The Sinister Poster

This Film poster above markets the film ‘Sinister’ a horror film in which could easily be placed within the Sub- Genre of Supernatural/Possession. This particular horror film is based around a family home where a horrific crime once took place many years earlier. Within our group’s horror film, we also want to use the family home as a place of safety and security as something that is now destroyed by the past or some sort of possession, which within this film ‘Sinister’ the evil, demonic character possesses the little girl, which is shown above within the film poster. This element of the film inspired us as media students to use a little girl being possessed, as we felt it would be effective as it is a common convention within supernatural/possession films to use children. The idea of something being innocent turning evil clearly portrays

the idea in which we as a group would like to deliver within our own promotional packages.

Within this film poster, content-wise the poster successfully includes the main conventions of a supernatural/possession in its form. The image of the little girl dragging what could be perceived as blood or ink from the film reel with the image of the demonic creature within it dominates the majority of the frame and displays the audience with an insight as to what the horror film’s narrative is going to be based on. Both Protagonists and antagonists are showcased within this film poster so the audience can evidently see that the antagonist is a male character and the protagonist is a young female wearing pyjamas exemplifying that the demonic male character may attack or possess her at night. Through the little girl dragging the blood across the wall this could reflect that maybe she is now going to be carrying on his role and killing innocent people. Although this film poster does not feature a tagline, it does display institutional information such as ‘FROM THE PRODUCER OF PARANORMAL ACTIVITY AND INSIDIOUS’ and “GENUINELY TERRIFYING. THIS WILL SCARE THE HELL OUT OF YOU” institutional information is a common convention on film posters as this can be used as a promotional method. If a reader sees this new film poster and it is displayed that it is from the producers of ‘Insidious’ or ‘Paranormal Activity’ the reader will automatically trust that this film is a successful horror as it has been categorised next to extremely successful, scary horror films. Within this poster, at the very bottom the actor’s names are written as well as the producers and directors, although it is not clear. Not all horror film posters include the names of the actors that play the starring roles as posters promoting films of other genres do which could be down to some horrors often feature less known actors to keep and maintain the sense of realism within the film. This particular film poster of ‘Sinister’ is an example of where the actors name are not present on the poster clearly, this is probably due to the fact these actors are not well known.

The mise-en-scene contained within the film poster presents what looks like a room in the house or maybe an attic as there appears to be floor boards apparent, and the attic within the film is where the father of the house first discovers the tape recordings of the demonic creature that killed the family

who lived in the house before, thus becoming significant, creating a link as to why they have used that image as the background giving the audience an insight as to where the action will be taking place. The audience will quite clearly be able to guess that the face that is shown through the blood is the demonic creature in which has invaded their family home and possessed them. There is a significant reason as to why the attic/loft has been chosen to be used as the background as attic’s are usually associated as something creepy, dark and it’s known as a place you keep things you don’t want , a place of no hope or warmth which we can assume is the reason it has been used as it shows a clear reflection of the sub-genre. The colours are dull, dark and the cracks within the walls create a cold textured look about them which could reflect the image of the demonic face within the blood being dragged along the wall.

The lighting used within the film poster is dark, dull and dismal in which has been done to reflect the dreariness of the situation in order to demonstrate the feeling of terror. In the poster there appears to be no under lighting however as it all appears to be dark and gloomy however the use of dark, thick blood being dragged across the wall automatically draws in the attention of the audience as the image of the demonic creature is the main source of horror reflecting the genre of the film, thus making the audience immediately terrified and uncomfortable. The use of blood dragged across the wall by the little girl with the image of the villain in the middle allow the film poster to become more disturbing especially as the face looks straight towards the camera making the audience feel more personal. The protagonist seems to be the only part of the film poster with light hanging over her maybe reflecting the innocence she carries which again is exemplified through the use of clothing, however the light emphasising the little girl could also signal to the audience that she is now loosing that innocence as the demonic villian has now fulfilled her life with darkness and evil as the light within the rest of the poster appears to have evaporated being replaced by terror and evil. This could also be a suggestion that all light in their lives is about to be truly destroyed.