Analysis: Horror movie poster: Emelie

Emile

Release: 2015

Director: Michael Thelin

Writer: Richard Raymond Herbeck 

Certificate: 15

Type of poster: 

This poster looks like a teaser poster instead of the main theoretical poster as it contains basic information and does not contain much information about the plot of the film, From the tagline, we can tell that this film would be about a corrupt and evil babysitter which indicates that the film is based around a devil babysitter in which the parents trust but may end up killing the children.

The genre of the poster looks like a psychological horror poster. The tagline suggesting that it's about a evil babysitter makes it psychological as they may be sick in committing activities that harm the children. The codes and conventions of horror movie posters can be spotted, such as a daunting font for the name and title of the movie and in the colour red. It's also conventional that the tagline is in white. The main character's face is in the centre of the poster like a conventional psychological horror which again connotes that the film is centred around this person.

She is also holding a broken doll which could connote that the doll is significant in the film, and also connotes that there are children involved. The doll is broken on the head which could connote that Emelie's head is also 'broken' like the doll and her mind doesn't work properly. Also, as it is to do with the mind, this reinforces the thought of it being a psychological horror movie.

The facial expression of the babysitter is like an evil yet sadistic and creepy smile. It's like she is crazy. The smirk connotes that she enjoys making people suffer. Although there are dark blooded tears from her eyes which are shadowed, it can connote that maybe she herself had a bad childhood and she doesn't want to be the only one and now wants to make others suffer along with her. This is what some people may assume if they have not watched the film. The scars and scratches on her face connote that she has been in a fight which could connote that the story has a lot of fighting in it.

The lighting in this poster is more brighter towards the left of the poster. This is also the same for her face. This could connote that when she introduces herself as a babysitter, at first she will seem nice  but more towards to future her dark side with be revealed. Also, the only main bright colour of the image is her eyes which is like a a bright blue which looks like she is some type of evil robot. This could hypodermically inject the thought of a demon child killer as her eyes are far from being a normal type of blue. The blue eyes thus makes it look like there is some sci-fi aspects in the film, although this could be interpreted wrong. Furthermore, blue connotes calmness. This could mean that the babysitter is evil to the children to satisfy her needs and keep her calm.

The poster doesn't list a website or anything. This can create an enigma code as people can now use web 2.0 to use search engines like google and type in the name of the film  poster to find out more about what it's about. 

The unique selling point of the film may be the evil babysitter, although there are other films like this.

I think the use of the font is also to connote that the babysitter called Emelie is evil, as the ends of each letter look like devils horns which also connote horror.

More annotations of the poster: (click to enlarge)