The document provides an overview of characteristics commonly found in horror film posters for supernatural genre films. It discusses six specific posters in detail. Some common elements identified include the prominent display of the film title, the use of disturbing and upsetting imagery typically featuring a distressed female protagonist, and pale cold colors used to set a sinister and dark mood. Additional patterns often seen involve references to children in distress or possession as well as taglines and text that further highlight the threatening narrative elements.

1. Horror Film Poster Overview
In this overview, I will be describing the different characteristics and aspects that are traditionally
used for horror film posters of the supernatural sub-genre.

2. The six posters have been designed to effectively promote films within the supernatural horror
genre. Through carrying out them to each other, it is possible to identify shared features within
them and to establish recurring patterns that are visible. All of the posters feature typical film poster
conventions, as we see expected general conventions in all, such as a title, always the largest and
significant text in the frame, an image that dominates the frame and that indicates something
important about the film’s narrative, a slogan to anchor the image and, as predictable of a horror
film poster in general, troubling and upsetting imagery.
In parallel to this, we see additional patterns that are also generally repeated. By observing every
poster, you will see that each and every one of them feature a female character, be it that they are
looking concerned, or seemingly under threat from something in an unsettling fashion. In the Ring
poster, the imagery that can be seen embedded into the title features that of a woman screaming in
horror from something that is unseen to the audience. In the Drag Me to Hell poster, we see an
image of a female crying out in terror as demonic hands seems to be pulling into the flames that are
part of the mise-en-scene. The suggestion from this is that, like countless other supernatural
horrors, centre on the narrative being that of a female protagonist who has to seemingly fight
against paranormal occurrences that are perceived as a threat to her. Another thing to be known is
that it is normal for the female protagonist featured to be young and attractive. She does not;
however, appear to be much of an idiot or fit the profile of a ‘bimbo’. This would be understandable
as the stereotype of a ‘bimbo’ would not have the intelligence or courage to fight off the danger in
front of them.
In one of the six posters, we see children. This reinforces he idea that such characters are common in
supernatural horrors and that children often appear to being possessed by some kind of sinful
presence. This is most possibly due to children normally being connected with innocence and purity,
as opposed to evil children, who are distressing and are considered to be freaks of nature. In the
poster for Mama, the child stands there hidden behind a being shrouded in darkness while clutching
hold of their arm. Their face indicates a sense of suffering and being fri ghtened, which adds to the
chilling characteristics of the main image.
The images that are being presented across the six posters are horrific and designed to both scare
and clearly signal that these films belong to the horror genre. In the poster for The Conjuring, we see
the tree with a hanging noose attached to it. The setting reveals a large house in the background,
secluded by trees and an approaching mist. Looking more closely at the leaf-ridden ground in front
of the tree, a shadow of someone being hanged is visible, although the actual person is not present
in being. There is a pattern consistency in terms of the colour being used as well. Pale, cold colours
such as blue and grey are very much common, in order to create a sinister and unfriendly mood. In
pretty much every single poster, these colours are used to emphasise the cold, dark and mysterious
world that the movie is based in.
In each poster, the title of the film is situated in a noticeable position and is conventionally, the
largest piece of text on the page. For the six posters, the title is either placed at the top or bottom of
the image. This is to conjure up the idea that audience will be presented with the title, once they
have been attracted to the image, or vice versa. This also connotes to a layout convention. Each title
is presented in an uppercase font in order for the text to be highly visible to the audience to read

3. from. Text effects, such as the embedded image of the protagonist screaming in the title for The
Ring are sometimes used in order to create more of a horrific effect.
Most of the six posters have presented institutional information that is positioned at the base of the
poster, along with the introduction of a tagline that would help to anchor and support the meaning
of the image, or to the reveal more of an insight into the narrative of the film. The tagline for Drag
Me To Hell reveals that the protagonist, as featured as the main image, is ‘going to hell’. This
compliments the main image of her actually being literally dragged into flames by the hands of
demonic beings. Other such texts such as for example, ‘Presented by Guillermo Del Toro’ are used to
draw in audiences. In this case for Mama, the use of this specific piece of text is used to attract
audiences who are fans of Del Toro’s work. Another instance that is common on a lot of horror film
posters is the use of the phrase, ‘Based on a True Story’. The idea that the film has been inspired by
an actual supernatural event that has taken place will make the film a lot more frightening or the
audiences, with the fear of thinking that the same exact thing could happen to them. All of the text
is presented in a small and readable font, occasionally in sans serif.
All of the posters that are included in this section are ef fective and very conventional for their target
audiences. They also have simplicity in common, with minimal text and the dominating imagery
creating most of that chilling effect.