Thriller Film Poster's: Research

Thriller Film Poster’s

The film posters shown all tend to follow the conventional colour schemes of the thriller genre. With black, white and grey being the basis of most of the posters. However, In Seven and The sixth sense another prominent colour is red/orange. This colour connotes fire, rage and blood-which may emphasise that the films are of hybrid-genre combining horror and thriller. This is because horror films tend to include more blood and gore scenes than thriller’s. For the poster of seven, both characters faces appear to be edited with a red filter and blend into the dark black background. This enhances the suspicion due to the slightly faded faces and emphasises the connotations of the colour red even further. Whereas, the sixth sense includes a minimal amount of red and orange colours. The use of a completely black background may intrigue the audience and helps them to focus on the one area in which colour stands out the most- the number six. The number features a shadow, which from my previous research, I have learnt tends to be a common element of thriller films. Gone girl, Inception and Zero Dark Thirty also include some form of shadow on their film posters.

Black Swan and Lucy have a clear colour scheme of black and white. Black Swan uses these colours to emphasise the title as swan’s are predominately white- not black as the title states. The use of the contrasting white background and pale face with the heavy, dark black eye makeup and lipstick emphasises the good versus evil binary opposite. This could link to Vladimir Propp’s common character theory involving a protagonist and antagonist. Also, in the Black Swan Poster the use of the metallic, grey headpiece may symbolise the combination of the black and white colours thus a good versus evil compromise perhaps. The Lucy poster uses a close up shot in order for the audience to focus entirely on the girl’s facial expression. However, with the image being entirely black and white coloured except the eyes being yellow and green coloured- it could be argued that the audience are drawn to her eyes. Eye contact allows the audience to understand the story from her perspective. Black swan also focuses on eye contact with the audience in order to grab their attention and draw them in- making them want to see the film.

Gone Girl and Inception as well as using the dark colour of black, use a slightly more neutral colour of blue. The colour blue connotes sadness, knowledge and depression, which could evoke the idea that the characters have lost someone very dear to them in the film. Both have very picturesque scenes behind them and include a shadow of the back of their body. This may make the audience question whether the character shown on the poster is the villain trying to disguise himself or the hero on an undercover investigation.

The typography used for Black Swan, The Sixth Sense and Seven are almost handwritten looking. This may imply that the audience has a more direct and personal link to the character or plot. Also, it may be symbolic in that at some point in the plot a handwritten letter or something similar is used as a dramatic device to engage the audience further. On the other hand, Inception, Gone Girl and Lucy use much bolder, thicker fonts. This could remind the audience of a stamp used for police paperwork- therefore there could be a connection between the plots and the police. Also, the bold fonts stand out much more on the film posters, this could emphasise that the title is of importance to the film itself.