Billy: Textual Analysis of Horror Movie Poster





[.REC]

Poster textual analysis

This is the poser for 2007 film [.REC]. The main photo is that of a woman the miese en scene suggests she is in distress and is running away from something this links to the tag line which I will explain later, her body language suggests she needs help as her hands are palm up and extended towards the camera this helps put the viewer in the image the lighting is harsh and directly in her face witch ultimately looks amateur, which adds to is authenticity it also means the background is almost completely obscured so you can only make out a few blurry objects in the background we also cannot see what she is running away from giving the film some mystery her costume is a white vest which seems to be covered in blood this suggests there is a real physical threat and that she’s In mortal dander the over all colour scheme for this poster is mainly black which connotes darkness and fear but the colours that stand out such as the red in the mast head and text suggests danger and also goes with the idea of recording which make sense as the film is called [.REC]  there is also a slight haze of green over the photo in the background and picked out in the mast head this to me suggests the digital camera aspect green to me hints at coding (such as the Matrix) digital cameras sometimes tint things green in low light. the photo also seems to be in a low resolution it has lines as if it is a still from a film, this all ties into the title of the film. I think these aesthetics are very clever and hinting at what the film is going to be like I also think the image is a nod towards ‘The Blair Witch Project’ poster such as the lighting.



The tag line translates as “run away … but never stop recording” which completely ties in with the miese en scene of the image which the woman apparently running away from something unseen and the effects used on it to make it look like a still. Even the text font and styling for the tagline suggests its taken from a low resolution screen such as a held camera as it is blurry around the edges and has a green tint.

The main mast head is taken directly from the universal symbol for record as seen on a camera display this is also blurry, there can also be seen a static ‘ghost’ of the text this also suggests hand recording and motion as effects like that only happen when a camera is jogged such as running which ties into the tagline. The rest of the text is the necessary dates and credits in the traditional poster layout I think this poster has been cleverly designed and has many subtle details to suggest the style and theme of the film, is also fit well with the teaser trailer and has lots of continuity features in design.

Billy Waterworth