Daniela : Textual Analysis of Horror Movie Poster

The following is a textual analysis of a horror film poster 

Denotation: This horror film poster consists of a coloured image of what appears to be a man holding a mobile phone to his ear and smiling. In this shot (close up) we can see that the man is directly looking into the camera. As the audience we see that his eyes are made up of two opened up mouths, which are sitting diagonally above his nose.

On top of the photograph of the man we can see that there is block writing in red asking the question “WHAT WILL IT SOUND LIKE WHEN YOU DIE?” Underneath the image in capital bold writing is the title of the film (Masthead). Underneath the Masthead are various coverlines which provides the audience with information such as, who the film was directed by and actor/actresses who are starred in the movie. A date of when the movie is coming out on cinema is also shown in capital red letters “JANUARY 4^th”

 Masthead: “ONE MISSED CALL” masthead stands out as it’s the largest writing on the poster and as it’s bold and in white. The font style used is in Serif form, to possibly make the film stand out to an older audience. The fact that the masthead is in white makes it stand out and more clear to see as the background colour is black. 

The cover photograph is eye catching and yet frightening as the first thing that we are drawn to is his upper face that consists of two mouths which replace the eyes; a sense of confusion is created as we (the audience) are left wondering why this has been done. The fact that the man is holding a phone (prop), the title is “One Missed Call” and the rhetorical questions ask “what will you sound like when you die?” makes the poster consistent. The rhetorical question asked is very effective as it gets the audience actually asking themselves this question, which is quite bizarre: the fact that it is written in red connotes danger, death and creates and image of blood. The smile on the man’s face suggests that he is happy, content or satisfied, but also has this mysterious and evil twist. Because the lighting of this photograph is low key, it gives the poster that effect of darkness, suspense and evil.

This poster is very creative but yet simple and unpredictable. The simplicity and unpredictability of this poster makes the audience eager to know what the film is about, therefore making the audience want to go and invest some time to watch it when it comes out in cinemas. Looking at this poster I would say that the target audience for this film would be people that range from 18-24+ and who also enjoy watching horror films.              

Daniela Tome