Horror Film Poster Analysis

This is a film poster for The Final Destination. When looking at the poster we automatically relate this to a horror film from the way the poster has been presented. On the poster we see a woman’s reflection in a mirror; however we can see that the mirror has been smashed. A smashed mirror is usually a sign of bad luck which we can suggest will come within the film. Also the broken mirror also suggests that someone will get hurt or broken. If we look at the individual shatters of glass you’ll notice elements of iconography, as we can resemble them as sharp blades or knifes. In the bottom right of the poster we can see a bit of smoke, we can also relate smoke to horror films. Smoke reflects on the fear of the unknown and not being able to see. Looking back at the woman’s face we are limited as to how much of her face we can see. Her features and facials expressions are almost hidden from the audience. Beneath the woman’s face we can see the bottom half of a skull. I believe that this is quite ambiguous. It could be seen as the enemy/villain of the film, or it could imply that death will come to the woman; you can look at it in various ways. If we look at colour used on the poster you will notice that it follows the stereotypical conventions of a horror film poster. Overall the colour palette used for this poster is very dull and mainly features blacks, greys and blues. All these colours used have maintained a spooky feel to the poster without making it boring. However if we take a look at the font, the colour red has been used on the release date. This is seen on many horror film posters. The colour red is very significant as we associate the colour red with blood, death and danger. As the rest of the post is quite dull the red is what stands out and draws our attention to the poster. The font used is very plain, although I think that this has been done purposely so that our main focus is on the image. At the top of the poster it reads ‘rest in pieces’ this then links with the shattered mirror in the main image.