Critical analysis of the movie poster for insidious chapter 2

The movie poster I have selected is from the film Insidious Chapter 2. The film’s releasedate was set for September 13th which fell on a Friday also cleverly referred to as Friday the 13th . The date serves multiple purposes when it comes to this poster. The first purpose is the obvious one which is to inform the audience of when the film is being released. The second is Friday the 13th is the title of another horror movie which gives the audience a hint of what to expect from this movie. The stars names aren’t listed but by looking the poster it is safe to assume that a mother and her two sons will be starring in the movie.

Now moving on from the release date let’s talk about the genre of the movie which is horror. Just by glancing at the poster someone off the street could tell this movie falls under that category of horror based from the colors and the people’s expressions. My next order of business to talk about is the intended audience and that isn’t too hard to determine when the indicator for how the movie is rated is located right above the number 2 in the title. The rating for the film is PG-13 which means the movie has been deemed inappropriate for children under 13 years old. Where gender is concerned according to the poster neither gender is being targeted more so than the other.

The layout of this poster for Insidious Chapter 2 can show the audience multiple elements about the movie just in the form it is in. The scene captured in the poster gives a sense of what time of the day the movie will beset in for either most of its duration or for the full duration of the movie which is at night when itis completely dark outside. The only part of the poster that isn’t dark is around the center whichis not by mistake. Located close to the middle of the poster are a mother and two sons who arehuddled together. The star actors and actresses are more of the center point of the movie sincethey have more important roles, so when doing the frame work for the poster they are used as thecenter point. There is a light being pointed from the right side of the poster at the people. Thelight highlights the stars, but it also gives a clear view of the expressions on the mother andchildren’s faces. Their faces read like a book because they are clearly scared and the fact that themother is holding a hammer is in clear view too. Since the woman has a hammer that could be anindicator that they aren’t prisoners because a hammer can be used as a weapon and ordinarilycaptors won’t let their prisoners have any access to weapons. By process of elimination theaudience now knows the characters either escaped from the villain or villains and are now hidingor they have been hiding all along.

They are huddled together in front of a concrete wall whichcould be a basement or in a garage which is where the woman could have found the hammer anddecided to hide there or whoever was looking for them just found them. That part won’t bebecome known to the audience until after they watch the movie. The poster does a good job inimposing teasers in the layout. For example, now that the mother and children are found whatwill happen next? Will the mother have to use the hammer? Will someone die? Those are thekind of questions that are meant to be invoked to the audience to draw people in to want to watchthe movie, so they know what ends up happening. That is a strategy of theirs to hopefully bringin the people who were not going to watch it otherwise. The use of the text in this poster follows the same format most movie posters do which isthe size of the text is descending according to what’s most important for the audience to see andwhat is not. The creators of the poster want to catch the audience’s attention in steps. The partthey want the audience to see first will be in the biggest and most attractive looking font. Thesecond most important information will be in a little smaller font and will just be one tone justlike this poster I have selected shows. That trend is used from start to finish in conveyinginformation to the audience. The title is in a big two-toned font that really grasps the audience’sattention to inform them which movie the poster is advertising because they will never be able tosee the movie if they do not know what title to look for on movie listings.

Also, the location thetitle is in is important to the frame work. The characters are a center point and the title arelocated in the center also. The next most important piece of information to relay to the audienceis when the release date is. The audience will never see it if they do not know when to look for it. The release date can be found at the top of the poster because it stands out next to the smallblurry font. That particular part of the poster is black and with the shade of red used it is easilyfound. The information that has been deemed the least important for the audience to know for thetime being is the names of people who worked behind the scenes and some of the companiesinvolved in making the film. Their names are in the crammed, small, blurry font because thepeople who formatted the poster don’t want any attention to be taken away from the parts theywant to be seen as the main features. There is limited space to work with while creating a movieposter as well. Some parts have to be given more of an emphasis so that the message is conveyedin the most effective way possible. By knowing the genre of the movie is horror the colors used do not come as a shock. Horror movies are not filled with the sun shining and a rainbow overhead. Horror movies havedark lighting and dark colors all the way through. This poster follows that trend completely. Take the lighting for example, the scenery of the picture is dark with a light coming in from anangle trained on the mother and children. The reason for that is to emphasize the expressions onthe people’s faces that clearly depict this is not a happy movie. Furthermore, the dark colors usedcan be associated with the mood. Colors trigger different mood responses in the brain. Darknessat night or in a house with the no natural light and the lights turned off have the tendency to scarepeople. Not because they are scared of the color black but because they cannot see anythingaround them and could be vulnerable to being attacked or injuring themselves by accident. Byshowing darkness in the poster it triggers that reaction and with this being a horror movie thatfear becomes amplified. Something else to point out about the colors of the poster is the red. It isnot just serving as an attractive color in the color scheme. The red in the poster can sometimesrepresent blood. A supporting piece of evidence to that thought is the woman is holding ahammer that could be used as a weapon and to defend her and her children she may have tostrike someone with it.

The final piece of evidence that suggests that there will be some bloodshed is the phrase IT WILL TAKE WHAT YOU LOVE MOST which could mean the mothermight lose one of her children or both by the end of the movie or the children might lose theirmother. With those different points being considered the poster makes it quite clear what genrethe movie is. The mood created by the poster is suspenseful and fearful of what could happennext and the anticipation of what will happen next. Now the audience for this movie is not geared towards just anyone per say. There is aPG-13 rating above the 2 on the poster meaning the film is deemed inappropriate for childrenunder 13 years of age. That’s the only legal restriction on the movie but not everyone above thatage will be lined up to see that movie because not everyone has the same taste in movies. Somepeople are terrified of horror movies and will have nightmares for a week after watching them. Other people do not get bothered by them and enjoy watching scary movies. Then there are thepeople who do not find them entertaining for any number of reasons. This film will attract thepeople who enjoy scary movies and won’t be so scared and paranoid after watching one to the that they cannot sleep for a week and will think there is something to get them around everyCorner. In conclusion this poster does what it was designed to do. Which is to give enoughinformation about the film to draw in the audience in the simplest, organized fashion. The posteris not cluttered with pictures and graphics that are hard to understand. The use of colors, text andmood flowed together very well in fact. The color scheme was very clear on what kind of moodthe poster was trying to set and to aid in directing the audience’s attention to the different texts inthe order they were designed to be seen. Overall, it was a well put together poster with a clearmessage to the audience with enticing details that made me want to know more about the movie.