Horror Poster Analysis Denotation and Connotation The mast head is placed at the bottom of the page; centre. The Font has a red fill and is all capitalised, it’s a serif font with some words sizes bigger than others. The connotations of the font are; the placement of it suggests a focus shift from the ordinary poster, the focus is not on the title but the focus is on the image above it. The colour of the font mirrors the image but is slightly richer and lighter this makes it stand out from the image. The font like most conventional horror movie posters is slightly faded and cracked this is too follow the conventions of a typical horror so that the audience understand what they are going to see. The Serifs on the font are sharp and traditional, the serifs add an aggressive look the words and the sharpness of them looks like an iconography of a knife. “NIGHTMARE” and “ELM STREET” Are increased in size because of their importance like most slasher horrors; they show the iconic date or place, for instance “Halloween” There is a subheading or anchorage text placed just above the masthead it reads “HE KNOWS WHERE YOU SLEEP.” The letter have a white fill, all the letters are capitalised also the letter are all sans serif. The positioning of the text is unconventional and connotes a different style from the typical horror poster, but it is still placed smaller and away from the masthead following the typical attention list. “He knows where you sleep” is a very creepy subheading and suggests that you can’t escape him because he will get you where you sleep. The sentence is short sharp and right to the point, grabbing the attention of the audience and would be something you could easily imagine being said on a trailer or movie I
wouldn’t be surprised if this was the case with the trailer, this establishes a type of house style. There is some additional text and information positioned at the bottom of the page, there is the date of the release and the production company’s featuring “Warner Brothers” and “New Line Cinema”. The font is the same as the anchorage text and much like anchorage text is slightly faded. The Date is a key feature in a poster as it tells the audience the release date of the picture, without this you would have no idea when to see it, simple but essential to a Film Poster. The additional information to that features important film and Production Company’s this is important because it can help get an increased audience, for example someone’s Ideology might favour films by “Warner Brothers” because they are known not to take their films as serious as other company’s such as paramount. The image covers the whole page and the main image is positioned directly centre of the page, the image has a slightly orangey red tinge to it. There appears to be liquid and I suspect blood on the floor, they appear to be in a corridor that looks like a typical American house, there is a window just behind the main image character that keeps the silhouette highlighted but the front in silhouette. The person in the bottom part of the page is a women with long hair, her featured can be seen but we can’t see her eyes or mouth because they are concealed in shadow, she appears to be walking down stairs or sinking into the bloodlike-liquid. The main image is of a man with a Stetson hat on, he is posed in a menacing stance just above the women. The light from the window behind him highlights the “Edward Scissor Hand” like hands with knifes coming from the fingers, the weapon looks like it could be a knuckleduster but with sharp weapons. Connoting this image reveals allot about the ideology of the film. The red/orange tint of the image reveals a “bloodlike” quality to the image, the tint almost looks like blood after it has dried out this adds a creepy effect to the image and makes the audience feel uneasy without exactly making a huge statement. The tinge also makes the liquid look like blood this is very typical of the horror genre because much like the other horror poster I analysed also made the water look like blood; this is probably because of the iconography blood has to the horror genre. The general look of the background of the image shows the typical American house we have come to associate with slasher genres of this kind, therefore this poster is following the convention of horror, this also associates to the masthead and title of the film “Elm Street” is shown in the poster straight away. The women appearance and complexion and facial features are hidden from the view, this makes the audience find it hard to identify with the character disconnecting them from any narrative of the story. Seeing as the liquid seems to be blood it is even more frightening to see her submerging herself, this raises the question as to why she is doing this; as far we can see there is no other escape so she must be doing this to escape from the killer. The Killer himself is everything you expect from this genre threatening and intimidating the use of levels in this image makes the killer look like they have more power than the victim. The Killer is wearing a Stetson hat this is common iconography of America and western films this further emphasises the title “Elm Street”; This could also be an icon for the character and therefore the audience would be known to associate the killer and his hat together. Obviously his hands have a knuckleduster with
knives type quality to them, this adds the threat to the character safety and also emphasise the slasher genre.