The poster focuses on a distressed female's open mouth, shown in black and white against a red title to convey fear and horror. Her tiara is askew, hair in her face, eyes covered to show an inability to escape danger on her prom night, as indicated by the tagline "A night to die for." The analysis concludes the poster effectively presents the film as a transition from a typical teen romantic comedy to horror without revealing too many plot details.

1. Textual Analysis
Prom Night (2008)

3. • The poster is quite minimalistic, with the
focus on a girls mouth, to make the main
dominance of the poster, showing her
emotion. I feel this poster has lots of
connotations in the mise-en-scene which
represent the horror element to it, which is
very effective.

4. • The background picture has specifically
been put in black and white, along with
the credits at the bottom of the page. The
title ‘Prom Night’ in capitals and red,
brings focus to the wording. The blood red
connotates danger and death which stands
out from the rest of the poster, however
not stealing the attention away from the
main focus of the female in the
background, as it is specifically placed
below. The black and white hue is very
dark, which reflects the horror genre. The
typography used is of a gravestone font to
suggest death.

5. • The female is the main focus within the
poster. It cleverly juxtaposes the
glamourous, feminine side to the plot
against the deathly scream that the
audience can almost hear through her
expression, and the blood red title used.
We can see the characters distress
through the wide mouth shot, and the
tiara which has been pushed down her
once made-up face, with straddles of hair
uncomfortably on her face. The accessory
covers the characters eyes, so she is
unable to escape the danger.

6. • The main focus within the poster is the
characters mouth. The black and white
stays grey apart from where her pearl
white teeth create the near white hue of
the effect. The target audience can see
fear and horror through this expression
of the scream.

7. • Another slight juxtaposition used would
be the old vintage effect used on top of
the usual ‘gloss’ poster effect. This could
reflect the experience and the distress
which the character could have been
through already to reach this part of the
film, it also helps to convey the horror
genre.

8. • Below the film title, the audience can see
the tagline ‘A night to die for’, this was a
main element I picked up on in the textual
analysis of this films trailer, so it is
obviously something they want the
audience to remember. It is a cliché to
what Americans think about ‘prom’
however it uses play on words to convey
the experiences, how they will never be
forgotten, and how the word die is a
denotation instead of its usual
connotation and usage within a saying.

9. • The overview of the poster shows that this is
a horror film, where the danger is based on
a feminine character on her prom night. By
introducing the prom and glamourous
theme to it, the audience will know this is
aimed at teenagers and young adults,
mainly female. The audience will be aware
that this could go from a chic flic to a horror
genre, however will still have the element of
surprise, not knowing what or how the
danger will enter into the film.
• I think this poster is very well produced as
although it conveys the genre well, it does
not give away too much information to the
audience.