Investigate How Far The Twilight Film Poster Conforms To The Horror Genre

Every film has its own unique Iconography and USP, and they all fit into a certain Genre. Each genre has its own sub-genres within it. A hugely popular genre is Horror, it first came around in the 1890’s with silent monster movies, by 1933 the films had all been glamorised, in Hollywood movies. Then in the 1960’s Hammer came along and changed horror, to the Classic Horror we know today, since then zombies and gore, killers and tension has become increasingly popular. Now special effects such as 3D and mind games, keep the audience guessing. Horror has many subgenres including Zombies, Tension, and Self-Aware horror; one of the most popular subgenres in horror is the Vampire.

Often associated with, blood, fangs, pale and ice cold skin, inhuman powers and immortality, the vampire has a huge fan base and has changed in many ways over the years. For example in Nosfeteratu from 1922, the first vampire film, the vampire is feared, and drinks the blood of his helpless victims, and with huge pointy ears at each side of his small rounded bald head, and huge fangs, it’s obvious he isn’t human, even though its a silent film, you know who the vampire is.

In contrast Bram Stokers Dracula from 1992, the vampire looks a lot more human, but he still stands out wearing a big top hat and bold clothes, a blank expression and the typical use of black and red too you know he’s a vampire but he’s less suspecting than the Nosfeteratu vampire. Although it’s seventy years on, some of the same iconography is used.

The vampire was typically seen as a monster with greased back, black hair, long cape, a fearful predator that fed on the blood of helpless victims that were mainly women. That is, until Twilight.

Twilight began as a novel by Stephanie Meyer it’s the first of four in the series. The novel was written in 2005, it became so popular that it was turned into a film that became increasingly popular with teenage girls in the USA and the UK, thanks to the unique selling point, Robert Pattinson.

The film made a fortune in the box office and the other three novels, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, were also turned into films. This popularity turned the films into hundreds of Convergent Media types that appealed to teenage girls, such as board games, phone applications, calendars, posters, T-shirts, mugs and there is even a twilight convention (twicon) which is held every year, and fans will meet and discuss the books and films and just basically obsess.

I have been asked to investigate how far the twilight film poster conforms to the horror, genre. However the films poster doesn’t give you much of an idea into what the film is about. The Strapline, ‘Nothing will be the same’ doesn’t give a hint, but it does get you interested, and make you wonder. It makes you want to watch the film, but with a strap line like ‘nothing will be the same’ the poster assumes you have read the book, and mainly appeals to teenage girls, which is very unusual for a horror film.

Apart from the black background and sinister looks on the faces of the people shown on the poster, none of the poster’s features are similar to one advertising a horror film, where as film posters for the likes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dracula both include Blood and Gore, typical mise-en scene for a horror film.

Compared to typical vampire films, this poster doesn’t show any blood or even red! The Film’s title, release dates and Strapline are all in white with a shiny look to it, I think this is because in Twilight when a vampire is exposed to sunlight, they sparkle, which is different from other vampire films as their typical mise-en scene is that when exposed to sunlight the vampire dies.

The Characters Bella and Edward are close up in the foreground of the poster which suggests that they are the main characters. There are three other vampires in the background, they’re an enigma, you don’t know what kind of role they play, although they way they look and dress gives off a different feel. I think this is because they look quite evil, and dress differently to humans, like they don’t want to fit in, their body language makes you want to fear them. The Poster looks like A good versus evil battle with its setup, because Bella in the front is looking back at them, warily and Edward looks as if he is protecting her.

The camera angle used in the poster is MLS, medium long shot. It’s a Close up in the foreground and a middle shot for the background. I think it works well because it fits everyone in and shows relationships between the two sets of characters, it makes you feel the tension between them.

Enigmas are important for all films but horror in particular because they keep the audience guessing and keeps the suspense going, because you don’t know what’s coming next, or what to expect.

I also think Edward and Bella are close up in the foreground because Robert Pattinson is the Unique selling point and the girls that fall in love with the film, want to be in Bella’s place. The USP cleverly works to make the target audience want to watch even more. But, he isn’t the kind of USP you’d expect for a horror film and neither is the target audience.

Edward looks like he is protecting Bella because he loves her, which suggests that the films genre is less horror and more gothic novel style romance, because vampires usually prey on the helpless woman not love them, they drink their blood, not kiss them.

The film is rated at a 12A, which like a lot of the films aspects, is very unusual for the horror genre. Horror films are usually rated at an 18, or at least a 15.

The vampires in twilight don’t have fangs and they sparkle in sunlight and some of them don’t even drink human blood, so a lot of the main iconography and Mise-en scene is missing, the ones that make a vampire film, horror, that make the vampire feared.

The twilight film poster does conform to the horror genre, in some ways, like the vampire rivalry shown between the two groups of people in the background and foreground and body language being used is fearful, and scary. But in my opinion, the twilight film poster doesn’t conform into the horror genre very far, but more of a romance in a gothic style.

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