Horror Film Poster Analysis

To begin with, the title of the film ‘Smiley’ suggests happy thoughts, even the main image is depicted with a smile but it is not all as it seems. The smile has stitching on it which suggests that it has been fixed or changed to look like that which also suggests that all might not be ‘smiley’ and happy. The tagline ‘evil wears a smile’ also suggests that you shouldn’t trust a smile as the person smiling might be as evil as they look happy. The main image is also a young female as well which stereotypical as in horror films it is usually a female antagonist as they are portrayed as being vulnerable. Females are also considered innocent which makes it even more horrific as you don’t expect an innocent young girl to be evil.

The background seems to be that of a normal room but the walls seemed to be damaged and destroyed which suggests that the character could be trapped in the room and has been sent insane, hence the fact she is smiling because she is mentally unstable and been turned evil by being trapped in the room, further enhancing the idea that she is smiling because she is evil as mentioned by the tagline. The red colour of the font also suggest blood, evil and fear.

The fact that the girl is also wearing a mask creates an idea of mystery as it is not made clear who or what, if anything is behind the mask which might convince the audience to watch the film as they might think by watching the film they will find out the reason behind the girl wearing the mask and why the mask is smiling.

To begin with, there is the text in the middle of the poster that describes an event that happened. This might lead the audience to believe that the events in the film are based on a real life story. Also, the larger gap between the lines ‘when shooting a documentary’ and the line beginning ‘a year later’, suggests lots of mystery around the events. What happened for their footage to be found a year later? Did they go missing? Did they die and in the woods? Were they found?

The trees at the top of the poster seemed to almost be dead because of the black colour and lack of blue sky suggest that the forest is almost disconnected from the real world and is that far out in the wilderness. It also increases the idea of mystery. The audience might believe that this is the forest that they go missing in, or is it the forest where their footage was found? The audience will only find out if they go and watch the film.

The red of the logo and website link make them stand out which means they are more likely to be remembered as the rest of the colour scheme on the poster is fairly monochromatic and simple which means that more people will recognise the logo of the film.

Finally, the close up of the girl with the torch looks like it has been taken with a handheld phone camera which enhances the fear of realism and it also suggests that the girl is stranded or lost as only has a torch and a camera. The mystery again comes back as the audience ponders why she is taking a photo like that and the fact that it is in the dark makes it out like she is trapped somewhere.