Film Poster Analysis

Here are the film posters for the thrillers that I used for research examples during the planning of our film trailer. The posters of these films are also very effective examples of how a good film poster is produced to advertise and represent the film. All of these four poster examples feature a very similar colour scheme - black, white, red and blue which is quite coincidental, but it may be colours that effectively represent thriller films with red symbolising anger or blood, black giving a dark effect and blue representing a cold or chilling theme to a film.

This 'Harry Brown' cover is effective in its' use of a limited but bold colour palette. The strong use of red and blue in contrast to the black and white images of the characters hints quite a dark and bleak story. The use of these colours, white blue and red, also represent that it is a British film, telling a raw and thrilling British story. The target is one of the central focuses of the poster and gives the audience an idea that the film will involve violence and weapons and gives the poster a more 'dangerous' element. The scaling of Michael Caine in comparison to the other four characters implies that he is the protagonist 'Harry Brown' and is the main focus of the movie. His serious expression, smart clothing and briefcase suggest that he is an authoritative and respectful character, as well as his older age than the young characters featured. The use of the white space behind gives the poster a clean look in comparison to the grainy, almost dirty-looking monochrome characters that are featured on the poster with intimidating and angry expressions. The white background also helps highlight the red text used with the very positive film reviews, quotes and star rating which also help promote and advertise the film well. The slogan 'One man will take a stand' is also a very powerful line that is featured under the largely-scaled, diagonally-placed film title which implies that the film will be about the character 'Harry Brown' taking a stand against something, hinting a strong plot line and adding some anticipation to the audience.

The 'Shank' film poster is very full-on and striking as six characters are in mid-run straight towards you which makes it a strong poster example. This represents the film to be an action film as straight away the first thing you see is characters running and captured in mid-motion. The background of the poster is in a gray and white tone, implying that it may be a film with quite a dark storyline. The expressions of the characters are either serious or angry, making them look quite intimidating as they are charging towards the camera. The use of a very large and bold typography for the film poster is eye catching, especially as it is in a blood-red colour which links directly to the film's name - meaning 'stab'. The use of a silhouette holding a knife in the centre of the letter 'A' in the title is very clever and effective, again linking and representing the film's violence and gang-related theme. This is also represented through the use of the characters on the poster as well as the slogan at the top of the page - 'The gangs have taken over'. This is a strong statement, giving the audience a little more information of the film's theme by telling them that it is about youth gangs 'taking over' society. Overall, the whole poster has a very raw, rough and gritty look to it, representing the action/thriller theme of violence.


This poster for the thriller 'Shutter Island' has a very eerie and creepy look to it, with Leonardo DiCaprio's fave being half-lit my the light of a match, looming out of the darkness with a worried and suspicious expression on his face. This poster is extremely effective and representative of the film's mystery/horror/thriller genre. The island has a blue glow around it, making it glow from the surrounding darkness and drawing attention to it on the poster as it is clearly a focal point of the film as the film title is in distorted white letters above the image. The use of red text at the bottom of the poster gives connotations of violence, anger and blood, hinting that the film may have a gruesome undertone to it. This bold colour is used to highlight the extremely positive film review that is chosen for the poster. The use of this colour and this specific quote/review draws attention to it which would persuade or influence an audience to take interest in the film and build anticipation among and audience. The use of the black space in the background if important when representing the general, dark tone to the film, with all the images looming out of this blackness, implying that it is a very dark film.

The poster for 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' has a bold but mysterious element to it as the female's face is half-concealed by the bright red dragon symbol and a dark shadow diagonally across her forehead. This straight away gives the viewer an idea that this thriller will have a strong mystery/suspense element to it. The use of the black space and the female's face looming out of the darkness again implies that there will be a dark theme and the use on the female's face on the poster suggests that she will be the protagonist of the film and she is the 'Girl with the Dragon tattoo'. The blood red colour implies that the film may feature violence and the dragon symbol rising and curling out of the smoke out of the bottom the poster - like a Phoenix from the flames- possibly suggests that it is a film about reinvention, change or reincarnation. The limited colour choice for this poster is very bold and striking as the red is very bold and attention-grabbing. The use of white for the film title is effective as it is a clean and neutral colour against the red and black, giving it a pure look and drawing attention to it. The scaling of the 'the' and 'with the' in comparison to the larger typography implies that the main focus of the girl and her tattoo.

Overall, I think all of these posters are extremely bold and effective when advertising their thriller films as they all have an element of mystery as well as evoking a 'dark' feel to each film which makes them very exciting. I particularly like the 'Shutter Island' poster as it has a very mysterious and sinister look to it which would really persuade me to go and see the film at the cinema as it targets fans of thriller, horror, action and mystery films.