Poster Research

I think that the poster for Cherry Tree Lane is very relevant to my research as it is of the same sub-genre; the hoody horror, and after researching further I have found that the plot line is somewhat simliar as it also features a couple who's home is invaded by evil strangers. The structure and layout of this poster is very simple and immediately draws the audience's attention to the doorway in the centre of the compostition which is also the lightest area of the poster. I think that the lighting in the photography and editing it very important on movie posters as the audience doesn't always have a look time to study the images, so by manipulating the lighting it draws the attention to the most important part of the image, and also enables things to be hidden and add a mysterious and scary undertone of the unknown. I think the title on this poster is clever as it resembles a house/road name plaque and so the design semantically links to the genre and theme of the movie. The blood splats that cover it and also appear on the open door give a obvious clue of what is to come, and suggests that this movie will feature violence and death. This again is a really important feature of the poster, becuase although so far we have no idea who the victim is the audience are able to fear for them and empathise straight away. The manipulation of the image of the hooded figure adds to the mystery of the poster as you can only partially see them, however it does also give away details as to the antagonist character in this movie. This poster also complys to the genre conventions with its use of the colours red, white and black. The black background is featured on many horror movie images as it creates alot of contrast with other colours and is accossiated with fear, darkness and the unknown. By surrounding the character and house in black, it gives the impression that the homeowners are surrounded by darkness and evil. The colour red is always linked to danger, death, blood etc and is a common genre convention of horror movies. The dark red used on this cover accentuates the bright white light on the house. White represents innocence and therefore the victims and here is also used to contrast the dark colours.