1. Evaluation of my Horror Poster
Rebecca Paterson

3. • I think that the film trailer and the film poster go well together. The main character has
been used to advertise the film trailer and the film. The effect on the eyes, links in with
the genre of psychological horror, and the white, black and red colour scheme links in
with horror. It also represents the coldness, harshness and psychological aspects of the
trailer.
• I used the image of eyes to advertise my horror trailer, they are common when
advertising horror because it becomes very personal and quite intrusive towards the
viewer which is effective when advertising horror movies.
• I chose to do a character poster and not a teaser poster because the film is not a
franchise it would be harder to link the poster with the trailer as it is not well known as
there is not a franchise fan base already in place, examples of this would be SAW. The
character poster allows the audience to link something to the trailer. As it is only part of
the face, it creates enigma so that the audience want to go and see the trailer. As the
main sub-genre is psychological, I thought that imagery of weapon would not represent
the trailer, also as the trailer does not have any images of weapons in it either. I thought
that the editing on the eyes so that there is not as much contrast between the white of
the eye and iris when converted to black and white. I also made the pupil darker so that
it was bolder. This editing gave the eye an unnatural feel to the image and this linked in
with the psychological genre.

4. • In my research looking at horror posters that used images of eyes, I found that firstly
the colour schemes that worked best where black, white and red. I thought using a
black and white image also kept in with this colour scheme and linked in with the
coldness of the genre better as well. “The grudge 2” poster and “The Eye” poster use
the plain, simple, over exposed, white background, contrasting eye imagery.
• I also chose to do a landscape poster as I thought that the composition looked better
and would look cramped on a portrait poster. Also because the image I chose to crop
landscape across the middle section of the face, instead half of the portrait of the face,
the image looked better landscape, so the “darkness” could engulf the image on one
side.
• As eyes are common imagery in horror posters, all the eyes were looking out at the
audience, this allowed the image to be direct and connect with the audience. This was
also effective because it was intrusive and uncomfortable with are connoted with the
genre of the horror.
• In terms of text, I kept the title the biggest text on the poster so that the name of the
film is easy to see, I also found that in some psychological horror posters one or two
letters are flipped which make the audience second guess what they are reading as it
plays tricks with the brain because you read it the same while your eyes register the
difference slower, linking in with the psychological element. There is also the date, and
the billing block at the bottom, discreetly, so it does not intrude on the image as this is
main focus. I kept the font the same, except the billing block, to be consistent so that it
is easy to read. To give my film a brand identity I used the same text and style on the
magazine and front cover of my magazine.

5. Going back to the original
analysis of horror posters, he
typography on the poster is
important as it reflect elements
in the film like in human
centipede poster and the
movement in the text. This
inspired me to change the “R’s”
in the title to reflect the
psychological element.
Also the placement of the text is
important as the text should not
over power the image. Having the
image framed by the text allows
the poster to be read smoothly
rather then confusing and hard to
read and focus on the poster,
image or text.The colour scheme is important
so that it attracts the intended
audience, to attract a horror
target audience the colours of
the poster have to be associated
with horror which is why I chose
red, white and black. Also the
white and black can be linked to
Strauss's binary opposite theory,
white signifying the good and
black signifying the evil.
The image in the poster has
to link with the genre of
horror which is why you
can only see a small slice of
her face, as it becomes
intrusive and
uncomfortable to look at
which is the desired effect
from horror films. The way
the eyes have been edited
also add to the eerie,
unnatural atmosphere
which links in with the
psychological horror sub-
genre.
Also the left side of the
poster is particularly dark
and the right is over
exposed this also could be
linked with the binary
opposites and could be said
to foreshadow her being
the victim and her fight
against evil.
In the top right hand corner and bottom left hand corner I made the
corner darker to reinforce the graduation of colour from dark to light
and to reinforce the sense of darkness and evil.
The tag line is underneath the title and
hints at story line. It draws in the
audience and creates a sense of enigma
that make the audience want to see the
film (developed by Barthes).
I made some of the billing block text
bold and bigger and some red to break
up the bulk of text and make it easier
to read.
I also added in production company
logos and social network sites, this
means that the audience is able to be
more interactive with the film.

6. Going back to the original
analysis of horror posters, he
typography on the poster is
important as it reflect elements
in the film like in human
centipede poster and the
movement in the text. This
inspired me to change the “R’s”
in the title to reflect the
psychological element.
Also the placement of the text is
important as the text should not
over power the image. Having the
image framed by the text allows
the poster to be read smoothly
rather then confusing and hard to
read and focus on the poster,
image or text.The colour scheme is important
so that it attracts the intended
audience, to attract a horror
target audience the colours of
the poster have to be associated
with horror which is why I chose
red, white and black. Also the
white and black can be linked to
Strauss's binary opposite theory,
white signifying the good and
black signifying the evil.
The image in the poster has
to link with the genre of
horror which is why you
can only see a small slice of
her face, as it becomes
intrusive and
uncomfortable to look at
which is the desired effect
from horror films. The way
the eyes have been edited
also add to the eerie,
unnatural atmosphere
which links in with the
psychological horror sub-
genre.
Also the left side of the
poster is particularly dark
and the right is over
exposed this also could be
linked with the binary
opposites and could be said
to foreshadow her being
the victim and her fight
against evil.
In the top right hand corner and bottom left hand corner I made the
corner darker to reinforce the graduation of colour from dark to light
and to reinforce the sense of darkness and evil.
The tag line is underneath the title and
hints at story line. It draws in the
audience and creates a sense of enigma
that make the audience want to see the
film (developed by Barthes).
I made some of the billing block text
bold and bigger and some red to break
up the bulk of text and make it easier
to read.
I also added in production company
logos and social network sites, this
means that the audience is able to be
more interactive with the film.