The Conjuring Film Poster

This poster both challenges and follows the conventions of a movie poster of both the horror genre and all media products.  

  

Image - The majority of the poster is portrayed photographically (or at least to look as if it is a photograph). This adds a sense of realism as you can image the house and tree being a real place and perhaps making the audience feel more emotionally frightful as they can imagine it as a real setting near where they live themselves. The large house in the background is a well established setting for a horror film, as old, often abandoned buildings have been features in the genre right from its beginnings, such as in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula. This 'spooky' atmosphere is also enhanced by the fog, which gives the setting  further feeling of mystery as the audience don't know what could be 'lurking'. It is also an example of pathetic fallacy; where nature is used to replicate emotions and feelings, and the sullen, dull and almost 'smokey' weather suggests the film will have an equally deflating theme. The empty branches and fallen leaves also show it is Autumn, or perhaps even Winter, which is also common of the horror genre as these are often thought to be more frightening seasons (with the shorter, darker days and cold weather, all of which culminate to more vulnerability). The shadow below the noose is one of the most important aspects of the image, as you cannot see the body itself implying a sense of supernatural about the film, and mystery as the audience will be intrigued as to what to make of this. Also, by not including the body it stops it being quite as explicitly 'gory', which may have been seen as inappropriate to have on public display. Although the shadow is slightly unclear, we can assume it belongs to  young girl (as it appears fairly petite, and to be wearing an ankle length dress); young children and females are both parts of society that people generally try to protect and treat with a 'delicate' manner, so having this character being hanged is likely to play on an audience's emotions, and make them more curious as to why they would have been (as they are usually the most innocent).

Rule of Thirds - In keeping with the rule of thirds, the main focus point of this image is the noose hanging off of the tree, positioned on the right hand side of the centre 'third'. Conventionally with pictures (across a range of  spectrum's and not just film posters), it can be divided in three width and length ways. The 'right third' primarily contains the large tree, which then follows along the upper edge of the middle 'third'. The top of the poster has the title, which is conventional and can be seen replicated in products such as books, DVD's etc. The billing block is positioned in the bottom left. While these divisions may not be explicitly realised by an audience, by covering all every level top to bottom and left to right, the poster gives an overall aesthetically pleasing, well balanced look, and also ensures each part is easy to read.  

Fonts - The poster fits convention by using a serif font, which is typically associated with old settings/stories, and helps show that the films is set in the 1970’s (as opposed to more modern fonts the 21st century audience sees more, which are generally sans serif). The date in the billing block is in the same font as that of the title, helping to make the date stand out amongst the other text which is in a more modern, sans serif, font that is common in film credits (as these contain similar information to that in a billing block). By the two being in the same font, it also adds a sense of continuity between the top and bottom of the poster, and stops it becoming too 'busy' with excessive changes in text style. Having the billing block in a white font breaks up the all black text in the title and tag line, and also stands out against the darker leafy background. While the billing block is in a smaller font compared to the title (as the production etc. is not as significant to the audience and is unlikely to make much impact on sales) they have made the release date a larger as this is an important piece of information for the audience to be clear on.

Colour -  Against convention, the poster does include some quite bright lighting, as the clouds are a bright white and there is also some elements of green (from the grass) and orange (from the leaves) throughout. However, this is used in order to make the central features, i.e. the tree and shadow, stand out out in contrast to their background even more (which are the ‘scary’ aspects of the poster and thus highlighting the 'horror' in the film). 

Masthead/Tagline - Against this white cloudy background, the black masthead and tag lines projects well making is easy to read; this is also helped by the rule of thirds as the title is placed centrally so your eyes naturally fall on it. The tagline underneath gives more of an insight into the plot, and as it tells the audience the film is ‘based on’ a ‘true case’, it adds to the sense of realism (already enforced from the photograph), and makes it even more thrilling. 

Billing Block - Against the convention of a movie poster, this billing block does not contain any words or actors in bold, which is unusual considering it stars well known actors (such as Patrick Wilson who is a two time Tony award nominee). However, in keeping with tradition it is positioned towards the bottom, on the opposite side to the main focus of the poster (the tree), as to not draw attention away from it. The poster also contains extra information stating what other films the director has been involved in; this additional selling point will increase sales, as fans of those movies will (probably) be more inclined to watch this one.  The fact that they include this, while they do not include any actor’s names, suggests the producers feel the inclusion of the director’s work will increase sales more than the cast.

Genre - The features of an image are one of the main factors in showing what genre the film is. The inclusion of a noose, with connotations of hanging and death, depict to the audience that it is a horror movie, and the tree, which looks deformed and decaying, creating a sense of death in nature as well as in ‘real life’. The girl’s shadow is a more subtle feature of the poster, which again helps show supernatural aspect as you cannot see her. It also reveals something about the movie itself, as conventionally posters include the main character (or more), so by not including an explicit character figure it shows the mysterious, unknown aspect of the film. The fact that is a young, female's shadow, may encourage more women to see the film, and I think it is important to try to appeal to that gender (as typically more males are interested in the horror genre).

Demographic - The inclusion of the other films by this director helps show the demographic of the film, as Saw and Insidious were both rated suitable for those of 15 years and older implying that The Conjuring will have the same audience. The noose is another sign that this is a film intended for a more mature audience, as it is an object with a more sensitive theme, and something that likely young children will not entirely be aware what it is used for.