Connor's A2 Blog: Poster Analysis

Here you can find analysis on three posters from two horror films and a thriller film, these films being 'Insidious Chapter 2', 'The Gallows' and 'Godzilla'. I have fully analysed all of these posters looking at the central image, main title, etc.

Poster Conventions - What I Learned
After analysing the three posters found below, I have discovered certain style choices typically found in horror movie posters, that are both different and similar to those found in thriller posters. It appears as though horror posters generally have a very limited colour palette, usually sticking to very few analogous colours to stick to a certain theme, such as the different shades of red on the poster for 'The Gallows'. The use of a couple analogous colours can also be found on thriller posters such as 'Godzilla', making use of fiery colours for effect, however it is much more common on horror movie posters. Another convention I have found is that the posters don't include great amounts of detail, typically only having one main image and occasionally a side image for effect but generally less is more when trying to creep out the audience through use of the disturbing imagery. This is different to thriller posters as they tend to include more detail like the addition of the soldiers and the city skyline for 'Godzilla'. There usually isn't much text either, typically only including the main title, studio names and a vague slogan for the film to create mystery. Most of the text generally isn't very large and in a colour that matches the colour palette so that it doesn't take attention away from the main image as well, which can also be seen in the poster for 'Godzilla' as the text isn't very distracting other than the title itself. When we create our own horror poster we should make sure we follow conventions such as these so that we can effectively get across the horror aspects of the film.

Here is the poster analysis for 'Insidious Chapter 2'.