For my textual and poster analysis I have chosen the supernatural horror movie Drag Me to Hell. I chose this movie because both my group and I decided to do a horror film in the supernatural sub-genre and I chose Drag Me to Hell because of the similarities in the storyline such as both main characters are female and were cursed and become possessed.
The style of supernatural horror is shown in the poster through the image of the female in the centre of the poster being grabbed by hand which does not look human. This implies that something not human is going to happen which is a genre convention of a film in this sub-genre. The female on the poster is the only character on the film poster and she is seen to be screaming or yelling. Her costume is very casual this is typical of this sub-genre because they use normal average everyday costume, settings and props to give a sense of realism to the movie therefore making it more realistic for the viewers in the process making them more scared because it is very realistic. The hands grabbing the female in the centre of the poster are also a sign that the sub-genre of the film is supernatural because they do not look like human hands, they are scaly, crackly and looks burnt which shows us the audience that it is not human therefore it must be supernatural.
The title of the film ‘Drag Me to Hell’ is a clear indicator that the film will include maybe possession or demons which are genre conventions of a supernatural horror sub-genre. The font of the title resembles font usually used on gravestones enforcing the genre convention of death, and afterlife. The title is written in capital letter emphasising the name of the film which make is easier to remember the name of the film.
The tagline on the poster is ‘Christine Brown has a good job, a great boyfriend, and a bright future. But in three days, she's going to hell.’ This relates to the storyline of the movie of a ‘good person’ going to hell which is associated with ‘bad people’ that is also the films USP of changing the common conception of good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. The tag line also highlights the female in the centre of the poster screaming, this is because she is supposed to symbolise good and the hands dragging her down symbolise evil.
Looking at the nature of the poster I would say the target audience of Drag Me to Hell would be 15+ males. This is because this is the main target audience for the supernatural horror movie genre and with conventional elements of horror shown in the poster such as the women in distress, fire from hell, and the hands dragging the female down who looks like she is screaming. Therefore these elements would appeal to the target audience and attract them to the film.
The main representational issues are with gender. In supernatural horror films it is a traditional convention that the leading character of the movie is a female. To connate with this the female characters are usually more emotional and more conservative characters to emphasis the distress and turmoil they go through throughout the narrative.
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