This poster analyzes the movie poster for the film "Halloween" through its visual elements and conventions used. It conveys the slasher film genre through the silhouette of a masked figure and references the narrative by highlighting the word "He". The bold orange title against a black background utilizes typical horror color schemes and typography. Key details like the writer, director and actors are listed at the bottom following standard conventions. Overall, the poster effectively communicates the slasher film genre and narrative elements through visual symbols and established poster conventions.

1. The blood dripping from the knife
has a silhouette of a man. It looks as
if he is walking towards you. It also
conveys the slasher genre. A masked
killer is a typical convention of
slasher film and this poster conveys
this as the shadowed figures head is
covered by a hand, showing that the
killer is masked.
The caption on the side tells us
more about the narrative. The
word ‘He’ is in italics, which
shows that ‘he’ is very important
in the story. It also makes you
question ‘where has he been?’
‘Why is he back?’
Also the ‘!’ links in with the word
‘He’ which portrays a sense of
urgency.
The title typography is very bold and
simple. The letters have a orange
glow behind them which echo's the
glow within the pumpkin which
makes the title look
deathly, conveying the genre and
the deaths to occur in the film.
The black background is a typical
convention used by horror genre
posters as it has connotations of
death and evil.
On all movie posters, the convention
is to have the mentions of the
writer, director, producer and the
leading actor/actress at the bottom
of the poster. This poster follows
this convention.
The title of the movie
‘Halloween’ conveys the genre of
the movie; horror.
The colours used (orange, black
and white) help convey the
genre. The orange colour and the
name of the movie intertwines
with the pumpkin as pumpkins
are bought around the Halloween
season.
However, the pumpkin is not very
conventional as the ridges at the
top mirror the knuckles of the
hand, which then turns into a
‘knife’ which mirrors the knife.
The shape of the pumpkin
conveys a slashing action.

2. The first thing we see is the half naked
woman. She was given the biggest
space in the poster suggesting that she
is the main character. Also, in the 50’s
when this movie was released, it was
very unusual to see a picture of a
woman in just a bra, this symbolizes the
male gaze. This is shown by the pose as
she is looking over she shoulder, giving
a sense of vulnerability.
The abstract shapes used came from
German Expressionism, where the sets
would be psychological landscapes
which would present their state of
mind. The poster also conveys the
broken mind of the killer.
The title ‘Psycho’ is in capital letters and
is slightly broken. This reflects the
killers mind as being ‘broken’ and
‘cracked’. This shows that the film is
unstable and has a dark
side, representing the genre of the film.
The colours used in the poster are
very pale, almost sickly. This reflects
the killers mind as being ‘sick/ill’. The
red tint creates a sense of danger
surrounding the characters. The
yellow and black form a dull
atmosphere and symbolises danger.
These colours make it hard to
recognise what genre the movie is as
it does not use typical colours (expect
for the black background).
The poster already showed that this is
an unusual film by the layout used
and the colours which portrays its
narrative by showing that this film is
unique.
The placement of the cast and
crew are in an unconventional
place, representing the film as
breaking the conventions of
horror.
When this movie was made, the
typical convention of a horror movie
was vampire, werewolves
etc…However, this movie changed
that convention and later on the style
was repeated in other horror movies.
This film shares some of the
conventions of slasher films as
there are a group of people
who are murdered one by one
by a psychotic killer.

3. Red and black is a typical
convention used knower days
for a horror movie poster. They
are both contrasting colours
and have connotations of
death, hell and blood. The
typography used has conveys
an electrical device which links
with the film. The red
typography helps convey a
sense of genre and narrative.
The poster shows that this is a
low budget film as there are
quotes at the top of the poster.
This is used as a marketing
strategy to help promote the
movie to a wider audience.
The video like picture shows
intertextuality of a YouTube
video creating a sense of
realism for the audience.
The picture itself is very clever
as your eyes go straight to the
bed where you see a couple
and the woman is pointing to
the door. Your eyes follow the
hand which is pointing to the
door where you see a shadow.
This conveys a sense of fear of
the unknown, which in todays
society is one of the greatest
fears. This picture gives a
sense of the tension making it
chilling.
The picture also a camera
picture from a video recorder.
This creates a sense of
actuality realism. The picture is
also in black and white which
to the audience looks a lot
more realistic then if the
picture was in colour.
The subtext under the title
says ‘DON’T SEE IT ALONE’.
This is a marketing technique
as they are saying that it is too
scary to see by yourself so take
someone to watch it with you.
As this was a low budget
movie (so the movie was not
shown in many places) at the
bottom there is an
advertisement where you can
bring the movie to your city.