analysis of a nightmare on elm street film poster

1. Poster Analysis 3.
The film poster above promotes the slasher movie the “A Nightmare on Elm Street”. The
film itself is a classic, released in 1984 and another remake was made in 2010.

2. Additionally to this, the front cover entails Freddy Krueger, a well known and well feared
fictional character. This will be attracting to audience, and they will be able to recognise
him straight away (brand recognition).
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
medium close up of the antagonist, with his head tilting downwards with his hat
covering his face so that his identity is covered up. However, from the jumper, the knives
as fingers, and the scaly face the audience will easily be able to identify this as Freddy
Krueger.
The image dominants the frame. It is a medium close up of the antagonist allowing for
the audience to see aspects of the costume, as well as parts of the face. From this, the
audience will have an insight to the killer and get a good look at him before watching the
movie so they will know who to fear. 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 the main interest the audience will have is Freddy’s mask. Deposit it looking to be
human like to an extent, it looks as if he has burns over his face masking his identity.
The mask is the main item of clothing that signifies the genre, as masks are conventional
in slashers. The main prop is the knives as finger, also main part of the iconography in
this poster. Additionally to this, it is also apart of the “A Nightmare on Elm Street's” brand
identity, as Freddy is renowned for having knives as fingers. Effectively creeping out the
audience, allowing for them to remember. Lighting is made apparent just behind the
antagonist, due to the forest scenery in the background, it is not easy to establish the
lighting. However, I believe it to be ambient, which is made available from the moon.
Allowing us to know that the killings are going to take place during the nighttime. Which
is conventional within the slasher genre - it is very unlike for evil to lurk during the day.
The title of the film is “A Nightmare on Elm Street” suggesting all the events occurring
during the film are going to take place in and around this address. This creates suspicion
and curiosity for the audience as they will then be looking out for a street sign in order
for bad things to start taking place. 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 red which

3. 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 just above the movie title. From the use of it being
in a red font, this allows it to be more recognisable and stand out more within the frame,
allowing for it to attract the audience's attention. The tagline itself helps to further
anchor the image, by giving the audience a further insight to the narrative, without
giving away too much information. The tagline states that the audience will be welcomed
to their new nightmare. This almost sounds like a challenge. Despite this, it will heighten
the audience's fear, but at the same time make them curious as to why it would be their
new nightmare and further influence them to want to go and watch the film.It is written
in a basic sans serif font, in capital letters which further emphasises the tagline and its
importance. It is written in red which has connotations to blood, which complies with
the conventions of a slasher film.
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 “A Nightmare on Elm Street” 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.