Halloween is one of the most influential slasher films ever made based around the traditional American holiday. The title is in big bold orange letters fitting with the color of pumpkins, an iconic Halloween symbol. The movie poster depicts a hand holding a knife emerging from a pumpkin on a black background, common conventions to convey the dark and slasher themes. It promotes the film's fear factor and lists the director and actors to attract existing audiences.
1. Halloween is one of the most influential and successful slasher films ever made. The narrative is based around the
traditionla American holiday, Halloween.
The title Halloween is in big bold capitals,
which is a common convention of a horror
title. Also it is piped with an orange colour The hand and the knife ripple
scheme. This fits in with the colour of the through the pumpkin. This is a
Black background to pumpkin. common convention of a
convey the dark
horror poster as it’s a slasher
themes that will be
film, and a knife is a common
included in these
weapon within this sub-genre
movies.
of horror. Also a pumpkin is
an iconic symbol that
resembles monster and
paranormal activity. Also this
is relevant to the title,
‘HALLOWEEN.’
A caption to help
promote the films
potential fear factor.
The fact that ‘HE’ is
in italics clearly
indicates that this
character is a known
and fear figure within
the narratives
community.
End card- Common formal aspect of a movie poster. Its presents
tells the audience the different movie stars that take part in the
movie. This aims to attract the existing audience of each actor
on top of their target audience. This is seen as an advertisement
strategy.
2. Common formal convention for
well known actors to star of the
A caption to try and make
film’s poster to attract the actors
their horror stand out from
existing audience on top of their
the rest.
target audience.
Black background to
convey the dark themes
that will be included in
these movies.
This poster follows and abstract colour
scheme to the common formal
Captions to tell the conventions of a horror film at this time
audience who the director of cinema. Hitchcock uses yellow and
is and the actors that are pink colours, which are not very
staring. This is to attract healthy colours for a human to look
the existing audience that like. Again this replicates the unhealthy
already follow these mind-sets of the characters.
cinematic stars.
It is reminiscent of the use of
shapes in German
expressionism and the way
they convey a crooked
psychological landscape. The
shapes are jagged and The title has a big crack going through it.
cracked, reflecting the broken This is to convey the type of broken
mind set of the killer. psychological mind sets within this film.
The captions of all the people that took part in the film are organised down
the side of the poster. This is not a common formal aspect of a horror film
as there usually organised in small font at the bottom. This replicates the
irregular layout of the movie itself.
3. Red writing conveys that blood
will be spilt in this film,
reinforcing the fact that this is a
horror film poster, immediately
Black background allowing the audience to relate
to convey the dark to the genre.
themes that will be
included in these
movies.
Isolated area with what
looks like a ghost house.
This is very conventional for
a horror film, as an isolated
location is very common in
such films. Also an
A tag line is a recurring abandoned looking house
convention of a film poster, evokes fear to the audience
which aims to give the as they do not know what's
audience a tempting clue as to inside.
what events are going to take
place in the film.
End card- Common formal aspect of a movie poster. Its
presents tells the audience the different movie stars that
take part in the movie. This aims to attract the existing
audience of each actor on top of their target audience.
This is seen as an advertisement strategy.