Analysis of existing posters of the thriller genre

The Box

This poster conveys many typical thriller conventions. Simply by looking at this poster, we can see that this movie is going to be quite a disturbing one. We can identify the main character, the theme and the iconography of the film.

The main subject in this poster is the protagonist. It seems as if she is looking behind her, she has a worried expression on her face, implying to the audience that she is being watched or followed – two typical thriller conventions ie. voyeurism.

Red has been repeatedly used on this poster for some of the text and also for the big strip down the middle of the image; this conveys connotations of death, violence, danger and blood – all of which are typical narratives and themes of a thriller film. 


Orphan

The use of the colour red used in this poster connotes danger, violence and blood. The font used for the main title looks like it has been written by a child in chalk, and gives the poster quite an eerie feel. This tells us that there may be something evil about the girl.

The photograph of the girl used for this poster also gives us an idea that the girl is evil. There is no light in her eyes, they are completely black which makes her look inhuman. 

The colours used for this poster aren’t typically used in a thriller poster, dark colours and shadowed images are usually used. However, they are still very dull and gloomy which creates suspense and gives the audience a feel for what the film is going to be like.

Secret Window

The image shows a close up of the main character suggesting that he is of most dominance in the film. He has a serious expression on his face and part of his face is shadowed by a window perhaps suggesting that he has something to hide and creates enigma which is a typical theme used in films of this genre. The window could also infer that he is spying on someone or something, denoting the theme of voyeurism.

The tone of the poster is dull and dark, the lack of light connoted danger, death and suspense, which are all themes associated with the thriller genre. The font used is plain, clean and in capital letters. Both the title and the name credits are red which connotes blood and violence suggesting to the audience that this is what we’re going to see in this film.