HORROR MAGAZINE ANALYSIS 1

MAIN IMAGE This magazine cover is by Empire. It is very conventional as the actor is in character presenting the movie. It is also a close up shot of him showing that he is the main character and there is something very strange about him as the audience can tell he has an abnormal eye colour and is very pale. This suggest that he is not human and will create enigmas for the audience. He is placed in front of a black background which contrasts with his pale skin. This could symbolise how there is evil and death surrounding him (giving clues to the audience) but purity and innocence comes above the evil and darkness. He is also wearing a brown suit, this connotes with dirt, another link to death by the idea of being buried in the ground. The main image conventionally dominates the frame. It compliments the main sell line well by successfully combining mise- en- scene elements such as makeup and costume. Profile lighting is used to darken one side of the characters face adding a mysterious twist to this film. He looks straight in the camera lens to create direct address with the audience.

LAYOUTThe layout of this film front cover is quite typical and seems to be what is expected from a film magazine. The masthead is always the biggest and is at the top of the magazine as it most likely what is first spotted by the audience, ‘Empire’ is the name of the magazine and suggests that it is the best film magazine in the world. The layout for this magazine shows two main pieces of text (the masthead and the featured article) at the top and bottom of the page, in bright eye-catching colours. There are sell lines surrounding the image on both sides making the page appear full and rich with information reading for the audience to divulge on. The sell lines on this magazine cover like many others are advertising other films and actors. They attract the readers attention by displaying the film titles in bold, along with the fact that they use bright, eye-catching colours such as yellow, green and white which contrasts with the black background . Therefore the font stands out more. Incentives are offered with the magazine and are featured at the top, in this case, ‘free posters’. Offering a free gift will urge the audience to make a payment in order to buy the magazine, the two film posters are from two very popular movies that the audience is likely to have seen, and so they will know that this magazine is up to date with famous film reviews- again making them want to buy the magazine.