Analysis of existing horror movie posters

In addition to constructing a magazine, we have also had to construct a film poster for our movie. In order to do this successfully I have researched and analysed some existing movie posters within the horror genre, as well as identifying their conventions and considering which ones I could apply to my own poster. Firstly, I analysed the poster for the 2008 film "The eye" (Dir: David Moreau).
It is clear on first glance of this poster that it is advertising a horror film. The colours are dark and shadowed, and the disturbing image gives it a feeling of the unknown. Disturbing images are something that i have found to be very common within the horror genre. They shock, alarm or disgust the audience which is what makes the genre as a whole so succesful. The eye itself is shown in low lighting, which gives it a sinister feel. It looks as though this person could be hiding. The hand shown gives it a more disturbing feel, and poses several questions for the target audience that they want to answer by seeing the film. The poster itself is fairly simplistic, therefore leaves the audience clueless. An eye is one of the most iconic images within the horror genre and therefore can mean different things. It could mean that someone is watching someone or being watched themselves, or it could mean that someone is seeing things (this relates to the idea of our own film). In terms of text, this poster is extremely limited. The only visible text is the name of the film and the name of th actress "Jessica alba." By having her name shown in large red text, the interest of the audience is increase as they may well be familiar with Jessica Alba as she is such a well known actress. The fact that her name is shown in red, a colour associated with blood and anger, denotes the idea that she may be a villain in this film. The font used is Sans Serif which gives the poster a modern feel, denoting that it is set in the modern day. There are also some technical codes shown in the poster that create subliminal messages. The lighting around the eye is dark but becomes light when it reaches the name. This is not only to make an eye catching contrast of hues, but to convey the idea that the person is dark on the inside (the darkness on the eye) but may appear normal on the outside (the lightness shown beneath the eye). The eye itself also shows a scared expresion as the pupil is somewhat dilated, this reveals a bit more about the plot. It could also convey the idea of awareness of what is happening.