Insidious horror film poster analysis

This is the film poster for ‘Insidious’. I chose this poster because it stands out from the other posters I’ve seen because most of them are dark with low-key lighting, and the majority of this poster is light apart from the edges). The main image is of a young boy standing in front of a house. Children are often used in horror films since the release of The Exorcist (1973) because there is something sinister and unnerving about an innocent child being evil. Having the picture of the child in the foreground intensifies the importance behind the character. Typically children are seen as a sign of purity and innocence, which is clearly opposed in this poster. This scares the audience because the child is portrayed to be evil. Adding to this he takes up a large proportion of the poster directing our attention to him and his ‘scratched out’ eyes. The eyes give off the impression that the poster was once a photograph and that someone has scratched into it. This attracts the audience and gets them thinking as to why they have been ‘scratched out’ making them more likely to watch the film. Above the boy’s head the sky has been made to look very stormy and dark, this gives off the impression that the evil follows the boy to innocent civilians (possibly living in the house), which is why the house is well lit. We certainly know that the boy has something to do with the house. The text ‘From The Makers of SAW and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY’ is positioned in the stormy cloud at the top of the poster, and in order to stand out the font is in white. This tells the audience that the makers of this film have previously made well known, popular films and automatically gives the audience the impression that this film will be of the same good quality. The title of the film is ‘Insidious’ and is in a white font to make it visible against the dark background of the boys jacket. We know this is the title because it is the largest text on the poster. Just below the title is the strap line ‘It’s not the house that’s haunted’ which immediately draws the attention to the boy and creates questions in the audiences mind that can only be answered by watching the film, this makes it a great selling line. Above the title are quotations from reviews of previous people who have watched it. This reassures the reader that this will be a good viewing experience. The five star rating underneath this is also an easy way of showing the quality of the film because it is recognisable at first glance. Finally the credits are situated at the bottom of the poster in the same uniform font and layout as all posters in the film industry containing the names of everyone involved in the making of the film.