Poster Analysis

Introduction

This poster promotes ‘Orphan’, a psychological horror film in which a couple decide to adopt a child. When they see Esther, they’re drawn to her and soon they take her home. When a series of dangerous events unfold, the mother, Kate, begins to suspect that something evil is lurking behind her angelic exterior. This poster is the official poster for the film. I decided to analyse this because it features the use of someone young, which is similar to my horror movie which features a young girl being abused. Also, it’s similar to mine because the main character looks normal, when in reality, they’re psychologically different. The style of this poster is appealing because its simple and attracts the audience through the use of eye contact and an attractive tagline. Although its not particularly ‘scary’, its clear that it’s a horror through the use of dark lighting, Esther’s facial expression, and the fonts use for the name of the film, and the tagline.

Poster Conventions

The poster fulfils general conventions of horror posters by having the name at the bottom of the poster, with the antagonist taking the whole frame up with a medium-close up. It also conventional because the tagline of the film is placed at the top of the poster; this directs the audience’s eyes straight to the tagline which would immediately interest them in the film. The institutional information is placed at the bottom of the poster in small print; this is a convention, and is effective because it doesn’t distract the audience or take attention away from the more important things, such as the image. Esther is making direct address with the audience through the use of eye contact; this scares the audience because they feel like they will be her next victim. It also draws them into watching the film, because they’ll feel like the film is made for them to watch.

The background of this is a plain green colour, rather than a setting; this allows the audience to focus on the text and the image more, while leaving the setting as a surprise. Green represents safety, and this could link to the idea that Esther just wants to feel safe and loved, instead she’s psychologically damaged because of her abnormality. The green gets darker as it gets further away from her, this could link to the fact that everything/everyone around her becomes darker, and turns into something evil. Both psychological horror movie posters and other horror movie sub-genre posters have mixed backgrounds; half have a setting, and half have a plain background. This means that this poster is neither following, or breaking general poster conventions for horror movies.

Artificial lighting has been used, and its coming from above Esther. This creates the effect that her eyes are shadowed, suggesting that she's sinister and we can’t see her soul because the eyes are ‘the window to the soul’. This follows conventions of other psychological horrors where the eyes allow the audience to know more about the character. The middle of this image is normal lighting, but the edges and parts of her face are dark; this puts the audience on edge because it doesn’t look as innocent as it seems, making them feel unnerved and interested in the film.

Esther is wearing her hair in pigtails tied up with a bow; this links to the idea of her young age and her innocence. This contrasts with her old fashioned style dress, which hints her secret to the audience – she's an old lady trapped inside the body of a young girl. She also has a maroon band around her neck; this is extremely restrictive and would therefore worry the audience as they wouldn’t want to see a child being hurt. This is similar to the colour of dried blood, which reflects the fact that she is a mentally disturbed killer. The image is a medium-close up, meaning we can only see the top half of her body. However, we can tell from this shot that she's standing straight, not slouched, linking to the fact that she's an adult, and is confident in her actions. Everything in this frame is symmetrical, which also hints to the audience that she's an adult, because children are usually more messy. She is placed in the middle of the frame, signifying her importance, and again linking to the idea of everything being symmetrical. Esther is looking at the camera with a hard and serious expression, showing that she’s unhappy, unlike normal children who have no worries in their life, and are happy and content. In this poster, there are no props or iconography that symbolise the horror genre; however, because psychological horrors create fear through the mental problems in the antagonists head, it would be inappropriate to include blood and weapons.

Image

Title

The title of this film is ‘Orphan’; this immediately reveals to the audience some of the narrative, and makes it clear that the girl on the front of the poster is who the film is about. This is a typical name for a psychological horror because it’s simple and allows the audience to find something out about the character. However, because a young girl is used, it’s unconventional because children are usually seen in the supernatural sub-genre. The typography used is a script font, which looked scratched around the edges, almost as if Esther has written it herself. The colour white is used for the title, which has connotations of innocence; this links to the beginning of the film where Ester seems to be a normal, innocent child. But the use of white is ironic when matched with the aggressive looking font, as they both connote two different things. The positioning of the title is conventional, because its placed at the bottom of the poster, and it’s the largest text on the page; this signifies its importance, and immediately pulls the audience in. The audience are also more likely to remember the name of the film as the title would be the last thing they look at after being reeled in by the image on this poster.

The tagline of this film is ‘there’s something wrong with Esther’. This immediately hints to the audience that the girl is not just an innocent child, but is evil and sinister. When first reading this tagline, the audience could think she’s just sick or upset, but when the audience look down at the image of Esther and the font of the title, they soon realise that it’s something more complex than just an illness. The tagline is written in capital letters making it stand out more, whilst also making it seem more important and serious, as if it’s a problem that needs to be solved as a matter or urgency. The full stop used at the end also adds to the seriousness of it, warning the audience that there is danger. Because the tagline only tells the audience that something is wrong, but not what is wrong, they are more curious to watch the film in order to find out what’s wrong with Esther. The tagline is written in a sans serif font and is also coloured white. The font adds to the danger and reminds the audience that it’s a serious problem. The white also ensures that it stands out so the audience will be attracted to the poster, while getting a hint of the narrative, and providing anchorage to the image. The tagline is the second biggest text on the poster, after the title. This links to the importance of it, while ensuring the audience read it. The positioning of the tagline is conventional of a horror movie poster, especially one in the psychological sub – genre, as it’s placed at the top. This is the first place the audience will look, therefore providing them with an introduction to the poster.

Tagline

Other Text

This poster also features institutional information, which is conventionally placed at the bottom of the poster to ensure it doesn’t take attention away from the more important parts of the poster. The information is introduced by blending into the dark colour of Esther’s dress. This poster also features the date of which the film is going to be released, ‘July 24’; this is placed at the bottom of the poster and is written in the same font as the tagline, keeping a symbiotic link. Having the release date on the poster is effective in luring in audiences because they’ll know when the film is out, making it sure that they can’t miss it. ‘Can you keep a secret?’ is also placed at the bottom, as an additional tagline. This is written in the same capitalised font, however, it’s coloured red, linking to the horror genre as a whole, and making it stand out from other text on the poster. By having it red, it also ensures that everyone will read it, even though it’s placed at the bottom of the poster. The words ‘Can you keep a secret?’ shows direct address to the audience, making them feel like Esther is going to tell them a secret and no-one else.

Colour

Colour is an important part of a poster because its one of the key things that pulls the audience in. The colours which dominate this film poster are green, blue and black; this creates a cold effect for the audience. This breaks conventions as the dominate colours for horror posters are usually red, black and white, which allows the red to represent blood. However, the colours used on the this poster represent just how cold Esther is as an antagonist, whilst also separating itself as a psychological horror which isn’t focused on blood and gore.

Conclusion

Overall, this poster is effective because it reveals to the audience the sub-genre in which the film lies under, whilst also hinting the narrative to them without giving too much away. This is done through the use of a rhetorical question which suggests Esther has a secret, and by telling the audience that somethings wrong with Esther, but not what it actually is. This poster would be successful in luring in the target audience because of the colours used, the conventional layout of the poster, and the use of direct address through eye contact, and words like ‘you’.