Tamika : Textual Analysis of Horror Movie Poster

This is a textual analysis of a horror movie poster

Denotation: This horror film poster consists of black and orange and red colours showing a silhouette of a woman and a man standing behind her. The image appears to be a mid shot of the woman from her head to her waist, in the photograph we see that the rest of her body is cut off looking like her body is sinking into the ground.

She is giving full eye contact with a scared look on her face even though it is not that clear to see the picture uses low key lighting and there is little lighting which is only shining on one side of her face. The man standing behind her is also a silhouette of him wearing preferably a jacket and jeans, hat and has sharp nails on his right hand, which show the audience that he is out to kill and is a dangerous (evil) man.

His head is slightly tilted down probably looking down at the woman. It is a long shot showing his whole body. At the bottom of the photograph in front of the woman we can see that there is capital writing in white (serif font) which is the coverline saying “HE KNOWS WHERE YOU SLEEP”. The background of the photograph uses low key lighting, and the photographs are the main focus on this poster.

Underneath the masthead is the date of when the movie is coming out in cinemas its in white writing and its big, bold and very clear for people to see. The masthead “A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET” it stands out as it’s the largest writing on the poster and as it’s bold and in red. The front style used is in serif font. The fact that the masthead is in red, you can associate the colour red with blood and danger which is what horror films are about. The fact that the masthead is in red makes it stand out and is clear to see as the background colour is black and orange.

The cover photograph is eye catching but yet frightening as the first thing that we see is the woman and the man behind her. It is quite clever what the person did with the two, he made the photographs into silhouettes so that we couldn’t see there faces. This makes it quite mischievous and creates suspense. This will want to make people come and watch it in cinemas.

I would suggest that the most likely target audience would be males and females aged 18-25+ who like watching horror films. This poster is very creative but yet simple because when you look at the poster you think that you know what it could be about and I think what gives it away is the coverline “He knows where you sleep” that gives the audience a sense of knowledge that maybe he come to get you when you’re asleep. 

Tamika Nwokolo-Gentles