Horror Poster Analysis - "Dead Silence"

This poster for the 2007 film “Dead Silence” features many genre conventions and it is clear it belongs to the horror genre.

• The dominant central image on this poster is of a ventriloquist's puppet. Its hand is sinister looking with extreme wounds. Manipulated children’s toys are frequent in horror movies like “Child's Play” and “Dolly Dearest”
• The colour scheme is again dark with accents of red and white - red indicating blood and danger, while white seems demonic and ghostly. This is a typical convention of horror movie posters
• The reference to the directors and other films from the genre is a convention of a horror movie posters, creating expectations amongst the audience
• The tagline “You scream, You die” directly references death and addresses this audience. When doing poster research I have frequently noticed this when analysing horror movie posters
• The ghostly white font is typical of the genre