Film Poster Research: 'The Hole' - Zoe Cameron-Waller

'The Hole'

'The Hole' film poster is a portrait poster that uses an icy blue colour, which appears to be a clear theme within the poster. It's used to portray coldness and fear which immediately promotes the Horror genre and reveals part of it's narrative as we discover that it's a Horror themed plot. 

The main image consists of three characters which also have icy blue coloured costumes; this works together with the main colour to successfully establish the Horror genre. Their costumes represent a middle class status due to the way their costumes are represented to look informal and casual. The absence of a setting allows these characters to be the main focus and allows the audience to observe that they are young teenagers, conveying that the target demographic are teenagers starting from 13/14. Another part of the narrative is revealed as it's clear that these three characters are central to the plot and are probably the victims of whatever the Horror involves. 

Their serious facial expressions also represent the Horror genre, as does their stiff body language which conveys anxiety; anxiety is an emotion often generated by Horror films.

This relates to Altman's theory of fixed characteristics and how anxiety is a repeated convention within Horror films and that ties in with Neale's theory of repeated conventions in which generates a repeated formula and constructs that particular genre.

The hair of the female character looks as if it's being blown by a breeze and this further reinforces the emotive, icy blue colour that conveys fear and coldness and coldness is often associated with wind/breeze. The characters are also in height order which allows the poster to appear as neat and organised, but it also suggests that the older male on the right hand side of the poster is the most dominant character within the film due to the he's the biggest and closest.

The institutional information is presented in a billing block at the bottom of the film poster along with the director and a website. They are positioned in the centre of the poster but have been slanted to reflect the 3D title that's displayed to reinforce how it's "IN 3D" and to allow the poster to look organised and aligned. The directors name has been made significantly bigger in terms of size to draw emphasis: "DIRECTED BY JOE DANTE".
The title has been constructed to appear as 3D which is why it's slanted. It's also the biggest text on the poster which is a repeated convention of all film posters, as is the bold and thick font of the title. The rest of the text follows this repeated film poster convention and sustains the bold and thick font, however, the rest of the text varies in size and colour to create an aesthetically pleasing poster in order to attract their target demographic, which is teenagers.

The billing block, director, company and website text is coloured white which has connotations of ghostliness and coldness which works together with the icy blue colour. It also allows the text to stand out on the dark poster and adds to the supernatural theme. The poster also goes from light to dark as the side that the youngest character is positioned appears to be dramatically lighter than the opposite side where the oldest male character is positioned. This suggests that there's a good and bad side in the film or perhaps conveys the younger male's innocence and youth due to the way he's lit up. The background appears to be misty and empty which generates enigma in terms of Barthes theory of enigma codes as the audience begin to wonder what the Horror is in the film. It also creates a mysterious and supernatural background for the poster to further illustrate the sinister atmosphere that it creates.

At the top of the poster, coloured a different shade of blue, are the actors names. Their position at the top of the page creates importance and allows them to be easily visible, despite the small size. They are also, (if not directly above), partly above the character the name belongs to which allows the audience to identify them easily. Despite the entire text not being centre justified and aligned, the separate parts of text are aligned in their own groups, e.g, the actors names have the same amount of space each side of the border, which differs with how the billing block is aligned.
The slogan also reveals part of the narrative as the way in which it says "WHAT ARE YOU SO AFRAID OF?" suggests that the film has something to do with personal fears, this along with the title, suggests that the Horror may be a hole that brings your fears to life, however, there are many other interpretations that can be made about the narrative, but these subtle hints reveal aspects of the plot.
The camera angle also promotes the Horror genre due to the use of a slight low angle mid shot. The slight low angle suggests that these teenagers may perhaps overcome/stop whatever the Horror is in the plot. This also reveals more of the narrative as it's suggested that these three teenagers are maybe the victims that become heros in the plot. The use of a mid shot allows us to observe their facial expresions and costume, which allows the audience to gain first impressions of the characters.
Every single word and text is upper case which enhances the boldness of words and creates a serious and sinister effect on the poster. It also creates equality in terms of size and alignment.