The horror film poster suggests a smiling female antagonist who seems innocent but is actually evil, as indicated by the stitching on her smile and the tagline "evil wears a smile." The damaged background suggests she has been driven insane by being trapped in the room. The red font and mask add mystery around what is behind the mask and who or what the girl truly is. Footage from a documentary shooting that went missing a year later in a dark, isolated forest increases the intrigue for audiences to learn more by watching the film.

1. Horror Film Poster Analysis

2. To begin with, the title of the film ‘Smiley’ suggests happy thoughts, even the
main image is depicted with a smile but it is not all as it seems. The smile has
stitching on it which suggests that it has been fixed or changed to look like that
which also suggests that all might not be ‘smiley’ and happy. The tagline ‘evil
wears a smile’ also suggests that you shouldn’t trust a smile as the person smiling
might be as evil as they look happy. The main image is also a young female as well
which stereotypical as in horror films it is usually a female antagonist as they are
portrayed as being vulnerable. Females are also considered innocent which makes
it even more horrific as you don’t expect an innocent young girl to be evil.
The background seems to be that of a normal room but the walls seemed to be
damaged and destroyed which suggests that the character could be trapped in
the room and has been sent insane, hence the fact she is smiling because she is
mentally unstable and been turned evil by being trapped in the room, further
enhancing the idea that she is smiling because she is evil as mentioned by the
tagline. The red colour of the font also suggest blood, evil and fear.
The fact that the girl is also wearing a mask creates an idea of mystery as it is not
made clear who or what, if anything is behind the mask which might convince the
audience to watch the film as they might think by watching the film they will find
out the reason behind the girl wearing the mask and why the mask is smiling.

3. To begin with, there is the text in the middle of the poster that describes an event
that happened. This might lead the audience to believe that the events in the film
are based on a real life story. Also, the larger gap between the lines ‘when
shooting a documentary’ and the line beginning ‘a year later’, suggests lots of
mystery around the events. What happened for their footage to be found a year
later? Did they go missing? Did they die and in the woods? Were they found?
The trees at the top of the poster seemed to almost be dead because of the black
colour and lack of blue sky suggest that the forest is almost disconnected from the
real world and is that far out in the wilderness. It also increases the idea of
mystery. The audience might believe that this is the forest that they go missing in,
or is it the forest where their footage was found? The audience will only find out if
they go and watch the film.
The red of the logo and website link make them stand out which means they are
more likely to be remembered as the rest of the colour scheme on the poster is
fairly monochromatic and simple which means that more people will recognise
the logo of the film.
Finally, the close up of the girl with the torch looks like it has been taken with a
handheld phone camera which enhances the fear of realism and it also suggests
that the girl is stranded or lost as only has a torch and a camera. The mystery
again comes back as the audience ponders why she is taking a photo like that and
the fact that it is in the dark makes it out like she is trapped somewhere.