From my research I found out that most horror posters consist of a title, dark background, strapline, information of who worked on the film and a main image. The main image will always give an insight into the film and are almost never shots taken from the film. As well as this it will always be
a mysterious image which will intrigue the viewer of the poster. For example: if the main antagonist is on the front cover there face will be obscured but will still give away enough to excite the viewer. The strap line is almost never a quote from the film it is often a statement made which links to the main image this is used to make the viewer ask themselves a question or to make them think and to get the answer they are looking for they will have to watch the film. Furthermore, it can give an insight into the plot too. So, it is used to persuade. In all of the posters I analysed the title was always beneath the main image which allows viewers to see the image first and if they are intrigued by it will look down to see the title name. Additionally, the people who worked on the film are always underneath the title too. This is used to persuade incase someone sees a name they know and are a fan of their work.
I found that not all posters require backgrounds as the poster of ‘The Amityville Horror’ the whole image was used for the cover. I thought this was quite a good feature to the poster as it still reveals the same amount of the film but has a more eye catching effect as viewers will be intrigued by everything on the poster and more horrific features are added. Therefore, persuading viewers to watch. Some of the posters have the director at the top of the posters, some have a strapline, some have based on a true story and sometimes it is left blank. However, in three of the posters something persuasive is always put at the top of the poster. Another difference I have found is that not all of the posters include release dates.
