The Possession Poster

One of the things that I like about Horror is that it’s one the few genres in which you still can see some crazy imagery in modern posters. Often, imagery that isn’t even directly present in the actual film! Like, they can create something that represents the idea behind the film, and not just what the film actually shows. Yay for a little space for imagination.

This isn’t necessarily the greatest example of that, but it’s still quite cool. And crazy. You have to to admit it is crazy. More crazy, please.

p.s.: I wonder if in the true story this movie is based on, the hand that comes out of the mouth of the girl had such long fingernails. Probably not, they always exaggerate a bit.

(Via)

Totally Random Poster of the Week: Rubber

From the Wikipedia article:
“In the California desert, a tire comes to life and embarks on a killing spree as an audience watches the events unfold through binoculars. The tire kills by vibrating intensely and psycho-kinetically causing people’s heads to explode.”
To be honest, this sounds like one of those concepts that sounds great on paper, but doesn’t really translate into an engaging feature length film. But I could be wrong! And the posters certanly are something.

(Via)

Rare Exports Posters

This poster for Rare Exports is so wonderfully wrong I just can’t stop starring at it. Obviously it’s a play on the traditional Christmas painting with some unique elements, the most clear of which is the caged and enraged Santa that is at the core of the movie’s concept. But the way in which they added these elements, and the sheer oddness of the the way in which Father Christmas is painted makes the image so, so weird.

For contrast, see this earlier poster. Also a twist on the same kind of painting, but much more sober and professional looking. Honestly, it probably does a better job of selling the actual movie, but as an image it is a lot less interesting than the latest poster.

The movie also had a teaser poster. Also sober. Also not very likely to cause nightmares.

(Via IMPAwards)

Must Have Sounded Good When High: Marmaduke Edition

I have basically been very disconnected from movie news for the last few months, but I still try to at least keep up with the posters coming out whenever I can. This leads to some interesting moments when I find out a certain movie is being made by seeing its poster. Not having any other information regarding said motion picture, I’m able to experience it clean and form an opinion on the movie based only on the poster.

In this particular case my reaction to the movie, based on the poster is: “What the f@$#, they are doing a Marmaduke movie? Really?”. Upon further inquiry it seems they indeed are making a Marmaduke movie. One in which he surfs, apparently.

Maybe if I see a trailer it will all make sense too me. But right now this seems like a classic example of taking a somewhat beloved property that is not cinematic in the least and trying to shoehorn it into a movie. Which will cost way more than it should.

Could the poster have done a better job of selling the idea to me (or to someone more likely to enjoy this type of movie)? Maybe. But honestly, I’m not sure how. I think the rot in this case comes from the core idea of the film itself.

(Via IMPAWards)

Second Daybreakers Poster

This is not exactly the poster one would expect from a vampire movie. Especially not after the first, much more genre standard, poster. But it does make sense once you take into account that the film takes place in the near future and that an important plot point is that vampires are now harvesting humans in blood farms. Which I guess is what is being depicted in here.

Considering the glut of vampire themed movies, tv series and books I imagine this was an attempt to differentiate Daybreakers by focusing more on it’s sci-fi elements. Understandable, and the image itself is pretty great.

However, it is a little hard to tell what is happening here if you didn’t already know the movie’s story. And there is a danger that comes with leaving the whole vampire theme so in the background. Danger of seeming simply like a sci-fi movie, and not as a vampire movie with sci-fi elements.

And yes, this is perhaps a little too reminiscent of the Matrix movie and their human harvesting installations.

So, yeah, I’m not sure how successful the effort was. But I appreciate what they tried to do, and the human harvest is probably the most striking element of the movie’s concept, so I’m not sure they could have done much better.

The Crazies Poster

I think the contrast between the welcoming sign and the dire warning scribbled in red would be more effective if we could actually read the original text. As it is this is just a scary sign. The town in the background does look quite placid, but it’s almost invisible when paired with the strong and attention grabbing foreground.

Still, if you take your time and pay attention to the poster it’s pretty easy to understand the basic concept of the movie: small and peaceful town goes crazy, bringing all kinds of horrors. And even if you don’t pay attention it is still a fairly memorable, clean and direct poster. So not too bad.

I wonder if they intend to incorporate the hazard suits that were so present in the marketing for the original movie in upcoming promotional materials.

SAW VI

I thought the days seeing the SAW posters find some clever way to work the film’s number into the poster image where over. I guess not.

Honestly, the tradition feels stale. And the way they created the number is clever, but also feels too contrived.

This poster looks lot like the posters we used to see for the earlier SAW films. Which in this case, unfortunately, just reinforces my feeling that the poster campaign has been all over the place, not quite sure whether to break with tradition, twist it slightly of simply follow it.

Halloween II Some Motion Poster

Well, the hot streak of motion posters had to end eventually. So after several motion posters that seemed to understand how to use the liberty of the new media we get this, basically the same thing as the final poster but with some motion thrown in, almost as an after thought. Not exactly awe-inpiring.

(Via IMPAwards)

SAW VI Drives

The SAW nurses were always sexy, but in a very doll, almost fake way. An aspect which the latest poster apparently decided to embrace completely.

These blood drive posters have that warm feeling of tradition by now, but they are probably irrelevant to the marketing. Hopefully they actually do some good by getting people to participate on the drive. But as far as selling the film goes? Not much relevance either way.

Which is not to say I don’t enjoy them. Like I said, they now have the warm feeling of tradition. A messed up, bloody and somewhat kinky tradition. But tradition is tradition!

Nightmare on Elm Street Remake Poster

I know it will suck. Know it! But the claws, the shirt and the face are all such memorable parts of my young adulthood that I can’t help but to feel some goosebumps.

Which is why it pays to do lame remakes on the cheap. The young ones want to experience something that was big before their time. And some older people, me included, just can’t help themselves. Some of us are forever going to the movies we know we shouldn’t waste our time on, always with that sliver of hope that this time we will get to kick the football.

(Via IMPAwards)