Analysis between film posters of the movie Silence of the Lambs

1. Comparative Analysis
Horror Movie Poster

2. In this poster, it conforms to movie poster conventions in that
the title of the movie is at the bottom center of the page. This
way the title can be seen and is distinct.
There is a moth on the page. The moth connotes delicacy and
vulnerability. However with the way it looks on the poster, the
black and red colours juxtapose the white face of the person.
The colours connote imagery of death and danger. These two
conflicting meanings of the moth could suggest a character with
two personalities or the character having a hidden personality in
conflict with what he chooses to show.
The face in the poster is clearly a woman due to the shape of
the face and eye. The eyes are feminine, and stereotypically
woman are more vulnerable and sensitive in comparison to
men. The red eyes contrast the white possibly angelic
connotations associated with her face. The colour red connotes
meanings of danger and rage, with the eye being red, it could
suggest that she has seen terrible things. Another interpretation
could be that, in relation to the analogy “the eye being the door
to the soul”, in contrary to her angelic appearance, she is a devil
inside.
The white face, other than being made to look angelic, it might
also make it seem like the woman is deceased. This makes the
poster very befitting for the genre the movie is in.

3. This poster has a moth, in which that imagery connotes delicacy
and frailness. However the colour of it suggests danger and
death. The more explicit and obvious image of the skull is a
reference to Salvador Dali’s work “In Voluptas Mors” where the
image of the skull is composed of seven nude women.
‘In Voluptas Mors’ means Voluptuous Death, a sexually attractive
death. This could suggest the movie has symbolism regarding sex
and connects it with death, degeneracy and sin; this gives is a
direct reflection to the picture.
The person in the poster is obviously a man, looking at the eyes
and the wrinkles around it, suggesting a rough and more ‘worn
out’ character. The man’s face being red again has connotations
of danger and evil. Putting the image of the moth with the face
gives a very uncomfortable imagery because it puts a gentle
figure with a violent seeming character.

4. These two posters have the same layout in which the characters are
placed in the same way with the same moth which is now known to be
associated with the film Silence of The Lambs.
The two very obvious differences with it are that they feature two
different characters. Put together they show different personalities, one
being gentle and innocent whereas the other, evil and intimidating.
In the two posters, each of the characters have red eyes, linking back to
the analogy of “the eyes are the windows of the soul” that although
they may seem different, they are actually really alike. With this
interpretation the woman in the first poster might seem more sinister as
she has the need to hide this seemingly evil personality or that she as a
character is very deceptive, whereas the male in the second poster does
not try to hide how he is. Continuing with the previous interpretation, it
also suggests that there is a lot of depth in her character.
A difference from the first poster with the second is that the first poster
has the credits and the actors’ names around the title. Which is typical
of a film poster, whereas the other is more bare as it only has the
masthead and a subheading suggesting that the poster could be a teaser
poster.

5. With this third version of the poster it takes both
characters from the two previous film posters and puts
it into one. The only difference being that the woman’s
face is now blue and the man’s face is blue. The colour
blue might symbolise the good characteristic of the two
characters. However it could be said that the ‘goodness’
of the woman is what she chooses to show the public
whereas her eyes say differently and that she has a
more sinister side to her; with the male it is the
opposite where he has a good nature within him that
hides beneath his evil exterior.
The colours of their faces might be also to show the
good vs bad, where red and blue are typically colours
which represent different sides, suggesting that there
will be conflict between these two featured characters.
Furthermore the image of the moth is still there and it is
the only thing with which both of the faces have the
moths covering their mouths. This connotes some
elements of gentle discretion between the two
characters