Main Task - Poster Analysis

To give me a deeper in-depth knowledge of movie posters (in particular thriller)  and how they work, I need to analyse a variety of diffrent ones to help me create mine for my main task. The three thriller posters I am going analyse are Shutter Islands,  the original "Alien" and Inceptions.


The Shutter island poster has three distinct elements to it in terms of the image. The main character, the island itself at the bottom of the image and the flame in which the character is holding. The mix of dark colouring with the small amount of light puts the film straight into the thriller/horror category, and the fact that only a small amount of light is being used in the image, plus the fact that the light is from a small match stick suggests mystery within the story. Leonardo Decapreo in the image has a slight blue tint to his eye, which would connect to the plot in which he was a Jewish executioner in world war 2. The blue eye may link to the whole idea of Hitler's idea of human perfection of blue eyes and blond hair.

The poster sells the film mainly with the fact that a well known actor is the main role and that a good idea of the story is represented within the three main images, the character, darkness and the isolated island. The title of the movie is very typical of a thriller, being at the bottom, but standing out with a contrasting colour, here its red on black. A small tag line is also used simply quoting " somebody is missing". If  you have seen the film you would know this is a complete contredicition on the story as no one is missing and that it follows a man who is traumertised after killing his children after murdering Jews. The target audience is also quickly apparent being aimed at teenagers and up from both sexes. (Le cap attracting women to see the film).

The second poster I am going to analyse is the one of the original 1979 Alien movie. Even though the film is very science fiction, it is predominantly thriller creating alot of tension and suspense throughout. This reflects the poster with a science fiction styled font and the opening of what appears to be a green egg. This suggest the birth of a problem in which fact leads to the problem of the alien on the spaceship.

A vibrant green like substance appears to be oozing out of the main focus of the poster of which is the egg hatching. Green is used as a way to express the science fiction element of the film an egg from reality doesn't hatch seeping with a neon, glow-in-the-dark substance. The glowing green is emphasised by the amount of black in the poster. The whole poster is black apart from a small section at the bottom with the emergence of more green light and the egg in the centre. This is a lot like that of the shutter island poster which also is limited on light.

The layout is different in this poster compared to shutter islands. The title is at the top of the poster and the caption it the bottom. The caption however is to entice the audience alike the shutter island one reading "in space, no one can hear you scream". This caption however dose read to connect more heavily yo horror than thriller.

The final poster i am going to analyse is that of Inception which also stars le cap. Again alike the poster of shutter island le cap is used as one of the significant selling points, however this time is surrounded by other characters from the film, which we can identify as being his allys/sidekicks. The other selling point would be the apparent manipulation of the city behind them, which is appearing to fold over on itself. This isn't instantly noticeable, however your eye is guided to the background with the help of the white light which is appearing from behind the main characters body.

Alike shutter island the poster has the title at the bottom, which is also red and the caption towards the top which reads " your mind is the scene of the crime". This intrigues the audience to the film as it suggests a story about how the mind works and how the mind can manipulate the world which would have been a thought triggered by the background the the poster.

Another way in which they tried to attract the audience is with the added caption of "from the director of the black night" which is the highly successful batman remakes which won many awards. Many would have gone to see the film just on the fact that there is a high chance that the film they have been attracted to also as good as the previous one the director made previously.

To conclude, thriller film posters are varied depending on their sub genre. But most do appear to show the the main character on the front, an important caption and perhaps a sub caption telling you who the director/producer is. They also have very few lighting points to create mystery which most thrillers are built around. Titles are usually very central, with the main title usually being centred at the bottom and in red.