Insidious: Creepy Children and Horror, a match made in hell.
Choose a movie poster or DVD/VHS cover from any era and of any genre and analyse its content. How does it successfully communicate what kind of film it is promoting and what kinds of bias, values and stereotypes might be present in the image? Consider things such as iconography, colour choice, composition and subject matter.
Author William Paul talks about children in horror films in his book ‘Laughing Screaming: Modern Hollywood Horror and Comedy,’ and positions that ‘It would hardly be an unusual thing in Western culture to say that a boy has a bit of the devil in him…’ (p. 296.) This phrase pared with Noel Carroll’s idea of ‘Art-Horror’ and his thoughts on disgust, that we are attracted to and generally seeks out horror fictions because they provide disgust which we derive pleasure from (p. 37.) These ideas are all present in the poster for James Wan’s 2010 horror film ‘Insidious.’ I am going to analyse this poster from the top down and discuss what makes this poster an effective example of the classic horror genre.
‘From the makers of’ has been proven in many genres to catch the audience’s attention by giving examples of other successful films made by the same key creative. This marketing tool links back to Tom Ryall’s genre theory where he states ‘It provides a framework of structuring tools which in turn acts as a form of supervision over the work of production film makers and the work of reading by the audience’ (Nelmes, p 152.) Adding this simple phrase will bring extra attention to a film, as the audience is expecting the same standard of narrative and style.
The blue and grey colour scheme is a traditional horror tool in Western culture (Hughes, 2016,) the use of these colour tones suggest cold and mystery, in this case it can also symbolise death. These themes entice the audience and set a challenge to them to find out more, by coming to see the film. The use of lighting on the poster is also a horror staple, further amplifying the feelings of fear and the unknown. The highlights in the child’s eye’s breaks this tradition and so we can see directly into his eyes, which is very confronting, being forced to stare someone directly into the eyes is an intimidating emotional manipulation technique.
In the horror genre, it’s the things in the background where the real fear lurks; this is represented by the house. The family home is a thing that people associate with security for the characters, in the horror genre the family home represents renewal as generally the family is moving into the new home, this changes when the sins of the previous inhabitants come to life (Carroll, p 98.) The silhouette in the window, a humanoid character with exaggerated features, designed to tease the audience into what the narrative could revolve around, represent this. The use of dead plants also extends that feeling of death represented by the colour tones used.
‘The Exorcist’ (Friedkin, 1973,) set the tone for using children in horror films, having the child in the foreground represents his importance to the story. The horror genre has taken a character that is usually a symbol of purity and innocence, and shows the complete opposite (Mayer, 2014.) The vacant look on the boys face is a tool being used to intimidate the audience and create an uneasy feeling further challenging them to see the film to understand what is going on. The use of the child on horror posters has been used in previous films such as ‘The Omen’ (Donner, 1976,) ‘Carrie’ (De Palma, 1976,) and, ‘Children of the Corn’ (Kiersch, 1984.)
The choice of highlighting the actor’s names in red, and two letters in the title pull focus down. The red connotes blood, evil, fury and even danger. The positioning of the names under the child actor makes the audience believe that these names are in positions of danger in the film.
References
Carroll, N. (1990). The Philosophy of Horror: Or, Paradoxes of the Heart. Routledge. UK.
De Palma, B. (1976). Carrie [Motion Picture] United States: MGM.
Donner, R. (1976). Children of the Corn [Motion Picture] United States: 20th Century Fox.
Friedkin, W. (1973). The Exorcist [Motion Picture] United States: Warner Bros.
Hughes, J. (2016). The 12 Best Horror Movie Posters Of All Time. Goliath.com. Retrieved 13 October 2017, from http://www.goliath.com/movies/the-12-best-horror-movie-posters-of-all-time/
Kiersch, F. (1984). Children of the Corn [Motion Picture] United States: New World Pictures.
Mayer, J. (2014). Children in Horror Films: The Kids Are Not Alright. IndieWire. Retrieved 11 October 2017, from http://www.indiewire.com/2014/10/children-in-horror-films-the-kids-are-not-alright-133277/
Nelmes, J., & Nichols, B. (2012). Introduction to film studies (p. 152). London: Routledge.
Paul, W. (1994). Laughing, Screaming: Modern Hollywood Horror and Comedy. Coulmbia University press. New York: USA.
Wan, J. (2010). Insidious [Motion Picture] United States: Blumhouse Productions
