The document analyzes eight posters for slasher horror films and identifies common conventions used to promote the genre. Key conventions included using red and black colors, featuring the villain and weapon, and bold white text. Female leads are often shown in peril to suggest they are the "final girl." Most posters spotlight the villain in a dark background and include the weapon to indicate how victims will be killed. Taglines imply horrific plots without revealing too much. Common fonts, placement of title/images, and use of dark colors help draw in audiences to promote the slasher genre.

1. The range of posters displayed above promotes films from the slasher sub-genre.

2. The eight posters have been carefully and conventionally designed in order to successfully
promote films within the slasher genre of horror. When looking at all eight posters together it
is evident that they all promote the same genre; common conventions include the use of red
and black, featuring the weapon, bold white text and the villain is shown on the majority of
posters. By comparing all posters together it is possible for me to identify commonly shared
conventions in order for me to transfer and adapt some of the features when making my own
poster.
There are repetitive patterns that can be picked out. Every slasher movie seems to feature a
female character who takes a strong lead in the film, she is always the one to suffer from
physical or psychological torment from the villain. In the poster for ‘I Know What You Did
Last Summer’ the female lead is positioned to the far right and closest to the camera, mise
en scene suggests that she is the final girl due to the colour of her clothing, light colours
suggest that she is the saviour and the fact that she is positioned closest to the weapon
which is ripping through the poster furtherly suggests that she is the closest to danger.
The title is in white font on a lot of these posters indicating that it is the most significant piece
of text, alongside the text the image is emphasised in contrast to the black background.
Each image is a signifier to the audiences of something important for example the villain is a
conventional main image and therefore signifies the role of that character to the audience.
‘Scream’ on the other hand breaks common conventions due to the smart marketing
technique deployed by the producers; ‘Scream’ was intended to be almost comical by
mocking the common conventions that viewers had become tired of repeatedly seeing, by
using Drew Barrymore as the main image, the audience would have been instantly enticed;
the fact that she was killed off within the opening scene of the movie was strange seeing as
every other poster features something/someone significant from the movie.
The film posters themselves similar stylistic features and layout, by furtherly analysing these
features, I will be able to recognise how effective or not it is as a promotional poster, based
on this I will also be able to establish what the audience is drawn towards. In six of the eight
posters, the antagonist is shown on the poster; these posters generally shine a spotlight on
the villain and the background is extremely low key or entirely blacked out, this emphasises
the common fear of ‘what hides in the dark?’ and accentuates the villain as the focal point of
the poster. In five of the eight featured posters above the weapon is displayed, this is
conventional for a slasher movie poster as the weapon is one of the most important pieces
of horror iconography in the movie and therefore audiences can determine before the film
what the murder weapon will be. The ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ film poster indicates that
Freddie Krueger’s murder weapon will be blades that replace his fingers, due to the
placement of the weapon on the poster; the audience can establish how the villain intends
on harming and killing his victims.
The main purpose of the tagline is to create a link between the image and tagline, this
results in the audience having a better understanding of the film prior to watching the entire
movie and without giving away the whole plot. ‘Halloween’ and ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’
both include taglines that imply horrific imagery; ‘the night he came home’ gives off a scary
vibe, and entices audience even more to find out who ‘he’ is. The fact that the title is
‘Halloween’ makes audiences even more frightened due to the fact that everyone including
the killer will be in disguise, this gives away small details about the plot. ‘Welcome to your

3. new nightmare’ is a relevant yet still scary tagline for ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, it implies
that the film itself may be similar to a real life nightmare, which similarly to the characters
could result in them becoming sleep deprived or tortured during their sleep. Most of the
taglines featured leave the audience with unanswered questions enticing them to watch the
movie strictly based on an image and tagline.
Another feature which is similar between all six of these posters is the colour. Each colour
which is going to be used seems to be dark and suggesting that there is ‘something hiding in
the shadows’, the sense of unknown and mystery is a chilling concept to the audience as the
use of dark colours such as black denotes the evil which could be lurking in the darkness.
The main image for ‘Texas Chainsaw’ is take outside at night. Red is nearly always featured
on the film posters, it is a strong colour which can be related to a male presence, this also
indicates that the antagonists will be male. They are therefore dominant over their victims
due to common stereotypes and viewed as more powerful.
This can be backed up by the images on the front of Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw
3D being taken outside, at night time. Another colour that crops up a lot is the colour
red,which is a strong masculine colour, which could relate to the idea that the antagonists
are male. They are therefore dominant over their victims and are almost undefeatable. Red
is also commonly linked to blood; blood obviously would signify the sub-genre of slasher as
slasher movies idolise gruesome killings with a lot of blood and guts. A colour which is
frequently used is white, this indicates the innocent characters and their purity, a final girl is
usually seen to be wearing lighter colours as she is the saviour.
The placement of the title varies on the poster but remains one of the main attractions
besides the main image. As audiences eyes will move from left to right in a z line formation,
whilst moving down the poster it is important that all the essential information is taken in by
the audience, the release date is generally displayed at the bottom of the poster in a smaller
font enabling audiences to look at the whole poster first before this; relating to the rule of
thirds. Whatever is placed at the bottom of the poster is more likely to be memorable as it is
the last thing which audiences see. Every poster shown seems to feature the same or similar
font, proving that it is conventional; ‘Halloween’ and ‘Scream’ both use Sans Serif, this is a
simplistic yet effective font to use, writing in capital letters emphasises it even more. The
‘Scream’ poster’s title has added a special character for the ‘M’ it looks like to end of two
blades meeting, furtherly indicating which genre the movie belongs to and providing some
horror iconography. Besides the title and tagline, institutional information is also featured at
the very bottom of the page, this is because it is not necessarily important.
All the posters are successful in promoting the slasher genre and encapsulate audiences by
using a range of features without revealing too much of the plot. Conventionally each poster
is simplistic yet able to draw in a wide range of target groups including teenagers. The bold
text and image both stand out, accentuating what is important and giving away key factors
about the movie without spoiling it.