Harry's textual analysis of a horror poster

Movie title: Prom Night
Year of release: 2008
Director: Nelson McCormick

Production by: Original Film, Newmarket Films and Alliance Films
Distributed by: Screen Gema
Actors: Brittany Snow, Scott Porter, Dana Davis, Jonathon Schaech, Idris Elba, Kelly Biatz

Synopsis: Donna’s senior prom is supposed to be the best night of her life, one of magic, beauty, and love. Surrounded by her best friends, she should be safe from the horrors of her past. But when the night turns from magic to murder there is only one man who could be responsible, the man she thought was gone forever. Now, Donna and her friends must find a way to escape the sadistic rampage of an obsessed killer, and survive their Prom Night.

The budget for Prom night was just over $20 million and part of this budget was spent to market the film. One of the ways they marketed it was through the use of a poster, for the film. The poster is what I’ll be analyzing in this blogpost.

I had no real defining reason as to why I had wanted to analysis Prom Night, except the fact that it can be argued that the target audience, for this movie, would be the same age as my group’s movie. Now why you might think that with a title like ‘Prom Night’ this couldn’t possible be a horror movie, the use of some mise-en-scence elements on the poster, like props, gave away instantly the fact it is indeed a horror movie. I guessed that the target audience for this film would be the same as my groups because of the fact that it contains elements of experiences like a prom night that my age group would be going through and most characters within the film are of the teenage aged group.

Straight away you can see that there is only 4 main colours used in the poster, with those colours being; Grey, White, Black and Red. It can be argued that these colours enable the poster to be effective as these dark, moody colours to not draw the audience’s attention away from the main image of a girl screaming, whilst wearing a tiara. These colours also enable the poster to follow the usual conventions of a horror poster and help an audience recognise straight away that this movie is of the horror genre. This is because the colours make the image dark and with darkness it gives an audience a sense of not seeing the whole picture in it’s true light, thus making them fearful and anxious of not knowing what will happen.

The colour red is only used sparingly in this image, but this is used to be very effective. An area in which red is used is only on the title and the heading, which lets the audience know when the film is due for release. Now the colour Red can be seen as a connotation of evil, blood or death, further giving the audience the idea that this is a horror movie Ways in which this use of Red, is effective, is that whilst making the title stand out against the mainly dark setting it doesn’t steal the main focus away from the image of a woman screaming, This is because although the use of Red is very bright, the font style and size isn’t too big or extravagant meaning it can draw you attention to the text just not enough to pull you away from the main image. But this writing can give audiences ideas and it does this, in this poster, as the edges of the text have been slightly blurred into the picture. This gives of an impression that the writing is written in almost a blood-like substance. This gives the audience ideas as it imply that violence and harm will be inflicted upon character, in the image on the poster. This also thus helps to again establish that this movie is indeed of the horror genre.

The poster, as a whole, has a very worn, dated and almost damaged look to it. This look can reflect an idea that the character, on the image, has maybe gone through a struggle, battle and has had some haunting experiences. It also goes completely against the normal idea of what a prom night would be like, supposedly the best night of your teenage life yet the worn damaged look conveys that in fact it wasn’t the best night but possible the worst night of your life. This would only make the intended audience want to watch the film more to find out why this persons night had taken a turn for the worst.

example of 'worn' poster

 
To go with this idea of the best night of your life, there is a tagline, which reads out ‘A NIGHT TO DIE FOR’. This tagline is actually a play on words. It is a play on words because the line ‘a night to die for’ usual suggests a great night that you’d want to live again and is usual used between the ages of 16-21 years old. (Our target audience) It is a play on words because, given the genre of this movie, the phrase could genuinely mean a night to die for, as in actual death. This tagline further gives an audience the idea this film is based around death and killing.

word play

Whilst there is only one prop used in this poster, it is used in a very clever manner. The prop in question is a tiara. Tiaras are usually associated with proms and with what women wear to look their best and feel like a ‘Princess’. This makes it a stereotype of a college prom night and again backs up the name of the title. Ways, in which it is used in a clever manner, is that the placement of the tiara upon the characters head and the manner in which her hair is very messy can suggest to an audience that the character is indeed in a distressing manner, needs help and/or she has become involved in a struggle with a potential killer/antagonist due to the fact that at prom a girl is expected to look her best and not have her hair messy and tiara randomly placed upon her head.

The tiara, in question

Her NVC also highlights just how much fear this character is in. Due to the fact that the tiara has been randomly placed on her head, to show fear, it has in turn covered up her eyes and thus draws your attention to her mouth. Her mouth is NVC, as she isn’t speaking, and so it conotates fear as this girl appears to be in a state of shock due to her mouth being wide open and/or could mean that she is being attacked and so has an open mouth due to the pain she is receiving. The fact her image also takes up the majority of the poster plays an important part, as this vastness in size could represent the size of the scream she appears to be making and so could be seen as a call for help the fact she could be screaming at the top of her voice.

Characters mouth open, almost screaming out

The fact that the victim is female also follows one of the biggest conventions of the horror genre. Women are often portrayed, not only in cinema but news, as being weaker than men, more vulnerable to harsh acts such as rape and hence why they’re often used as victims in horror movies.

Just from looking at the poster you imagine that there are no real ‘A-list celebrities’ involved in this film. This is because upon majority of posters there are the names of the actors involved, so as to give the audience an added reason to go out and see the film in question. This is where ‘Prom Night’ is different. Instead of having the actor’s names they just have the Movie title, a header and a tagline in the form of text. This gives us an idea that this film could be from a small production group, who couldn’t get any ‘big name’ actors to star in their film.

Not a single actor/actress mentioned

Whilst it can be argued that the fact there is no real actors being mentioned on this poster is only because it’s a teaser poster, there are some details about the people involved in the making of the film (production). This is located to the bottom left-hand corner of the poster and is the smallest piece of writing on the poster, arguably because this information isn’t likely to draw in an audience and is only used to give someone a quick run down on who was involved in making the movie and to give them credit, for helping to make it. The people involved in production might not help draw in an audience but depending on which company was involved in the production might. This is why ‘Screen Gems’ is mentioned and their logo shown at the bottom right hand corner of the poster.

Production group, who produced 'Prom Night'

In conclusion, I believe the poster is very effective in what it sets out to do. Its sets out to draw the audience in and give away a rough idea of what the film will be based on. It does this, to minimal fuss, without giving away too much of the story’s plot but whilst also drawing in its intended audience The use of the tiara is very effect and it’s placement is also connotation fear and tension for the girls life as she is evidently in distress. Overall the play on words for the tagline and the use of colours really help to sell the film and also set out the genre of the movie clearly.