Codes and conventions of horror movie posters & psychological horror movie posters
- 1. Codes and conventions of horror movie posters By Mahfuza
- 2. Camera, editing & mise-en-scene Usually, for example, if the main image is of a house or a person’s face, a low angled camera shot is used to create a scary atmosphere and to create suspense and tension. The addition of low-key lighting creates this effect more and identifies it as the horror genre. This tells the audience what to be scared of in the film and hints at what the problem is. There is usually a close up of the victim’s face to show a scared expression which connotes that the poster is for a horror film. This is shown in the ‘Scream’ poster. The weather attributes to this effect. It is usually a dark, gloom and rainy atmosphere, maybe with lighting sometimes. The lighting is low and there are shadows created either on the left of the poster or all around. The shadows on the left usually connote evil and death within the film, Another poster similar to the ‘Scream’ poster is the poster for ‘Orphan’ and ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ as they too have shadows around the main face in the poster. The credits are usually at the bottom of the poster, including the names of the actors and the production company, as well as the title and tagline of the film. There is also a release date at the bottom of the poster and sometimes a review from for example ‘The Times’ or another famous news / review company.
- 3. Setting and layout Many horror film posters include the setting of the movie in the poster. For example the ‘Insidious’ poster and ’The Last House On The Left’. These settings are often houses/old mansions and are very old, dark and gloomy. It creates the atmosphere of horror because of hour scary the house looks itself. A dark and empty house is scary, especially f you are on your own. This also creates mysteriousness. The poster usually consists of the victim at the front and the killer at the back, or just the killer itself. Usually this is a close up picture. There is usually a close up of the main character at the front / centre of the poster. The main image is of either a person or an object. In the insidious poster it is of a boy whereas ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ poster has a evil type of bug on the main character’s face. The title is usually at the bottom of the poster and the tagline is usually placed at the top. Credits are usually at the bottom. The main colours are usually black and white with just a little hint of other colours to connote the horror genre such as red. Most horror movie titles are in a white or red font.
- 4. Colours Horror movie posters usually contain the colour black, which identifies it as part of the horror genre. Fiske says that ‘the assignment of a text to a genre influences how the text is read’. For example, if the audience think that what they see belongs to a particular genre (such as a knife on a poster), then they will interpret it according to their expectations of that genre. This can apply to horror movie posters as people may thing things that they may associate with the horror genre. For example if they see a lot of red and ‘scary’ fonts then they will associate with the horror genre rather than for example comedy. If a poster is of an eye, like the movie ‘Unforgettable’, then they usually exaggerate this image. For example, editing it to make the pupil of the eye more bigger to create tension and fear. This is to show that the character is traumatized and frightened of something. The colour of the eye is more noticeable as it is edited brighter for the colour to be noticed. The titles tend to be white / cream / yellow / red depending on the sub-genres and the plotline. It could even be blue. It varies a lot.
- 5. Codes and conventions of a psychological horror movie poster Sub - genre conventions - Mahfuza
- 6. Colours Most psychological horror posters follow the colour code of red, black and white. This is a convention of horror posters, where red connotes blood, danger and killing, black connotes darkness and death, and white connotes pure, which could mean that it’s always a pure / good person who gets attacked or possessed, or whatever the plot is related to. Because the audience are so used to seeing these colours associated with the horror genre, they are hypodermically injected with thoughts that if they see these colours on a poster then it belongs to the horror genre, and from the fonts and type of colours they may be able to figure out if it is of a particular sub-genre. For example, if it was a comedy horror then the font would be more comical compared to if it was a psychological horror. The title could have separate words in different colours and fonts to show the distorted mind relating to a psychological horror movie.
- 7. Lighting The background is often dark, if not black with grey tones. The low key lighting tends to come from one side of the poster. Little lighting creates enigma and climax. It adds to the code of the poster relating to horror and psychological because horror movies are based in the dark/ the majority of the action happens in the dark. Again this links to Fiske’s quote as the audience can make of this as the psychological horror genre. In psychological horror posters there tends to be more shadows around the poster or mainly coming from the left of the poster. This could be to connote that there is something bad haunting a person in the past.
- 8. Layout and font The poster usually consists of the victim at the front and the killer at the back, or just the killer itself. Usually this is a close up picture or a close up of the eye to be recognised as a psychological horror sub-genre. This links to Gledhill as he says that “differences between genres mean different audience could be identified and catered to”. So what a poster consists of can allow the audience to determine which sub-genre it belongs to. The font tends to be either white or red which relates to the common colour convention of the genre, and this also makes the titles and credits (if any) stand out in the poster. For example it the poster said ‘featuring Wes Craven’ then the targeted audience would be more likely to watch it because they know who the actor/actress is and will then be persuaded to watch the film. This creates a mass audience and shows that a poster can be successful in order to get people to watch a film. The title and tagline tend to be at the bottom of the poster as well as the credits.
- 9. Camera, editing & mise-en-scene Close up shots are usually used in a poster to show either emotion or the main concept of film, for example the close up of an eye. This acts as a direct mode of address to the audience and makes them want to watch the movie as it creates an enigma of finding out who the character is and what the plotline is. Close ups also show the characters feelings and emotions which makes their target audience want to find out more. As with the eye example before, they are edited. This creates enigma as the original image then becomes unnatural and the target audience would want to find out more. They would ask questions such as ‘why is the eye like this?’ ‘What is scaring them?’ and ‘What is the plotline to the movie?’ The mise-en-scene in a poster would usually include the main object used by the villain. For example on this poster on the left there is blood tripping from the mouth which connotes death.