Initial Poster Ideas

After looking at different posters of the horror genre, it was clear that the image usually involves the main protagonist or antagonist of the film in order to reveal some of the narrative, as is seen in the poster of 'The Orphan' on the left. In this poster the image is centred and reflected through the middle to create an unsettling tone. The title and tagline are both centred, at the top and bottom of the poster respectively. In relation to the rule of thirds that is often used to create effective posters, this poster uses very definite sections with the girl's face in the centre of the image to show it as important and ominous. The colouring of the text is white in order to stand out against the background, which links with other poster deconstruction we did that found white to be a common colour used in the horror genre, usually coupled with red. The colour red has been included in this image, as the choker around the girl's neck is dark and due to the positioning is clearly visible. Red is also used in the text below the image in order to draw the eye to the question "Can you keep a secret?", referring to the mystery of the narrative and directly involving the audience.


From this poster and other deconstruction we decided to include the image of one girl instead of the whole group of characters, suggesting that she has some significance to the plot. She will be pictured as an embodiment of the antagonistic spirit, as will be clear in the make up and editing that we will use, as we researched in our Horror Make Up Research post. We will make her appear decaying and threatening. However, while many of the posters we deconstructed were portrait, we would like to experiment with a landscape image and instead of having the girl in the centre of the poster we are going to place her to the side with text next to her. This will still refer to the rule of thirds as the title of the film and the girl's main facial features will be in the middle, with the text on the right hand side spread across the three vertical thirds.

We also considered the poster of 'The Number 23', which was heavily inspirational for our poster. We found the effect of writing covering his face very effective, linking to our previously mentioned Horror Make Up Research post in which we considered markings on skin to signify possession. The poster is similar to 'The Orphan' in that the main character is centred in the image looking directly out of the image at the audience. Few features are shown about him other than the letters and numbers covering his face, showing his lack of control and the fact that his life has been taken over and some sense of self has been lost. The letters and numbers also reflect the title of the film, making it clear that the number 23 is the core of the narrative but also making it appear threatening. The poster uses black and white effectively to make the image bold and shadowed, with darkness around the image in order to signify the darkness of the film and also so there are no distractions from the image. His face is large on the image, making it clear how personal and close the subject is, which could incite feelings of discomfort in audiences to foreshadow the tone of the narrative. The colours of white and red are used for the text in this poster as well, with the title white and the tagline and main actor's name is in red. The colours both stand out against the image and dark background, with the unconventional layout of the title catching attention from the audience. It is placed in the bottom left hand third, relating to the rule of thirds on images. The actor's name is large and spread across the top, obviously reflecting the success of the actor to be a main appeal in the film.


The poster of 'The Number 23' has led us to decide to definitely use lettering across the face of the girl, as it appears very effective in poster form to reveal some nature of the narrative without revealing too much. We found the use of black and white compelling, and may consider it for our poster, although we also enjoy the use of harsh colours to create a blunt effect. The use of darkness around the image will be replicated in our poster as we do not want to distract from the subject of the film by overcomplicating it, and the surrounding darkness will also connote the incoming threat of the antagonistic spirit, although it is not clear what it is. This mysterious element will intrigue and broaden audiences. We are going to use similar head positioning for the subject of our image, as his intense stare out of the poster captures attention and makes him appear threatening.




-Emily