analysis of friday the 13th film poster

1. Poster Analysis 2.

2. The film above promotes the film “Friday the 13th” which was released in 2009. On the
13th February, which coincidentally falls on Friday the 13th. Those who were brave
enough to watch the film on the release date potentially would have been more scared
than those who watched it another day, as Friday the 13th is renowned for bad things
occurring.
The poster itself follows many conventions of a film poster. The title is the biggest font
within the frame, clearly indicating that that is the title of the movie, allowing the
audience to focus on it and remember it. Smaller fonts including the institutional
information, is placed at the bottom of the frame, out of the way in an undistinguished
place so that the audience can focus on the main details. Such as the release date which
is the last piece of text on the poster and is placed at the bottom so it is the last thing the
audience will see and therefore remember. Lastly, the image dominates the frame
allowing the audiences to have some sort of insight into the movie. In this case it is a low
angle shot of the antagonist, whom is wearing a mask. This will draw the audience in
because they will want to find out who it is and what their motive is.
The image dominants the frame. It is a long shot of the antagonist from a low angle,
making him look stronger, more dominant and superior. It could be said that this image
is present through the victim's point of view, making the audience fear the antagonist
more and would also sympathise with the victims more. The general mise-en-scene of
this poster allows the audience to establish it as a slasher film. The first thing to give this
is away costume which is dark baggy clothing which is complete with a mask. The mask
is the main item of clothing that signifies the genre, as masks are conventional in
slashers. The main prop is the machete, a main part of the iconography in this poster.
The audience can guess how the victims are going to slaughtered, just from looking at
the weapon, which will effectively give them horrific visual imagery before they have
even seen the trailer/movie. Lighting is made apparent just behind the antagonist, due to
the forest scenery in the background, it is easy to establish this lighting as ambient,
which is made available from the moon. Not only does the lighting show us the scenery,
allowing the audience to establish where the killings take place but it also amplifies the
misty fog, which will further increase the audience's fear factor.
The title of the film is “Friday the 13th” suggesting all the events occurring during the
film are going to be building up to and then taking place on this date. This creates
suspicion and curiosity for the audience as many people deem Friday the 13th to be
‘unlucky’ and a date when bad things happen. The font itself is written in a basic sans
serif font, however it is written in caps lock which adds extra emphasis. It is written in

3. red which gives connotations of blood which the audience would expect to see plenty of
as it is a convention of a slasher.
The tagline of the poster is presented at the top of the poster, which is a conventional
location for a tagline to be place. A tagline is used in order to give the audience a further
insight to the movie, which it successfully does. The tagline itself is “Welcome to Crystal
Lake”, giving the audience an insight to location whereby the film is going to take place.
This can be luring to the audience as they might be interested in the plot of a vast
amount of killings taking place by a lake. On the contrary, this could make them dismiss
watching the film altogether as it is not something they might particularly be interested
in. It is written in a basic sans serif font, in capital letters which further emphasises the
tagline and its importance. It is written in white which has connotations to innocence
and purity, which juxtaposes with the idea that it is a slasher film. However, can related
to all the innocent people the killer will be murdering.
Institutional information is placed at the bottom of the poster, out of the way so it doesn’t
distract the audience from reading the more important text on the poster such as the
title, tagline and release date. Additionally, it is written in a smaller font, further highlight
the idea that it is not as important as the other text presented on the poster. Just below
the institutional information is the release date, which is written in a slightly larger font,
which will manage to retain the audience's attention once again. It will be the last thing
that the audience will see and therefore, this will stay in their minds.
This film poster successfully promotes “Friday the 13th” and entices the audience to want
to watch the movie but giving them a clear indication of the narrative, without giving the
story line away.