Horror Poster Analysis - "Sinister"

This poster for the 2012 film “Sinister” and, again, features many genre conventions that belong to the horror genre.

• The colour scheme is muted - dark and bleak, apart from the blood the girl is smearing on the wall. The dark red indicates danger and is a frequent colour used on posters for horror films
• The image behind the girl is frightening and indicates the film's genre
• The setting of the poster does not give much away, but like previous posters of horror movies the girl seems isolated
• The tagline “Once you see him nothing can save you” directly addresses the audience and indicates death - this is typical of many horror movie taglines found on posters
• The character is seemingly a young girl - this is a recurring theme in horror films as adult audiences are proven to find films more chilling if they feature children
• The reference to the producer is a convention of a horror movie poster - in this case as it references other horror films ("Paranormal Activity" and "Insidious") it creates expectations amongst the audience
• The font of the title looks as if blood is seeping out of it - this makes it obvious it is from the horror genre