frightened, scared/ fearful look on the actors face
automatically showing that the genre is horror. Where the red is used
within this poster it is seen to represent blood. The X/ imitation of the
weapon above between sorority and row shows danger and the
ragged line of red underlining the title and weapon looking almost 3D
coming through the poster suggests murder of the sorority members.
The background is quite plain, but this is pushed to the side due the
strong, powerful image used. The tagline “the sisters of theta pi are
dying to keep a secret” comes across effective to the audience as
shock, this tagline also gives the audience an insight into the film as
we now know someone is keeping a secret, this could then partially
explain the strong image being portrayed. Dying, a very strong
adjective has, like the title of the film been underlined in red, blood
like manner which again reitterates the emphasis of the girls possibly
dying and the genre of the film, making the onlooker want to watch
the film more.
5. STEPHEN KINGS „IT‟
„it‟ is quite an old horror, but at the same time with the killer being a
clown and them being known for their dislikes amongst the public adds
to the emphasis. This has emphasised our ideas to possibly including
the clown figure in our movies as the main aspect.
This poster in its self is quite plain and simple but at the same time its
very powerful. As most people don‟t like clowns, this particular picture
of a clown isn't very comforting and isn't are usual perception of a
clown. Its monstrous hands can also suggest its not real, but at the
same time make the genre obvious- Horror. The colours are interlinked
to the clowns make up and are classic colour that we relate with a
horror movie, for example, red resembles blood, death etc… the title
“IT”, again in red has the connotations as I've stated above and actually
looks like blood, like bleeding out. The close up are not put there to
show emotion or fear as such, to me it looks like it‟s letting us know the
key characters in the movie. The tag line, again in my opinion isn't very
drawing, and doesn‟t really let you into the story line of the movie, but
says that it “unleashes everything you were ever afraid of” which, in a
way, makes the onlooker in a sense challenge this almost in a “yeah
okay, whatever” kind of way maybe influencing people to watch it and
see how scary it really is.
6. HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT
With haunting in Connecticut being based on true events this definitely adds to the anxiety and
suspense of the whole film.
The strap line at the top of the poster would attract the audience as non-fiction makes
it sound even more interesting, thus making them more inclined to watch it. The tagline
is written above creates a kind of suspense as the audience would want know what
those things are seeing the image on the front automatically shows us that this is a
supernatural horror. The font of the title is in dirty white which stands out of the black
background and represents some kind of action or strange under ground setting. The
dark, deluded background straight away tells us about the genre that is a horror and
full of supernatural mystery. By the mysterious ora coming out of his mouth, we get a
slight hint of the narrative, which is that the movie will have something to do with the
boy and something that happens to him which causes this to happen. So what is this?
Again very effective to the onlooker. There are not many colours on the poster. The
colour of the strap line and the smoke coming out of his mouth are similar. His clothes
are just a little lighter. The background is black and the title and tagline are in white
which stand out. Opposites of the light over dark (white over black) has been proved
very effective in drawing in an audience. The maximum number of colours used is four.
The image of the boys mouth open with something coming out of it shows fear and also
creates enigma as the audience would then want to know what it is that is coming out
of his mouth. This supports Barth‟s action and enigma code and also covers Rick
Altman‟s semantic elements as the sign is the iconography of the smoke coming out of
his mouth. The young boy in the poster automatically represents that the audience it is
aimed at are young people. Therefore, the audience is more likely to preferred reading
of the poster as they can relate to the character.
7. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3
This poster has a different way in which it attracts its audience.
Starting with the tagline (above) “discover how the activity began”
as it‟s the third one, it suggests that people who haven't watched
it can still get the gist of it because its relating to that of the start
of the paranormal activity, like a prequel. The image isn't all that
powerful, but seeing the figure in-between 2 children is quite
spine chilling, showing vulnerability and makes it clear to the
onlooker that the girls are the victims of the silhouetted figure.
Vulnerability is typical of a horror movie. The fact that its CCTV
frames makes it that more realistic and suggests how the film is
going to be shown. The title is the same seen in the last 2
movies, but the inserting of the 3 dominates the title and with it
being in a different colour stand out a lot more. The colours used
in the poster are black and red dominated, again typical of the
horror genre, connotation things such as blood and death. The
date and time in the poster also makes it look more realisitc.
