Film Poster AnalysisSCRE4M

Scream 4, just like “Sleepy Hollow” poster, uses the conventional colours to identify the horror genre. The text at the top of the poster is bold and clearly visible. It is the colour red which represents blood and it also contrasts with the black background. The colour black represents fear, the unknown and death which creates tension for the audience. This also creates mystery from the audience which draws them to watching it.

The title of the film is in white bold letters which stand out from the black background. The colour of the title is white so it matches the colour of the mask but to also create the idea of ghost or paranormal, this reinforces the poster as a horror genre poster. The design mask is very ghostly as it compares to the painting created by Edvard Munch “The Scream”.

The mask is curved at the bottom to look like the blade of a knife, telling the audience what the antagonist’s weapon is. GhostFace’s mask has a slight glow to it, reinforcing the idea of ghost or supernatural about the villain.

There is a glimmer/shine on the bottom of the mask, which is also seen as the weapon of choice, kitchen knife. This suggests that the knife is sharp and dangerous.

The typography of the title “SCRE4M”, is quite different than other horror posters, because it doesn’t look scary or portray horror in any way. It’s very bold so it can stand out and catch the audience’s eye. The only sort of relevance to horror is the ‘M’ as it is jagged and sharp, amplifying the knife again, as it is a sharp object. The ‘A’ in Scream has been replaced with the number 4, this means that they have tied the number and the title of the film together, telling the audience that this is film has a franchise and that they may want to watch the first three films before this one.