Textual Analysis Movie Poster 'The Happening' (Joel)

This poster is very effective especially when it comes to the photography and special effects. The photography is unique to most posters because it has been taken at an slight angle or better known as a canted shot. This gives an impression to the audience that things are out of balance, which is suggestive of an possibility of an battle of good and evil, at this point 'evil' is most likely tipped to the other side.
The effect of the buildings being stretched is similar to an reflection in an distorted mirror which prepares the audience that weird things are going to appear in this movie. The blue filter also connotes that it may be a sci-fi but it also gives an feeling that the world is cold. The man, women and child are clutching each other tightly and appear traumatised judging by their body language and facial expressions. This suggest that the man and woman are a couple and the kid is their daughter, this shot portrays them as vulnerable. Because the photography is taken from an high angle it implies that they are inferior and powerless. They are on the floor which reflects that their status, in what it seems a broken society is very low. All of this suggest that it is an horror film that does not consist of blood and hardcore murder but instead it will create fear in the audience by creating perceived terror thus keeping the audience biting their nails until it bleeds.

However, the poster follows most conventions such as the main photography taking up the majority of the screen and the main subject of the photograph being placed in the middle of the poster. The masthead 'The Happening' is the largest text on the poster and the main actors name 'Mark Wahlberg' is above it. This is an USP because it a popular actor which will draw in a lot of fans of his acting to the film. It also shows that he is almost as big as the film therefore there will be loads of people who will come to watch the film just because he is playing a leading role. Similar to many posters it has the directors name at the top which has the same effect as the leading actor at times and it also shows when the film is being released. Also the additional information such as producers and other actors is supplied at the bottom of the poster in a small font.