These eight posters are from the supernatural genre, by analysing and comparing these eight posters I hope

to discover common conventions used to effectively promote this genre. Among all the posters the title of the film is the most predominate piece of text on the poster, furthermore the main image is bold and making a statement about the film. Common colours used amongst all the posters are black, red, white, blue and grey. The exception being the poster for Grave encounters by using a green filter effect to reflect that the footage was shot by real people in a night vision mode. Sinister, the devil inside and rite all feature red and black the reoccurrence of red can represent death and bloodshed. Such as in the sinister poster the girl is dragging blood against the soiled walls to paint the face of evil. Furthermore the colour red is associated with the Devil and Hell linking to the concept of possession by the powers of the devil shown in both The Devil Inside and The Rite. Moreover the colour schemes used for The Blair witch project, Grave encounters and Paranormal activity are used to effectively portray that the footage is shot using night vision. The woman in black and Insidious use blue and grey washed out colours in the window frame of the woman and black poster we can see raindrops, similarly in the poster for insidious we can see a storm emerging in the background the weather in both the posters could act as a pathetic fallacy for the storm of evil which will conquer the characters lives. Some repeated patterns I have noticed in the posters for The woman in black, The Devil Inside, The Rite, Insidious and the Blair Witch Project, is that the faces featured within these posters are disfigured, defaced or in the shadows perhaps reflecting the inhumanity of super natural beings it could also reflect the sense of mystery about the supernatural beings. The poster for the woman in black shows only half of Daniel Radcliffes face peering through the window frame around the edges of the window frame are Images of the things from the woman in blacks house such as the childs doll, writing from the wall with a message in blood you could have saved him, it also shows pictures of children with their eyes defaced,

similar to the way in which the boys eyes are defaced in the poster from Insidious. Furthermore the whole poster is in black and white apart from Daniel Radcliffes eye, the slogan reads What did they see? the striking image of Radcliffes eye within the image could reflect that eyes are the windows to our soul and he has the key to finding the mystery of the woman in black. The poster for the Rite is similar to the poster for the Woman in black as it features Anthony Hopkins in black and white too with only his eyes in the same blue colour making his face eerie. In addition to this The Devil Inside poster shows a nun with possessed eyes, the slogan reads No soul is safe the fact that the nuns eyes look possessed links into the idea that our eyes are the meant to be the window to our soul therefore as the eyes of the nun look so inhumane and unnatural she has lost her soul to the devil. Moreover the Blair witch projects poster features a woman with her face half in the dark half in the shadows reflecting that she is filming herself. Overall the posters reflect a fear of the unknown brought about by supernatural forces through the eyes of the characters. Another common feature I identified within the posters includes the use of religious symbols and imagery. The Devil Inside posters main image is of a nun, the image is particularly disturbing as she appears to be possessed. The image is particularly shocking as we usually associate nuns with religion, peace, God, purity and holiness, the fact that the nun is possessed also reinforces the slogan; No soul is safe repeating the idea that even the holy and pure is not safe from the devil. We also see religious imagery in the poster for The Rite Anthony Hopkins face is within a frame of a cross, which we associate with the Christian faith and Jesus Christ. The cross is often used without exorcisms to rid the possessed of the spirit which harbours them. Moreover the symbol in red used on the poster of The Blair Witch Project suggests the use of black magic and satanic cults another piece of religious imagery. Another feature used within the posters is the use of children as a victims of possessions both in the poster for Insidious and The woman in black images of

children are used they are represented as the victims of the possession suggesting that they are more vulnerable and nave to the evil spirits. I also observed a common layout feature among the posters the text usually features along the bottom of the poster this has been used in Insidious, Rite, The Blair Witch Project, The Devil inside and The woman in black, the text has been positioned so that the audience first see the main image, which is striking and bold, all the images feature characters faces either in terror, wonder or possessed. The only exception is the poster for Paranormal activity 4 which shows a night vision screen shot of spirits heading towards the camera lens they have used this image as conventionally they use screen shots in their film posters to create a sense of realism. The posters for Grave encounters and Sinister in both images the faces of the characters are not within view therefore the text is positioned at the top of the poster. In both images we can see evil haunting them, and by hiding the faces of the characters the posters create a sense of mystery they also reflect that the characters are perhaps unaware of the evil around them. Grave Encounters shows a man on the floor sat with his knees against his chest, he looks vulnerable and in a protective stance his face is barely visible as he stares ahead not noticing the figure behind him. Moreover in the poster for Sinister the girl is turned away tracing an evil face against the wall showing that she is unaware of the evil she is spreading. A convention used on the posters of The Devil Inside The Blair witch project and Grave encounters all feature strap lines which suggests the events of the movie are true. The Devil Inside states it is Inspired by true events, The Blair Witch Project states it is Documentary and the found footage of students who went missing, additionally Grave encounters states They were searching for proof they found it all three films are shot as though they are documenting supernatural activity. Therefore they have used these strap lines to reinforce the sense of realism seen throughout the films.

Another feature I have noticed in regards to strap lines is that in both the Insidious poster and the poster for Sinister both feature strap lines stating the makers they are from reflecting the target audience for those films will be interested in the new horrors they have created making themselves a legacy. The strap line for sinister reads from the producer of Paranormal activity and Insidious and Insidious reads from the makers of saw and Paranormal activity, Reflecting that Paranormal Activity is an iconic film that is one of the target audience favourites. All the posters a image dominant and feature Serif font with the exception of 3 of the posters grave encounters and paranormal activity have a sans serif font similar to the font that is seen on camera display settings. Overall the posters each follow conventions of the sub-genres of supernatural film including documentary, gothic, and exorcisms. Common features included in all the supernatural posters are the use of inhumane features of the face or faces that are disfigured or unknown delivering a strong sense of fear to the audience as the cause of the supernatural occurrences and the method in eliminating them forever is unknown leaving the audience unable to rationalising the supernatural and feeling out of control in comparison to other genres such as Slasher where the audience can rationalise that the killer is a deranged person with a weapon and they can be killed because they are human, In comparison supernatural forces are alien to us.