Insidious

Here I have uploaded a poster advertising the horror film ‘Insidious’ I am going to discuss the elements of this poster that are important and

that would appeal to the target audience.

Film title

This film title is written in a bold font, using red writing on two of the letters, the colour red representing blood and horror, generally used to signify horror films. The writing looks as though it has been scratched, giving it a more scary feel. The title doesn’t give much away to the audience about the film and doesn’t suggest what the storyline is going to be, so the audience therefore want to find out more. The writing is in the middle of the page on the poster, showing it’s importance and as it is just below the eye line of the boy in the image it is very noticeable as the first thing the audience would notice when looking at the poster would be the facial expression of the boy in the image.

Image

This image is very effective as the character looks very dominant and is looking into the viewers eyes as if to intimidate them and show them his status. His eyes look very scary and his posture is very unsettling as he has got his arms by his side and looks scary. The image is very dark and dull which is a feature that is often used in images for horror films as it gives them a more worrying and ‘horror’ feel. In the background of the image the weather looks very dismal, suiting the theme of the film and fitting in well with the genre. Also, the house in the background is very effective and is a very stereotypical setting for the genre.

Tag lines

This tag line is made to be clear as it is just under the film title so after reading the title the audience will see this. It is very alarming for the audience as it creates a question in their head that can only be answered by watching the film and finding out what happens. Stereotypically horror films include a haunted house but this tag line contradicts the stereotype which would make the audience want to find out more.

This part of the poster at the bottom of the page includes all the information that is less important and not vital for the audience to read. This one section saying ‘MAY 12’ is telling the audience what date the film comes out so it is in bigger, more clear writing for them to see.

To tempt the audience

If the audience see that actors they are interested in star in the film they are more likely to be interested in watching it knowing an acting style or actor they like are starring in the film. The names are written in a bold, red font using capitalization to make them stand out.

At the top of the poster it states that the producers of the film also made ‘Paranormal activity’ and ‘Saw’ this would appeal to the audience as they are two famous films of the same genre and if they enjoyed those films then it would make them want to see insidious. This is written in a bold, clear font using a colour that contrasts the background, using capitalization so it stands out.