The Bride Film Poster

Image - As is conventional, the focus of the poster is of whom we can assume (from the costume) as ‘the Bride’ and the main character in the film. The is photographic, meaning it feels more ‘real’ and thus the blood stained women feels more threatening to the audience; fitting the horror genre as its primary intention is to scare. One way it differs from the generic horror poster is with its colouring – the majority of the posters is white and not dark as many horror posters are. However, this purposefully places more emphasis on ‘the Bride’ and provides contrasting dark shadowing on her (again, making the character seem more mysterious and threatening). The female has a lot of hair over her face which is against convention, as usually images try to include characters making eye contact with the audience (as this tends to have more impact). However, by not being able to see a lot of her it creates more suspicion, distrust, and fear; particularly effective as you can assume she is the antagonist, whereas with protagonists films try to get the audience to ‘connect’ with and support the protagonist (or ‘hero’).

Colour - The use of white colour as the background could relate to the fact that brides are often connoted with white, innocence, and purity, and the fact that her dark, blood dripping figure stands out against this shows the audience she is not what you would expect; helped of course by the knife and blood surrounding her, which is conventional of horror movies as it suggests there is gore, or even killing involved, and also suggests that is may have the slasher sub-genre. The red used is one of a dark, rich, shade, that is typically associated with danger, warning and thus by covering her in this (even though the we can assume it meant to be 'blood'), it conjures immediate feelings of angst and fear with the movie (but this is what audiences expect, and even want when seeing horror films). In order to create texture, the edges of the poster are slightly grey, fading into the white middle which frames the image/text, and also adds a rough, slightly battered feeling to it, again adding to the feeling that this is not a typical 'picture perfect' bride. 

Title - The title of the film itself is incredibly attention grabbing as it is just two words long; in doing this, it allows them to be quickly read, easy to remember, clear to understand, but also adding to the mysterious feel surrounding the plot. By not giving much away, audiences become intrigued as to what more could be surrounding this mysterious character whom we know so little about. The title also has a satirical element to it; brides are commonly associated with love and joy, and the exact opposite of what an audience would expect in a horror movie, which also adds to the ‘shock’ factor of the film. The serif font is typically used for formal events, such as weddings, and so fits the title and central theme of the movie. As it is also one of the oldest fonts, it has connotations with more traditional products such as old books etc, and helps add to the ‘eerie’ feel of the poster.

Tagline/Billing block - As is conventional, the tag line is positioned in the centre of the poster, however, in this it is above the title; while they are most commonly placed below the title, encouraging you to read it after, this here fills any ‘white space’ that may have been left above the bride, and evens out the poster as the billing block is positioned conventionally at the bottom (as this is thought the be of lesser importance to the title/tag line). The tag line is slightly longer then the average, however, it contains lots of repetition as it mirrors the traditional ‘something…’ gifts given to a bride. This is effective as it uses a phrase that the audience will already be familiar with, which adds realism to the poster making it more effective in its ‘spookiness’ as you can guess it won’t be the traditional ‘gifts’, but is also likely to be remembered more as they already know it’s ‘rhythm’.

Demographic - The title also helps reveal the demographic of the film, as younger audiences are not typically interested in brides/grooms, and so telling us that this movie is aimed for those of an age that, as well as being of legal age, could actually be interested in marriage themselves thus making the film more relatable – and of the more relatable a film, the more power it has over the audience (i.e. to scare). Although entertainment focused around brides are typically more appealing to the female gender, as this is a horror movie and this particular bride is not what you may expect, it suggests that this film would be suitable for both the female and male gender.

Rule of Thirds - The rule of thirds is applied within this poster, as the bride is central with two ‘empty’ thirds on either side. This way of dividing an image is supposed to be most appealing to the eye, and also draws your attention into the middle (where both the lone figure and title are positioned, and thus making it more likely that people will see the film after learning of its name and the mysterious women whom it’s about).