Textual Analysis
The most of the poster is covered with the colour black, and the colour black is
related to horror. This could also suggest that this movie is very scary because
there is a lot of blackness. We have little bit of white smoke in the middle behind
the main character which makes him more visible. This is because the character
is wearing dark clothes as well. In the background we also can see some rain. This
is stereotypically, because in every horror movie when it rains at night it is scarier
than if it doesn’t rain and it also creates more tension for the audience. We also
can see some big grass at the bottom of the poster which could mean that it is
not very clean area where he is in. This represents the main character negatively.
We can fit here the theory of Levi Strauss because of the colour. Black and white
is the opposite colours, and this fits with the Binary oppositions of Levi Strauss. I
think theses colours are used to represent the genre horror. The iconography
that is used to show that this is a horror movie is the knife and the mask that the
character is wearing. But without the background colour it wouldn’t look to
much related to horror. So the colour is very important. The other important
thing is that all these things should be linked together. If there is a link between
all these things then we can say that this is a horror movie poster. Here I think we
have the preferred reading of the background colour because most of the people
will link black to horror,
We only have one character on the poster which suggests that he can be the main
character throughout the movie. He is dressed black and we can’t see his face
properly because he is wearing a mask. The mask gives us a mystery to solve
because we don’t know who that person is. We have to watch the movie to find
out who he is and what he does. So this is a way to attract the audience to watch
the movie. I think here again we can bring in the theory of Levi Strauss because of
the binary opposition with is clothing and the background. As we can see he is
wearing black clothes and we can see some white smoke in the background which
is the opposite colour. This is done to make the main character more visible. If we
look at Propps theory which is the characters then we can link the main character
with his theory. As the poster suggests that the main character is going to be a
villain because of the knife he is holding in his hand. And because of the knife he
looks strong and unbeatable. The used a male character on the poster rather than
a female character because male character are strong and fearless. So this is
stereotypically for a horror movie. In terms of the audience I think we have a
negotiated reading and not a proffered reading because I think the individuals will
have a choice to accept the preferred reading or not. I think this is because some
people may say that he is the hero because usually the main character which is on
the poster is the hero. So they might say that he is the main character on the
poster so he is the hero. Some people will know he is the killer which is the villain
because they already seen the first part of the movie which is Halloween 1, so they
will know straight away that he is the villain. So that’s why I think negotiated
reading is used here.
I think the main title of the film is the most eye catching
element on the poster and this is because of its colour
and size. It is the biggest writing bit on the poster. This
tells us that it is very important for the audience so we
must read it. The colour of the tile is shiny orange,
everything else on the poster is black and white, this
makes it eye catching and makes it able to read from a
bog distance. I think here again we have the preferred
reading because most of the people will know that this
is a horror movie when they see the tagline. This is
because everything is in capital letters and the font also
bold and it looks a bit creepy. Inside the writing we can
see a little bit from the background which is the big
grass which is stereotypically related to horror. I think
we can’t fit a theorist here because it doesn’t fit with
the main title. The iconography that is used is used on
the main tile to show that this is a horror movie is font
type and the colour. In the background of the font
colour we can see some grass which is related to
horror. The shiny colour and the big bold letters
represent that this movie is aimed at high class people,
so this tells us that it is a very good movie. I think here
we have the negotiated reading, and this is because
some people may not relate the main title to horror
because of its colour. In most of horror movie poster
the colours black and white are used which is also
stereotypical. I think this movie is aimed from teenagers
to middle aged people.
We have a tagline above the image in white which is the opposite colour of black. This is
done to make it more visible for the audience. The font type looks scary and fits well
within the poster. Here we can fit the theory of Levi Strauss, the binary oppositions. The
tagline is white and the background is black. The knife is also pointing on the tagline. The
tagline says “Family is forever” and it looks like that the knife is going through the
tagline, it’s trying hit the word “forever”. This could mean that the character is going
against the tagline, the is about to go through the word forever so this could mean that
the character is going to change that, he is going to “kill” that word forever. This gives us
the audience a hint that he doesn’t want families forever so he is going to kill them. So
the tagline is made to tell us a little bit about the story it gives us a lot of questions, to
find out the answers we have to watch the movie. We also can talk about Barthes
theory, the tagline is enigmatic, that means it doesn’t tell the audience much about the
movie. Here it says “Family is forever” when we read that we ask the question what
does that mean? We know that families are forever but why does it say on there? So we
have to watch the movie to find out what happens. The tagline represents horror
because of the way it looks like, and here we can bring in the audience. I think here we
have the preferred reading as well because most of the people will link the tagline to
horror.
At the bottom of the poster it tells us
when the movie will be available for us
to watch in the cinema. It says in big
bold writing “August 28th everywhere”,
the word everywhere represents power
and famousness. It tells us that the
movie is very powerful and very good so
it is shown everywhere in the country.
We fit the theory of Levi Strauss, the
writing is I white and the background
colour is black which is stereotypical
related to a horror movie. I think here
we can have the preferred reading
because most people will know that this
is horror movie.