Horror Poster Analysis - The Conjuring

This is the poster of the film ‘The Conjuring’. The title of the film has been printed in a san-serif font and is the largest font size on the poster to draw the audience’s attention to this vital piece of information. To ‘conjure’ would be to summon a devil or spirit by magical or supernatural powers. This indicates that the genre of the film is horror. The typeface used is a bold san-serif font black font and has been positioned on a white background to stand out. The ‘old fashioned’ sense of the san-serif font suggest that this film is set in the past (possibly in Victorian times).

The ‘billing block’ is located at the bottom of the poster. This contains key production and institution information for the film. This is located at the bottom of the poster in small font as it is not as important as the appealing title and image. However, is of interest to fans of horror films looking to find a certain director, producer, composer or costume designers name. The colour of the billing blocks keeps to the colour scheme of the poster in order to not look out of place.

Just below the billing block it says ‘#TheConjuring’. This form of synergy encourages the audience of the film poster to explore more about the film on social networks. This has been placed at the bottom of the poster as it will only be of interest to people who are looking at the poster in detail. However, is in clearer and bolder font than the billing block so the words are not mistaken.

At the top of the poster it says ‘from the director of Saw and Insidious’. These are both very successful, so indicate to the audience that the director is talented. San-serif font has been used for this part of the poster to follow the theme and the words ‘Saw’ and ‘Insidious’ have been typed in bold font to draw extra attention to them are these are the key pieces of information in that sentence. 

The film appears to be set in an isolated and remote location indicating that there is no one to help if you’re in danger. The image shows the scene during late afternoon on a poorly lit day which is typical of a horror film as bad things usually happen at night and when there is darkness. The fog/mist in the image has been used to restrict the viewing of the audience and to add mystery. It’s also used to cause uncertainty of what could be larking around the corner.

The lighting in this poster is poor; this along with the rolling mist/fog is intention to restrict the viewing of the venerable audience. It is also typical of the horror genre. The house which looks as if it could be abandoned is in the centre of the image. A tree is arching from the right across the poster with a noose hanging from it. It appears to not have anyone hanging from it. However, when you look at the shadow of you can see a figure wearing a dress hanging from the noose. This adds a sense of both horror and mystery to the poster.

The colour scheme consists of dull colours such as brown and grey. These uninviting and depressing colours indicate the tone of the film. The fog/mist is iconographic of suspense and mystery and what is expected of the horror genre. There is a twisted tree in the foreground of the poster could reflect the personalities of the characters in the film. On the tree hangs a noose, this is a deadly piece of equipment and is iconographic of the horror genre.

The only character visible in this film poster is shown as a shadow. This person is hanging from a noose. This indicates that he/she may be dead and gives the film a sense of super natural and ghostly behaviour which is typical of a horror film.