This document analyzes the psychological conventions portrayed in the film posters for Shutter Island and Seven. For Shutter Island, the poster uses colors like white, black and red along with an orange flame to reference parts of the film and create mystery. It shows Leonardo DiCaprio's character searching a sinister looking island implied by the tagline "Someone is missing". For Seven, the poster positions two characters hierarchically with serious facial expressions and shadowing, hinting they are investigating deaths related to the seven deadly sins as stated in the tagline. Both posters use fonts, colors and imagery to convey the psychological thriller genre and attract audiences with their famous actors.

1. Psychological Film Poster
Analysis
Alice Richardson

2. Shutter Island
 There are several conventions portrayed
in this poster, firstly through the colours
as it is dominated by white, black and
red. There is also an orange flame that
references to a particular part in the film.
 The use of the flame on the poster lights
up the main protagonists face. Due to this
still being low key lighting, it creates a
sense of mystery for the film instantly. In
addition, this creates a unique selling
point for the film due to the main
character being Leonardo DiCaprio,
therefore will attract a specific audience.
 Also, there is a picture of an unusual
island, which is highlighted with
a brighter border so it stands out.
However, the island and water around is
very sinister looking and not very
welcoming which identifies easily with
the genre. Also, as he is looking down at
this island with the flame, this implies
that he is searching for something.
 The tagline on the poster states
'Someone is missing'. This is a common
psychological thriller genre convention
as it doesn’t give too much away and
keeps the audience guessing. It also
gives some major clues towards what
the narrative will be based upon,
which goes well with the main image
and therefore allows the audience to
be able to piece together that the man
at the top is trying to find this person.
 At the bottom of the poster, there is
the title of the film, which appears to
be in a red, distorted typography style.
The colour red has connotations of
blood and danger, continuing to signify
the thriller genre. The distortion of the
text also suggests that something is not
quite right.

3. Seven
 Due to both characters being
positioned next to eachother, this
highlights that the narrative will
focus solely on them. However, as
the character on the right is
positioned higher than the
character on the left, this
indicates a sense of hierarchy and
that one may have more power
over the other.
 The use of the black background
contrasting against the orange
lighting conveys a serious tone
and mood, which is reinforced by
the facial expressions of both the
characters. In addition, a
common psychological thriller
convention is usually having half
of the characters face in a
shadow which is conveyed
through this poster.
 The tag line is 'Seven deadly sins,
Seven ways to die.' This adds
some enigma around the plot, as
it hints to the audience that
these two characters may be
investigating something involving
death. This is also reinforced
with the title colour, due to red
connoting death and danger.
 As both the characters names are
in different fonts compared to
the rest of the poster makes it
clear that the film has two high
profile actors starring in the film.
This demonstrates a unique
selling point as both Morgan
Freeman and Brad Pitt have
large, widespread fan bases,
therefore attracts a wider
demographic.