Analysis of Titles and GraphicsBy Joe Gosse

The Babadook

The Babadook is a horror film made in 2012. it is directed by Jennifer Kent and also written by her. It is known as the 10th best horror of all time by rotten tomatoes. The film is about a single mother who lives with her son. She is plagued by the violent death of her husband, battles with her son's fear of a monster lurking in the house, but soon discovers a sinister presence all around her.The film stars Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman.

During the trailer for The Babadook, us the audience are interpellated to feel as if were there. This is because the whole of the film is based around a children's book, and during the trailer you see the mother rip the book apart and as seen in the first still caption, the production company icon is shown in an oligochromatic colour scheme on a ripped background to create the effect of the book. This carries on through most of the captions.

The second caption follows the oligochromatic colour scheme and this time it’s a quote from Sam Adams, Indiewire which is a well known movie website. People who know this website will immediately be anchored into the film because if its coming from such a well known website it must be good. The words, “A flat out masterpiece” makes the reader think that the film must be good if it has such a well written quote/ review of the film and you can see why this was added into the trailer.

The third still of the trailer for the Babadook is another quote, and this one shows the audience a good idea of how much of a good horror it is. Horrors are meant to be frightening and people go and watch them because of this. When there is a quote saying, “Truly frightening” in the trailer by Total film, a very high up magazine company, the film must be good in its horror elements. This still also is giving a good idea of binary opposition. Even though the stills are using an oligochromatic colour scheme there is a big contrast between the dark grey and the extremely light grey. This may be representing good vs evil.

The next still is also on the same background in the same book like font and again it’s a review and this time it has 5 stars which makes the audience feel that it’s a well made film and a good one to and see. This quote is also reiterating the point that the Babadook is a really scary horror in the saying, “There goes your peaceful nights sleep,” with the words, “Peaceful nights sleep,” in a bigger font and also in capital letters to give you the audience the fact the it’s the opposite of peaceful. This quote is also by a well known movie brand, “Time Out.” Which is one of the biggest in the Uk. And seeing as this trailer was a UK based trailer it makes the audience interpellated to feel excited.

The final still uses the same oligochromatic colour scheme as most of the other stills in the trailer for the Babadook. This one has a slightly larger font size to give the audience a really good idea about the film name and because there is no there text on this still it makes the statement that this is the title for the film.

The final still of the trailer for the Babadook has some hype and buzz on it in telling the audience to read the book and to visit the website. This gives the audience a way to get a better insight into to the film. All the text on all the captions is written in the same book like font on a paper type of background. This creates a good effect towards the film.