A Semiotic Analysis of Five Horror Movie Posters

An Academic Paper presented to

Dr. Claudette A. Baluran

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Course

ENGLISH 240- English in the Media

By:

Ivy Claire Defensor

AB-English 4B
 I. Introduction

Over the last decades, movies have been the worlds popular entertainment. It
influenced the way we perceive our society nowadays. We havent realized how it affects the
way we talk, act, and deal with different people around us. Movies broaden our knowledge
about the real happenings in our society. Movies show us the reality this is why human beings
can be manipulated and influenced by this type of entertainment. The question is How
producers persuade us to watch the movie? This is where advertising comes in. Advertising
can be in different forms. It can be advertised in a newspaper, magazines, direct mail (e.g.
leaflets and brochures), radio, outdoor signs (e.g. posters, billboard, and electronic displays), in
television and in the internet. Outdoor signs, particularly, is one of the useful forms of
advertising. Usually, these outdoor signs are large, attractive, and colourful to catch the
attention of the people. This analysis is focused on the power of posters in advertising.

Movie poster has a commercial purpose as medium to advertise a movie (Burty, 2013).
It helps the movie goers to know what the movie is all about. Movie is produced to entertain
people by showing and telling a story recorded as a set of moving pictures to be shown on
television or cinema (Tirana, 2011). A movie must be advertised in order to persuade people to
watch. It needs poster as means to sponsor the movie (Tirana, 2011). It conveys different kinds
of signs that are combined together to show a glimpse about the movie. A movie poster is the
form of graphic design and it has been acknowledged as an art (Tirana, 2011).

Not all movies have the same genre. Each genre has its own characteristics so viewers
will automatically notice the genre of the movie based on the movie posters. Without a poster,
a movie is difficult to be known by groups of person (Tirana, 2011). Therefore, as a films
marketing technique, it is important to have movie posters in order to sell the movie to the
public.

In advertising, movie posters have certain symbols to guide the audience about the
story. These symbols or signs are used to persuade the audience to watch the movie. As we
analyze these different kinds of signs used in movie posters, we must know more about the
Semiotics.

Semiotics involves the study not only of what we refer to as signs in everyday speech,
but of anything which stands for something else (Chandler, 2007). Signs can be a form of
words, images, gestures and even sounds. The term semiology was first introduced by
Ferdinand de Saussure. Semiology is defined as as science which studies the role of signs as
part of social life (Saussure, 1983). From the concept of semiology, Charles Sanders Peirce
expanded and called it as semiotics. Semiotics is defined as formal doctrine of signs (Peirce,
1931). Saussure his introduced the signifier (sound image) and signified (concept) while
Peirce on the other hand, introduced the icon (resemblance), symbols (convention) and
index (causal connections). In semiotics, denotation and connotation are terms describing the
relationship between the signifier and its signified, and an analytic distinction is made between
two types of signifieds: a denovative signified and a connotative signified (Chandler, 2017).
 Movie posters bring numerous signs (Tirana, 2011). These signs can be verbal or visual.
The images with text that appear in the movie poster inform the viewer about what
approximately happened along the story (Rahmasari, 2014). If well talk about semiotics,
movie posters also have signifiers and signified. As mentioned above, there are two types of
signifieds: denotative signified and connotative signified. These two kinds of signifieds can also
be found in movie posters. A thesis entitled Semiotic Analysis on THE HELP movie posters
conducted by Rahmasari (2014) discussed thoroughly the denotative and connotative signified
found in the movie posters of THE HELP. The denotative signs are from the representation of
visual and verbal elements in the posters such as the title, tagline, and the image of women,
gestures, and facial expression, the image of bench, pigeon, ravens, cage, cartoon, and also
colors (Rahmasari, 2014). On the other hand, connotative signified is also important in
analyzing movie posters. Based on the findings of Rahmasari (2014), connotation is used to
build the meaning behind each of denotative signs found in the movie posters such as the way
the citizens of America face the racism issues based on the skin color differences.

In this analysis, we will use Semiotics as a theoretical perspective and the discussion
will be focused on five horror movie posters. By analyzing horror movie posters, we will be able
to uncover the different signs and meanings that are used to persuade people and how these
signs affect the viewers expectation about the movie.

II. Body

There are different genres in movies. Action, adventure, comedy, drama, fantasy,
horror, mystery, and romance are just some of the genres in movies that we always enjoy
watching. Each movie genre has its own appeal on the audience especially if we talk about the
advertising. Each producer has his own style in advertising, the genre of the movie must be
obvious in the movie posters so that audience can easily understand the message that the
movie conveys.

Horror films are a genre of films that seek to frighten its viewers and bring out negative
emotions and phobias that people may suffer from (Granback, 2016). People like horror movies
because of the thrill it gives us while watching. We have the different kinds of horror movies:
monsters, ghost stories, vampire stories, occult stories, survival horror and slasher. These kinds
of horror movies may be presented differently in posters. When horror movie posters were
created in the beginning of the 20th century, photos were not used and the artists were much
more concentrated and keen on displaying the art behind the films (Granback, 2016).

A horror movie poster can be designed in many different ways. The motives behind the
choice of key elements and the use of these key elements in horror movie posters vary,
depending on the era the poster is made and what the sold purposes behind the designs have
been (Granback, 2016).

Colors, typography, photos, and taglines must be considered in analyzing this kind of
media text. Things mentioned above must be interpreted as a whole. If colors were considered
while typography, photos, and taglines were taken for granted, it may mislead the interpreter.
It is important to consider every sign used in a horror movie poster to understand the real
message of the movie. These signs work together to make the text more meaningful. We can
think of such combinations as meaningful texts made out of complex signs (Long and Wall,
2012). Therefore, movie posters use different signs and these signs must be considered as a
whole not separately.

This analysis will focus only on five (5) horror movie posters that greatly influenced and
manipulated the audience to watch the movies. Different textures, framing, mood and tone of
a movie poster affects the perception of the audience. We will uncover why specific signs are
used in a movie poster to persuade the audience to watch these movies.

Dead Silence

Dead Silence (2007) a movie directed by James Wan. The movie stars are Judish
Roberts as Mary Shaw, Ryan Kwanten as Jamie, Donnie Wahlberg as the detective, and Amber
Valleta as wife of Jamie.

DEAD SILENCE MOVIE POSTER

InSync Plus (2007). Dead Silence [Poster]. Retrieved from

http://www.impawards.com/2007/dead_silence.html
 The movie poster of the Dead Silence showed us different signs in order to convey the
message or the plot that we will witness if we watch the movie. Semiological thought proposes
that the basic unit of communication is the sign (Long and Wall, 2012). First, lets talk about the
different signifiers used in this movie poster. The signifiers that are used in this poster are the
image of a dummy, its gestures and facial expression, colors, the title and the tagline of the
movie. If you look at this poster for the first time, we will first notice the face of a dummy that
is smiling. The dummy has a green eye, it has no eyelashes, but it has black eyeliner that formed
the eyes of the dummy. It also has brown eyebrows that helps determine the expression of the
dummy. Since this dummy is smiling, the cheeks are also emphasized. If we look carefully, there
is a line or a cut on the lower left part of its lips. It made us think that it is really a dummy. A
dummy is a doll that is usually shaped like a human being and is usually controlled by a person.
We can also observe that the color of the skin of the dummy is pinkish which makes this
dummy look a real person. Then, the next thing that you will notice is the hand placed in front
of the lips of the dummy. This hand showed a gesture as if shes trying to command the viewer
to keep quiet and observe silence. If we look closer, we can see the open wounds in the hand.
The hand looks like a hand of an old lady, since her nail was long and has a black nail polish. The
dummy also has a red ribbon that was also shown in this movie poster. These are just some of
the signifiers used in this poster.

Now, lets talk about the different texts that are found in this movie poster. First, lets
talk about the title of the movie, which is placed below the wounded hand. If we will look closer
to the letters of the title, we can notice that the letters leaves a shadow as if they are moving.
Then, below the title of the movie is the tagline, YOU SCREAM. YOU DIE. This tagline gives an
idea to the audience that if they scream while watching this movie, they might die. Human
beings usually like horror films because of the thrill it gives. This tagline will usually catch the
attention of the viewers. Even if this tagline threatens the viewers, it will still challenge them
and persuade them to watch the movie. We can also notice that the color of the tagline is red.
On the forehead of the dummy, there a line FROM THE WRITERS AND DIRECTOR AND
PRODUCERS OF SAW, this line was capitalized and color of the text was white. On the bottom
part of the movie poster, the characters, the movie producers and the name of the director are
placed to inform the audience about the people behind this movie. And lastly, on the most
bottom part of the movie poster, there is a line COMING SOON. This line are usually
emphasised since the viewers must know when the movie will be shown in cinemas.

All the signifieds mentioned above are just the top layer of the signs. They are called the
denotative signifieds. A signified can be interpreted as connotative and denotative. Denotation
is what we call the literal meaning of the sign. The first aspect or level of signification is the
most obvious, literal or generally agreeable (Long and Wall, 2012). The signifieds discussed
above are just the denotative meaning of the signs. On the other hand, connotation is defined
as the further associations, more abstract, debatable and contextual depending upon who is
deploying and interpreting the sign (Long and Wall, 2012).

Now, lets talk about the connotation of the signifiers discussed above. According to
Caldwell (2008), there are different symbolisms in horror movies. She discussed thirteen (13)
symbolisms in horror movies and one of those is about dolls. The incongruity of a childs toy
and danger can make it unnerving, as dolls normally represent happiness, innocence, and
nurturing (Caldwell, 2008). Yet their distorted human qualities, such as oversized heads,
unblinking eyes or exaggerated features, can make them especially eerie (Caldwell, 2008). The
doll in the Dead Silence may represent different meanings. A dolls symbolism, which may be
expressed through childrens play or other means, might include sexuality, lack of control,
death, desire, regret, families, aging and much more (Caldwell, 2008). In the movie Dead
Silence, it represents death since Billy as discussed above was owned by Mary Shaw which is
an old famous ventriloquist killed by the family of Jamie. Next, lets talk about the green eyes of
Billy. According to Marshall (2008), color green means healing, soothing, perseverance,
tenacity, self-awareness, proud, unchanging nature, environment, healthy, good luck, renewal,
youth, vigour, spring, generosity, fertility, jealousy, inexperience, envy. The color of the eyes of
Billy was color green, since he was possessed by Mary Shaw. Mary Shaw in this movie is envy
and jealous of living that is why she took revenge and killed the family of Jamie who burned and
buried her body. We can also notice the hand placed in front of the lips of Billy, which shows a
gesture to keep quiet. This gesture means that you must not scream if you saw Mary Shaw
because Mary Shaw kills the ones who scream. Then, the hand has open wounds because it is
the hand of Mary Shaw who is burned by the family of Jamie. These open wounds are caused
by fire. She also has a black nail polish. According to Marshall (2008), color black means no,
power, sexuality, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, fear, anonymity,
unhappiness, depth, style, evil, sadness, remorse, anger. In this movie poster, the nail polish is
color black which means evil and anger. Since Mary Shaw was evil and eaten by her anger to
the family of Jamie.

We already discussed the image in this movie poster. Now, lets talk about the meaning
of the texts shown in this poster. First, the title of the movie was placed below, since the image
must be emphasized. The letters of the title shows motion as if it was moving. This means that
the soul of Mary Shaw cant rest in peace because she wants to take revenge to the family of
Jamie. Second, the tagline YOU SCREAM. YOU DIE was place below the title. This tagline can
be related to plot of the movie. Mary Shaw kills the one who screams, thats the reason why
this tagline was made.

This movie poster has a black background. Color black means no, power, sexuality,
sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, fear, anonymity, unhappiness, depth, style,
evil, sadness, remorse, anger (Marshall, 2008). Overall, the movie is about anger and evilness of
Mary Shaw that is why black background was used in this movie poster.

The Conjuring 2

The Conjuring 2 (2016) was also directed by James Wan which is also the director of
the Dead Silence. This movie is a sequel of The Conjuring. The movie stars are Patrick
Wilson and Vera Farmiga that act as paranormal investigators. This movie is based on true story
that is why people love watching this.
 THE CONJURING 2 MOVIE POSTER

The Conjuring 2 [Poster]. Retrieved from

http://www.dreadcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/conjuring-2-poster.jpg

The movie poster of the The Conjuring 2 also used different signs in order to convey
the message or the plot of the movie. The signifiers that are used in this poster are the image
of Janet, the rosary, colors, and the title of the movie. First, lets talk about the religious symbol
used in the poster of the movie, the rosary. Religion is one of the important topics that are
involved especially in horror films. According to Caldwell (2008), religious artifacts may be
Christian, occult, satanic, voodoo, or about any other type of belief in something greater than
humanity. Rosary is a religious artifact by the Roman Catholic. As we can notice, someone is
holding the rosary since the hand was shown. The one who is holding the rosary also has a ring
which means this person is already married. Ed and Lorraine Warren were the paranormal
investigators in the case of Lutz family. One of the four children of Peggy Lutz is Janet. Janet is
the one who is sitting away from the rosary. We can also notice that Janet wears a red sleep
wear. Janet as we can observe was inside a room which also has a white curtain shown in the
movie poster. The room looks like messed up by something, and if we will try to look closer at
the right side of the poster, we can see the image of a nun standing and trying to observe the
happenings.

The movie poster also has different texts like the title, the date, and a line that can help
the viewers build an expectation and perception about the movie. First lets talk about the
title. As we can observe, the letters of the title were all capitalized. The was placed at the
upper left part of the word CONJURING and the 2 was placed at the center part of the word
CONJURING but 2 was sent backward to emphasize the word Conjuring. Below the title of
the movie there is another text FROM THE DIRECTOR OF CONJURING AND INSIDIOUS, this
text were all capitalized to tell the audience that this movie was also directed by a great
director James Wan, who also directed great horror films like The Conjuring and Insidious.
On the bottom part of the movie poster, we can observe the exact date if when the movie will
be shown to the cinemas. At the top part of the movie poster, we have another text THE NEXT
TRUE STORY FROM THE CASE FILES OF ED AND LORRAINE WARREN. This line was also written
in all caps and as we can observe the TRUE STORY was in bold style of the text. Their purpose
here is to emphasize and tell the viewers that this was based on true story so that the viewers
of this movie poster will be persuaded to really watch the movie.

The signifiers mentioned are interpreted by its own denotative meaning. Now, lets
proceed to the discussion of the connotative meanings of these signs.

The rosary as one of the religious artifacts of the Roman Catholic is really emphasized in
this movie poster, but why is it emphasized? It is because rosary is used to keep the devil away.
Since Janets position is sitting away from the rosary, this means that she is afraid of this
religious artifact. In the movie, Janet was possessed by the old man in the story. This old man
was manipulated by Valak, the demonic nun in order to haunt Janet. This is the reason why
Janet is afraid of the rosary. We can also notice that she wears a red sleep wear. According to
Marshall (2008), color red means anger, passion, rage, desire, excitement, energy, speed,
strength, power, heat, love, aggression, danger, fire, blood, war, violence. In this movie, since
Janet was possessed by a bad element, there is anger and aggression in her character that is
why she is wearing a color red outfit. Another signifier is the sleep wear. She is wearing here
a sleep wear since she was always caught sleep walking at night. We can also notice that the
movie poster has a setting which is inside a room. This room looks messy since there was a
demonic possession that is why the setting is messed up. At the back of Janet, there is a white
curtain. This white curtain was placed there since there is a part of the movie that Janet will try
to leap outside the window to commit suicide but Ed, husband of Lorraine managed to grab her
hand. Lorraine also has a vision about Eds death. When Ed tried to save Janet, he found himself
holding a curtain that is about to be torn. According to Marshall (2008), color white means yes,
protection, love, reverence, purity, simplicity, cleanliness, peace, humility, precision, innocence,
youth, birth, winter, snow, good, sterility, marriage (Western cultures), death (Eastern
cultures), cold, clinical, sterile. In this movie poster, we can say that white curtain means death.
Then, at the right side of the movie poster, we can see the demonic nun who is just trying to
manipulate and haunt Janet. She is just hidden at the right side of the poster since she is trying
to hide her true identity. She even used the old man to get Janet and she doesnt want Ed and
Lorraine to know her name so that she wont be condemned to hell.
 While for the text used in this movie poster, we can observe that THE was place above
the text CONJURING and 2 was sent backwards since they want to emphasize the word
CONJURING, which means to call a spirit by ritual.

Color black means no, power, sexuality, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth,
mystery, fear, anonymity, unhappiness, depth, style, evil, sadness, remorse, anger (Marshall,
2008). The color black was also used as a background which means the story is about evil
spirits.

The Other Side of the Door

The Other Side of the Door (2016) was directed by Johannes Roberts. The movie stars
are Sarah Wayne Callies, Javier Botet, Jeremy Sisto, and Sofia Rosinsky. First, lets talk about the
plot of the movie.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR MOVIE POSTER

The Other Side of the Door [Poster]. Retrieved from http://www.dvdplanetstore.pk/wp-

content/uploads/2016/06/the-other-side-of-the-door-2016dvdplanetstorepk.jpg
 The movie poster of the OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR used simple signs to express the
real message of the movie. The signifiers that are used in this poster are the image of Oliver, a
key hole, colors, and other texts. First, lets talk about the image of Oliver. Oliver, son of Maria
died because of a car accident. When the accident happened, Maria chose to save Lucy, her
younger child, so Oliver wasnt able to survive. The image of Oliver that was shown in the movie
poster looks pale since he died during the accident. Another thing that we can notice in this
movie poster is the keyhole. Keys and locks symbolize secrets, confinement, and hidden objects
or places (Caldwell, 2008). In this movie, the key hole was used since this story is all about the
bridge between the living and the dead. Maria cant forget the accident and she is still bothered
by her conscience. She even committed suicide because of depression. Her husband brought
her to the hospital and there, she was comforted by their housekeeper named Piki. She was
told that if she wants to have a final chance to talk to Oliver, she must go to the temple. This
temple is said to be the bridge between the living and the dead. Piki explained the process on
how to talk to her deceased child in the temple, but she really emphasized that no matter what
Oliver says, she must not open the door. This is why an image of a keyhole was shown in this
movie poster. This keyhole was also placed as an eye of Oliver in this movie poster. The keyhole
and the image of Oliver is just the denotative meaning of the sign. As the connotative meaning
of the sign, keyhole and the image of Oliver mean that Oliver is on the other side of the door or
in the different dimension of life. He is now in the afterlife, and the keyhole placed on the eye
part of Oliver symbolizes that there is a bridge between the living and the dead and there is a
possibility that his mother, Maria can talk to him even if hes already dead.

This movie poster also has different texts. First, lets talk about the title. The title THE
OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR is still written in capital letters. It is on the right side of the poster.
The letters were capitalized since they want to emphasize the title of the movie. Above the title
of the movie, they place their tagline IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE OPENED. This simple line
is just the connotative meaning of the text, but if we will consider the plot of the movie, we can
have the connotative meaning of the text. Connotation is defined as the further associations,
more abstract, debatable and contextual depending upon who is deploying and interpreting
the sign (Long and Wall, 2012). In this movie poster, we will depend on the plot of the movie
to discover the connotation of the signs showed in the movie poster. Based on the plot of the
movie the tagline, IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE OPENED means the door of the temple must
not be opened, and if Maria will open the door, the spirit of Oliver will go home with her and it
will become evil. Usually, the tagline relates to the plot of the movie.

For the background color of the movie poster, we can observe that it is still color black
which is the same with the movie poster of Dead Silence and The Conjuring 2. Color black
means no, power, sexuality, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, fear,
anonymity, unhappiness, depth, style, evil, sadness, remorse, anger (Marshall, 2008). In this
movie, it means sadness, since the mother of Oliver was so sad because her child died, it also
means evil since the Maria opened the door and when she opened the door, her child, Oliver,
became evil.
Friend Request

Friend Request (2016) was directed by Simon Verhoevan. The movie stars are Alycia
Debnam-Carey as Laura, William Moseley as Tyler, Brit Morgan as Olivia, Conor Paolo as Kobe,
Brooke Markham as Isabel, Sean Marquette as Gustavo, and Liesl Ahlers as Marina.

FRIEND REQUEST MOVIE POSTER

Friend Request [Poster]. Retrieved from https://cdn.flickeringmyth.com/wp-

content/uploads/2016/04/FriendsReq_quad_April20-page-001.jpg

In this movie poster of "Friend Request", we can observe various signs used to persuade
the audience to watch the movie. The signifiers that are used in this poster are the image of
Laura, her laptop, colors, and other texts like the title and the tagline. Let's talk about the
denotative meaning of the signifiers. As we can see, Laura is on her bed while facing her laptop.
Then, if we look closer in her laptop, she is like having a video call with someone while scanning
her Facebook account.

We also have different texts in this movie poster. Let's talk the title "Friend Request"
placed above the movie poster. As we can see the first letter of the title which is the letter "F" is
a logo of the Facebook. We will discuss the connotative meaning of this sign below. We can also
notice that the tagline "Like. Comment. Kill." was placed below the title. And lastly, they used
color white with a shadow of black for the bed cover and for the curtains.
 The signifieds interpreted above is just the denotative meaning of the signs, we will not
get the true message of the movie poster if we will not try to discover the connotative meaning
of the signs. Now, let's talk about the connotative meaning of the signs mentioned above.

The connotative meaning of the image of Laura means that she is the main character of
the movie. Then, she is facing her laptop because she has an active social media life. She also
has a lot of Facebook friends which makes her very popular. The "laptop" was also shown in this
movie poster, because characters in the movie especially Laura use laptop to have access with
their social media accounts like Facebook. Also, this laptop is one of the most important things
that must be shown in the movie poster, since Marina committed suicide in front of her laptop,
so this sign is really important.

Let's proceed to the discussion of the texts found in this movie poster. First, let's talk
about the title of the movie. As we can notice, the font, especially the first letter of the title is
really a catchy one. The letter "F" in the title is the logo of Facebook. It is obvious that the
connotative meaning of this sign is that characters in the movie use Facebook accounts. Laura,
her friends, as well as Marina used Facebook, when Marina sent a friend request to Laura; she
used her social media account, Facebook. So, Facebook logo is really important in this movie
poster. Facebook is also the reason why those killings were made. Marina used evil codes
online to kill Laura and her friends. Below the title, we can immediately notice the tagline " Like.
Comment. Kill." of the movie. The "Like" and "Comment" are words we usually do in Facebook,
while the word "Kill" is also used since this story is all about "killing". We can also notice that
the word "Kill" is near the laptop of Laura, since the Marina committed suicide in front of her
laptop.

For the colors used in this movie poster, they emphasized the color white with a black
shadow on the bed cloth as well as on the curtains. According to Marshall (2008), color white
means yes, protection, love, reverence, purity, simplicity, cleanliness, peace, humility, precision,
innocence, youth, birth, winter, snow, good, sterility, marriage (Western cultures), death
(Eastern cultures), cold, clinical, sterile. In this movie poster, color white means death, since
Marina killed Laura as well as her friends. On the other hand, color black means no, power,
sexuality, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, fear, anonymity, unhappiness,
depth, style, evil, sadness, remorse, anger (Marshall, 2008). We can notice in this movie poster
that the bed cover as well as the curtains has black shadows. This means that the cause of the
characters death is because of sadness, anger, and evil. The date was also emphasized below
the movie poster since the audience must know if when this movie will be shown in cinemas.

Hush

Hush (2016) was directed by Mike Flanagan. The movie stars are Kate Siegel as
Maddie, John Gallagher Jr. acts as the masked man, Michael Trucco as Sarahs boyfriend,
Samantha Sloyan as neighbour or Maddie, and Emilia Graves.
 HUSH MOVIE POSTER

Hush [Poster]. Retrieved from https://media1.popsugar-

assets.com/files/2016/04/15/947/n/1922398/3b31ae06a27cc58e_hush-poster-
150dpi_v8.xxxlarge_2x.jpg

In this movie poster, we can observe different simple signs that were used to express
the real message of the movie. The signifiers that are used in this poster are the image of
Maddie, the knife, the masked man, colors, and other texts like the title and the tagline. First,
lets talk about the image of Maddie. She looks like afraid because of her eyes, but as we can
see, her lips were still closed even if shes afraid. Second, the poster also shows the image of
the masked man. Third is an image of the knife, which is placed at the right side of the movie
poster.

This movie poster also used different texts. Lets talk about the title "HUSH", we can
observe that the letters of the title are all capitalized. Above the title is the tagline "SILENCE
CAN BE KILLER". For the background of the movie poster, they used and emphasized the color
black.
 The interpretation of the signifiers mentioned above are just the denotative signified of
the signifiers. Now, lets talk about the connotative meaning of the signs.

The image of Maddie was shown in this movie poster, since she is the main character of
the movie. If we look at her we will notice her facial expression especially her eyes, it tells us
that she is afraid, but why is her mouth was closed? It is because she is deaf and mute. It
conveys the inability of Maddie because she lost her voice when she had an operation. We can
also notice the image of the masked man at the back of Maddie. Masks are most often used to
disguise evil (Caldwell, 2008). This guy wore a mask since he wants to hide his identity or
disguise evil. Another signifier that was shown in the movie poster is the knife. Maybe you are
curious why a knife was shown in the movie poster. It is because knife is the instrument of
the serial killer or the masked man to kill Maddie.

Lets proceed to the analysis of the texts found in the movie poster. First, lets talk about
the title HUSH it is written in capital letters since they want to emphasize the title of the
movie. The meaning of hush is to keep quiet. The title of the movie was connected to the
main character of the movie, Maddie, a mute and a deaf person. This is the reason why the title
of the movie is HUSH. For the tagline of the movie SILENCE CAN BE KILLER, is placed above
the title since they want to catch the attention of the viewers. It is also written in capital letters
but it is smaller compared to the title. This tagline is also connected to the main character of
the movie.

And lastly, for the background of the movie, they used the color black. Color black
means no, power, sexuality, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, fear,
anonymity, unhappiness, depth, style, evil, sadness, remorse, anger (Marshall, 2008). In this
movie poster, they emphasized the color black since there is the serial killer who disguised evil,
and for the main character, Maddie, we can say that color black means fear fear of the serial
killer, fear of death.

III. CONCLUSION

Movies are one of the peoples favourite when it comes in entertainment, but movies
wont be that successful without advertising. Movie posters are important in promoting and
persuading people to watch a movie. These movie posters show different unique signs to tell
the real message of the movie, but not all movies have the same genre. Since this analysis
focused on the horror movies, I found commonalities in the five (5) movie posters I have
analyzed.

First, they usually use symbolism to convey the real message of the movie. These
symbolisms are really shown in their movie posters since it is really important in their plot.
Second, the main character of the movie will always be shown in the movie poster. Third, the
facial expressions of the characters are usually afraid since it is a horror movie. Fourth, the title
of the movies is usually capitalized except for the Friend Request but still, the title was
emphasized because they used the logo of Facebook in their movie poster. And lastly, the color
black is always used to tell the audience that this movie involve sadness, fear, mystery,
unhappiness, anger or evilness.

In analyzing, we must also consider every sign that was shown in a movie poster to
understand its real message. The denotative meaning of a signifier is also not enough to analyze
a movie poster, the connotative meaning must also be considered.

Therefore, producers advertise their movie by movie posters. They use different signs to
express the real message of the movie, to give thrill to the viewers and to persuade them to
watch the movie. These signs that were shown in a movie poster can greatly affect the way we
perceive or interpret the plot of the movie.

REFERENCES:

Marshall, P. (2008). Film Directing Tips, Film Making Articles and Online Resources for the
Independent Filmmaker.

Caldwell, S. (2008). Symbolism in Horror.

Granbacka, V. (2016). How Is Horror Illustrated in Movie Posters? A Study on the Evolution of
Horror Movie Posters.

Tirana, S. C. (2011). A Semiotic Analysis on Signs Used on Five Indonesian Movie Posters.

Burty, A. D. (2013). A Semiotic Analysis on the Movie Posters of Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows.

Rahmasari, I. (2014). Semiotic Analysis on The Help Movie Posters.