Analysis of ‘Red Room’ Poster

As with all posters, the viewer analyses the ‘Red Room’ film poster through the rule of thirds and line of the eye. The reader’s eye begins in the terminal area in the top left-hand of the page with the main actor’s name, ‘Will Piper’. The eye then moves across the line to the name of the supporting actress in the alternative terminal area, ‘Naomi Murphy’, before heading downwards through the tagline of ‘There is no escape...’ This sentence establishes a sense of horror and provides an insight into what the trailer holds in store for the viewer. The use of an ellipsis at the end of the sentence suggests that events have not yet been concluded and the viewer will have to watch the film in order to resolve the plot. This layout is similar to that on the poster of ‘Panic Room’ as the viewer follows a similar line along the name of the main character from one terminal area across to the alternative before heading downwards.

The eye continues down along the line of the edge of the newspaper and finishes in the bottom left-hand terminal area. The colours of light vs dark are binary oppositions, as suggested by Levi-Strauss, contrast to gain effect. This contrast connotes good vs evil, life vs death or heaven vs hell. Furthermore, the bright white colours of the newspaper connote heaven. These colours were intentionally chosen to convey to the psychological horror genre and create a desired effect on the audience, making them want to discover what happens in ‘Red Room’ and why ‘there is no escape...’ Psychological horrors conventionally use lots of dull, dark colours to scare the viewer; we opted to use similar dark colours to comply with conventions but we intentionally lit the centre of the page to provide contrast and highlight the title of the film. The lighting and colours chosen for our own poster was similar to those used on the ‘Panic Room’ film poster.

The final movement of the eye is across the title of the film which uses a red vs white contrast to connote blood and death. They eye finishes in the terminal area in the bottom right-hand corner of the page where the age restriction is conventionally placed. The last thing that the reader views on the page is the titles which mentions the cast, director and production company. This is conventionally placed underneath the title of the film.