Horror Poster Analysis

 

The poster for Friday the 13^th features its main antagonist (Jason) in the centre of the poster. Jason stands front and centre in the poster and this lets everyone know he is the villain in this story.

 The title is at the bottom of the poster in blood red almost giving more hints that this will involve multiple killings. Underneath the billing block is the date of release for the film (this is also in blood red to parallel the title) and its release is on February 13^th which falls on Friday and is something purely done for the fans of the franchise.

 Around him is a forest that surrounds the area he tends to kill his victims. Forests are common in horror films because they serve for unique ways the killer can obtain their prey and be used for cool and interesting camera shots and scenes using the environment and weather.

The poster features mostly black, grey and red with hints of blue suggesting that he only kills at night. These colours are typical for a horror poster because they represent/ could be associated with evil at its purest form; this establishes a good and evil (binary opposition).

There is little colour in this poster, this could be to show that the lifelessness that this film displays in it. the background shows a very grainy and distorted. the environment has a very dark colour scheme and this could also suggest a dominant environment throughout the film is in the dark or at night which most horror films are as they create a scarier atmosphere that light colours would. Some of the dark colours are achieved using shadows which is a common convention of horror film posters.
 

The main image shows a rocking chair which is stereotypically in horror films that tends to move unexpectedly without the main characters knowing what is doing it. this can suggest that there is some sort of paranormal activity displayed in this film.

The title of the poster stands out in comparison to the rest of the poster. This can then be used for social interaction between friends and family (uses and gratifications theory).

Features its main character in the centre of the poster. Red riding stands front and centre in the poster but the problem with this poster is that we as an audience do not know if she is the protagonist or antagonist in this adaptation. In this poster the background is all black and grey allowing the red to pop in your face more, red also represents danger and violence. The main person in the image has blood dripping down and this could also hint towards the beloved story character could be having a massive change. The title is also in red underneath the antagonist further suggesting that she is the villain.

A key element of this film poster is that the killer is a female and that is unusual because stereotypically the males are always the killers and females are usually victims (gender theory) but in this case it seems to be reversed for this film.