Scream film poster analysis

1. Film Poster Textual Analysis Scream

2. Genre The genre of the film is portrayed immediately to the audience through the image. T he expression on the female’s face in the photograph, along with the title of the film, in bold letters which stand out from the image, allow the genre to be clearly identified and a narrative begin to form in the audience’s minds. The female on the poster also appears to be young and attractive. From my research, I have discovered that this it is a common convention of the horror genre to use young and attractive protagonists. Thus, the image of this attractive female will allow the audience to assume that the film is a horror. Additionally, the shadowed lighting used in the image on the poster is a typical convention of horror/thriller, therefore making the genre explicitly clear.

3. Language/Narrative ‘Someone has taken their love of scary movies too far. Solving this mystery is going to be murder.’ The tagline in the top third of the poster shows that there is a somewhat comedic value to the film. The first sentence of the tagline, ‘Someone has taken their love of scary movies too far’, suggests to the audience that this film could break boundaries and challenge the common conventions of the other horror films at this time. My research into the horror genre shows me that this is the case as ‘Scream’ pioneered the creation of the slasher sub-genre. The second sentence, ‘Solving this mystery is going to be murder’, uses a play on words which makes it clear to the audience that there are going to be murders in the film, but that there is a comedic value to them. This also reiterates the implication of the first sentence as this did challenge the common conventions of horror films at the time when ‘Scream’ was made. ‘SCREAM’ The title of the film immediately suggests the narrative to the audience. ‘The highly acclaimed new thriller from Wes Craven’ By using words such as ‘highly acclaimed’, the poster will encourage audiences to watch the film as they see that it has been publicly celebrated. Additionally, Wes Craven is a well known name and thus by putting it clearly on the poster, audiences are more likely to watch the film.

4. Audience The target audience of the film is clear on the poster as people who enjoy horror films as all of the common conventions of horror film posters are used. Furthermore, the use of the young, attractive female in the main image suggests that primary audience is also likely to be young. Whilst the attractive female and the genre of the film may be likely to attract predominantly young males, I would estimate that the target age group would be 18-25 year olds from both genders. It is likely that the people interested in seeing this film would be aspirers as they stereotypically seek excitement, which they may gain from thriller/horror films.

5. Representation The young female in the main image of the poster is represented as being innocent through the expression on her face. This suggests that the youthful characters in the film have innocence, which is a common convention of horror films as it heightens the tension and fear factor for the audience. This is because they stereotypically open doors and enter rooms when it is made obvious through various techniques in the film that this is not wise. Audiences often become infuriated by this which heightens their involvement in the storyline and their film experience. Therefore, the target audience are likely to look at this poster and want to see the film as common conventions of the genre have been used via the representation of the female character on the poster.