One of the most iconic elements of any horror movie are the main antagonists of the film as they will appear in most of the films advertisement with the main characters taking a backseat until the films release. Because of this my group needs to make sure that the villain in are film is unique and can be easily recognised when we create the film trailer. After thinking about ideas for the villain I have come up with several elements that I will explain in detail. The elements I feel are important to create a successful villain are:
Costume: What do they do look like?, does their design have any hidden meanings?
Voice: What do they sound like?, Has their voice been edited so it sounds different?
Origin: Where does the villain come from?, will it be referred to in the trailer?
Costume
Patrick Bateman
(His clothing makes him
look like a regular person)
The costume of the horror antagonist is arguably the most important thing about them as it allows audiences to easily distinguish them among all of the other characters. While there are some antagonists who dress very similar to the main protagonists such as Patrick Bateman from American Psycho (2000) who wears a business suit throughout the film which shocks the other characters and the audience when they find out he is the one killing them off. However, as we are creating a horror action film we are going to be taking more inspiration from horror films where the antagonist does stand out making him look like a much bigger threat which is commonly seen in the Slasher genre as the villains are meant to be portrayed as ruthless killers.
Leatherface
(wearing his skin mask
and wielding his iconic
chainsaw)
The first ideas I got for the antagonists costume was them having their identity hidden by a mask to create an ominous vibe around the character as we don't know anything about them not even what they look like. The most Iconic example of a masked villain is definitely Jason Voorhees with his hockey mask being one of the most iconic items in horror movie history even though he originally wore a sack over his head in his debut in Friday the 13th part II (1981). However, their are other well none horror movie villains who wear masks with much more sinister origins around them such as Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) who's face is hidden under a mask made out of the faces of the victims he has killed. This is done to make audiences feel intimidated by him whenever he is on screen as his mask represents how much of a threat he truly is.
Demon eye contact lenses
On the other hand, if their was a scenario where we couldn't use a mask for our villain we would most likely instead result to using makeup to make the villain look more threatening. There are many ways that we could use makeup to change the villains face so I will look at the most likely ones that my group could use. First off, contact lenses could be used to change the eye colours of the villain, this could be to make them seem more intimidating or hint at their origins. For example in many modern horror films supernatural/demonic characters usually have contact lenses to make their eyes completely black so that they look hollow and empty. However, before that red eye contact lenses where used a lot to show demonic characters as the colour red was and is still associated with blood and death.
Fake teeth
(Gives someone a beast like
appearance)
Another type of makeup that could be used to change a characters appearance are fake teeth. These are used to make a characters teeth look bigger and sharper so they look more animalistic. This portrays them as being more brutal and violent killers as their teeth associates them with beasts. These are most commonly used in films where vampires are the main antagonists as they are usually portrayed having fang like teeth resembling that of a bats (an animal vampires are commonly associated with). They may also be used in Werewolf films either during a transformation sequence or so that the audience can distinguish who is and who isn't a werewolf.
Voice
Micheal Myers
Another key element about a horror films villain is the what they sound like as their voices will sound much different compared to the rest of the characters in the film as it should sound threatening and intimidating. However the problem is while my group has created films in the past and we have managed to create intimidating sounding voices they sounded more like they would come from a criminal mastermind instead of a malicious killer. But there are ways that my group can work around this one idea is that the villain doesn't talk remaining silent throughout the film this would make the villain look much more intimidating as they would be as it convey them as being ruthless showing no remorse only their blank expression as they slice through their victims. This is a common convention in the horror genre with the most iconic example again being Jason Voorhees but another silent horror villain similar to Jason is Micheal Myers from Halloween (1978). However a way that we could give a villain a voice is make them speak through growls and snarls like a monster instead of a villain this would be useful as it would be easy to create the noises and they can easily be edited to sound more beast like however this would limit us to what the villain could be as it would have to be something like a werewolf or a demon meaning we would also have to make the villain look more monstrous which may not be possible none of my group has any skills in that type of makeup. An example of a monster villain in a horror film are the Xenomorphs from Alien (1979) who speak using growls and loud shrieks to scare the audiences. The last thing that we could do to create our villains voice is record are the dialogue and then edit it to make it sound more evil when they are speaking. Unlike my other group members I have experience in editing voices so this will be a very viable choice and I believe that I could definitely create an intimidating voice. This technique has been used in many horror films for example Robert Englund the man who played Freddy Krueger would say his lines quickly and they would be slowed down so it sounds deeper but still realistic.
The video above shows Robert Englund talking about how the Freddy voice was created in the sound studio.
Origins
The final thing that I'll be talking is the origins behind the villain. While this may not be the most important thing for a film trailer it is at least briefly explained in the trailer. At this moment I have a several ideas for what the origins could be. The first is that they are a mysterious killer who appeared out of know where but there are really old urban legends about this killer from long ago. This could easily be implemented into our film trailer as it could start with a radio broadcast of someone talking about the recent killings while cutting to the villain and as the trailer progresses the characters find out the old legends. Another idea that I had was that the villain is bound to a certain area (house, place of death, etc) and some reckless teenagers seeking thrills decide spend the night their believing that the rumours of it being haunted are just that however when a mysterious killer starts killing them off they must fight to survive. This could also be easily implemented into a film trailer as it would start with the teenagers arriving at the place talking about joking about the rumours it would then skip to night time where someone would be killed where a montage would happen showing the characters being scarred/attacked by the villain.
Genre is the way that films, TV shows, music, etc are categorised by the content within them (themes, characters, plot). Genres are arguably one of the most important factors for films effecting their popularity long before their release. This can be seen when the theorist John Fiske said that genres are convenient for the audiences and producers of films. They are convenient for producers as the genre is the deciding factor for who will see the film so using a very popular genre such as horror will attract a greater audience than if they choose the film Noir genre. This means that more people will go to see the film making the producers a larger profit. Genres are also important for the audiences for a similar reason to the producers as many people see certain films depending on the genre that they are as not all people will enjoy a horror film but they may enjoy a Sci-fi film.
I'm also going to analyse a film trailer so that I can get an idea on how trailers from the horror genre are filmed so that my group can use this as reference when we create the film trailer.
A distorted version of the paramount logo
(notice how the stars have been replaced by the ring)
This the trailer for the 2017 film Rings the 3rd film of American The Ring film trilogy. Immediately as the trailer starts we can tell that it is a part of the horror genre through the costume of the character as we see that she has blood stains on her face. Suddenly we see a bright light from the TV while a music sting plays this is so that the audience is caught off guard as there was no build up to the sting what so ever. Furthermore, we see that this is actually is a psychological horror film which is a sub genre of the horror genre which was stated by theorist Barry Keith Grant who has also said no matter what genre a film is there will always be a sub genre for it. Also, throughout the trailer we see jump cuts cutting to footage from the ring tape a key item in the film series this is done to create a sense of tension making us feel that we are never truly safe. Another way that the trailer builds tension is the way that the footage is edited together makes it so that everything happening to the characters gradually gets worse and worse as the week progresses. This is reference to how Samara (the films antagonist) kills her victims seven days after they watch the tape.
After watching the entirety of the trailer the feelings that I got from the trailer vary from start to finish. At the start of the trailer I got a sense of mystery and confusion as I had never seen a film from The Ring trilogy so I didn't know what I was getting into when I first watched it. As the trailer progresses I got a rough idea of the plot you watch the video and die seven days later this gives of a ominous vibe. As I mentioned earlier the trailer gets more horrific as it progresses this includes more brutal scenes for example during the trailer there is a clip where Julia (The films protagonist) pulls a clot of hair from her throat this makes me feel sickened and disgusted as while there is no blood it's a very disturbing scene especially when I noticed that the hair was a different colour to the woman's implying that it wasn't hers but Samara's.
Many popular Slasher antagonists
including the likes of Chucky, Ghost face, Pinhead,
Jason Voorhees and Freddy Kruger
The conventions of the Horror genre can vary depending on what sub genre the film goes under. For example the convention of the slasher sub genre includes the antagonist being an unstoppable killing who kills a majority of the the films cast showing no remorse. Another thing is that the antagonist never truly dies always coming normally having something to do with the supernatural (resurrection, possession, etc.) An example of this would be Chucky from the film Child's Play (1988) as he is killed in the opening of the film but comes back after his soul possesses a doll allowing him to continue his killing spree this is also seen in later films in the series as he returns even after his doll body (still containing his human heart) was shot and destroyed.
VHS footage from the above trailer
However if we look at a psychological horror film such as the Rings we see that they have different conventions. Firstly, One of the main conventions is that the film plays with your head as you watch it. This can be done in many ways such as distorting the footage so the audience can't focus, include dream sequences as they are not meant to make any logical sense. This can also be seen in the trailer as throughout the trailer as footage from The Ring VHS tape is shown showing random images with no real meaning. This footage also has a static effect and all the colours are dull and washed out distorting the clip, The clip also happens very briefly so the audiences will not be able to clearly see what it contains unless they re watched the trailer and focused on this point.
Mark is turned into paper an torn
apart by Freddy
There are also horror films that take conventions from multiple different sub genres allowing the films combine them to make their films unique. An example of this would be The Nightmare on Elm Street film series as all the films have conventions from both the Slasher and Psychological sub genres. We see the Slasher conventions through most of Freddy Krueger's victims as they are all teenagers who are commonly killed in Slasher films more than any type of person. Furthermore, Freddy also is shown to be nearly unkillable as he can't be killed in the dream world which is where he kills all his victims ever only appearing in the real world if he is pulled into it against his will. He also shows conventions from the psychological horror sub genre as he uses his victims greatest fears and desires against them to mess with their mind this can be seen when he kills Mark Gray in Dream Warriors (1987) who is a fan of comic books so he kills him by dressing as a super villain and turns Mark into paper drawing of him self in a comic book art style and tears him to pieces.
Handheld camera,
Over the shoulder when we see the
writing on the wall
Now i'll look at the trailer for Rings to see what conventions are used. The first thing that stands out to me is throughout the trailer a handheld camera is used in scenes where the characters appear to be exploring an abandoned house and noticing some very sadistic signs (shackles on the ground and messages written on the wall). What this does is makes the audience feel like they there with the characters which is further shown through the use of a over the shoulder shot which can be seen in the GIF to convey that we are right behind her. This is used to scare the audience as it places them in this situation where something could jump out out of nowhere which creates suspense.
Possessed Woman twitching
Another way that I have seen camerawork used to make the audience feel like they are in the shoes of the characters is the use of a P.O.V shot of Julia looking at a woman. While this sounds normal we immediately see that she is twitching in an unsettling way. This is actually a convention of supernatural horror films as when a character in the film is possessed by a ghost/demon they will start to twitch/shake uncontrollably as they are slowly taking control of. This is used to prepare the audience for a scare as it will most likely lead to a jump scare of the possessed woman attacking someone while screaming.
Samara's appearance
Julia having a nosebleed
Another convention to the supernatural horror genre that I noticed was through the use of Mise-en-scene and more specifically the use of make-up/costume which has been used to show Julia having a nosebleed. This is a convention in the horror genre as nosebleeds are used to show the mental strain on a persons body which can be used to foreshadow a characters death. In addition, they are also used to make a character become weaker as the nosebleeds also lead to headaches and dizziness. These nosebleeds are seen in all of The Ring films as they are a part of Samara's curse and Julia is shown to be effected by this curse as we see her having a nosebleed after watching the video tape. Make-up is also used as part of the antagonist costume, by looking at Samara's face we see she has old, wrinkly skin and many dirt patches on her face. However one of the most noticeable things for me is that looking under her eyes and around her mouth we see what appears to be scars and dried blood. This has been done to make Samara resemble a corpse which ties in with her origin story being a vengeful spirit which makes the audience fear her more because of the way that she looks. However, when we see the blood on one of the protagonists face such as when Julia has a nosebleed we don't fear her like with Samara but instead we feel sympathetic towards her as it shows her being in a weaker state than what we normally see her. Furthermore, as I previously mentioned that a nosebleed can foreshadow a characters deaths this implies that Julia may die later in the film making the audience more sympathetic towards her.
I believe that the target audience for Rings should be for Young adults and above. I think this because the film contains many psychological scene that are for the audience to think about as the film progresses so younger audiences may not be able to fully understand what they mean. Also, by looking at the BBFC's website I see that they have rated it 15 because of moderate violence and the supernatural and physical threats seen in the film. What this tells me is that the film will be great for thrill seekers as they will enjoy the tension and suspense which will be seen throughout the film. The film is also targeted to fans of The Ring film series who will want to see more after watching the previous films in the trilogy. In addition I believe that people from both ABC1 and C2DE will be able to enjoy the film as many horror films follow a basic plot so that everyone can follow it but later expands on that as the film progresses so that people can adapt to it while they watch the film. I will try to make my film trailer have a similar audience so that it will cover a wide variety of people from many different lifestyles who will hopefully enjoy are films.
While watching the trailer I also noticed more questions such as how does the tape kill people?, where did it come from? and who created it?. This conforms to a theory created by Rick Altman in 1999 where he states that genre offers audiences 'sets of pleasures' these pleasures are either visceral (physical), emotional and intellectual. During this part of the trailer is giving us an intellectual puzzle through these questions. Furthermore, there are many jump cuts showing footage of the ring tape with somewhat random scenes making us question their meanings and if they are linked in any way. I will now talk about the other two pleasures. First off, Emotional pleasures can be clearly seen throughout the trailer. Firstly, when we first see the distorted footage of VHS tape fans of the other films may get a nostalgic feeling as the last Ring film to come out before this was The Ring Two (2005) which was released twelve years ago. Also, directly after this Julia suddenly knocks the TV to the floor only for Samara to lift the TV up and climb through the screen. This will scare the audiences, if the audience physically jump when seeing her appear it would be a visceral pleasure.The Visceral pleasures that can be seen throughout the trailer. Firstly, when Samara jumps out of the TV it may make some of the audience jump in fear as there was no build up so they were caught of guard this may also excite some audiences if they are thrill seekers and want to be scared as they will build up adrenaline so they will enjoy other scary scenes in the trailer. When we create our film trailer i'll try to implement as many of these pleasures as I can so that the audience will be entertained throughout it.
As I briefly mentioned at the start theorist John Fiske said that genre was convenient for both audiences and producers. After research the Horror action genre I have looked back at his theory to see how it applies to the Horror action genre. The first thing I notice is that Horror action is a hybrid genre which means that is a combination of two genres in this case its the horror and action genre. This is convenient to the audience of both genres as it is a fusion of a genre that they really enjoy to watch either for to have fun or immerse themselves in them escaping from reality , Blumler and Katz (1974), and another genre that they may not be familiar with and may of never been interested in watching them but as a hybrid will include parts of a genre they do enjoy it may convince audiences to give the film a try which could lead to them seeing films of the other genre. This is also useful for producers as it would mean that are larger audience is going to see a film due to is being a hybrid genre making them a larger profit this means producers would start making more hybrid genre films as they would attract larger audiences to their films making them more money.
When I picked the brief I decided that the genre would be part of the Horror action genre. I've chosen this as I will be able to take inspirations from a wide range of films and see how they film specific scenes (camera angles, editing, music, etc). One of the biggest sub genres of the horror that i'll be focusing on is the Slasher genre as they contain many action packed scenes while still making them terrifying to watch so they will be perfect to analyse when we make our film trailer.
Overall, I believe that the trailer is very conventional for the horror genre I believe this because many of the conventions used throughout the trailer such as the handheld camera and the music stings are seen in a majority of horror films released including the trailers for these films as it raises the tension to scare the audience which make them want to see the film when it comes out. In my opinion, the music stings and jumpscares are the most conventional parts of the trailer as stings have been used in horror films for decades ever since films started having sound the most famous sting in a horror film is from the opening of Psycho (1960) where it is used as the woman is murdered to scare the audience. In addition, jumpscares are very conventional to the horror genre as they are one of the most easiest ways to scare audiences and can be done in a variety of ways such as building up to it with suspenseful music or having a false scare to scare the audience putting them into a false sense of security only for the real jumpscare to happen.
When we got into our group (May change later) we all decided to create a film trailer for an action horror film. The first thing decided to research was companies that have created very popular Action Horror films old and new. The first thing that I'm going to be researching are the institutions behind many popular horror films as they are the ones who create, distribute and publish them. The reason I'm researching them is because I would like to find out what type of film company would distribute our film and if they were mainstream or independent.
Renaissance Pictures
Renaissance pictures is an American film and TV production company created by director Sam Raimi who has produced many well known films such as The Grudge film trilogy (2004, 2006 and 2009). And arguably his most well known film series The Evil Dead series starting in 1981 with The Evil Dead and a currently airing TV show Ash vs Evil Dead (2015). The films are a fantastic example of the Action Horror films as they incorporate many conventions from the supernatural horror genre such as demonic possession seen when Cheryl is possessed and the necronomicon ex mortis (book of the dead) a key demonic item in The Evil Dead film franchise.
Ash Williams
The films also uses many conventions in the Action genre, this can be seen through the protagonist Ash Williams. This is because he shares many traits with Action film protagonists they are brave and fearless never backing down from a fight. He is never shown in a weak state (scared, powerless) however they do show him being injured but only to show him fight demons with these injuries to show how strong he really is. This can be seen when he had to cut his own hand of with a chainsaw to prevent being possessed only to then attach to the chainsaw to his arm to kill more demons. This makes him conform with the 1980's Action hero stereotype who is a fearless one man army who always prevails against the villains.
Renaissances pictures filmography (click to expand)
Overall, this tells me that when creating our film trailers we should try to use a good variety of conventions of from both genres in our film that while unique to there respective genres work well together so that the audience will be more interested in seeing our film after viewing the trailer. Looking at Renaissances pictures I believe that they are a independent film company this is because looking at their Filmography many of their films were I either made for TV screenings or direct to video films whereas the few films that did make to cinemas either had mixed or negative views except for The Evil Dead film trilogy and Darkman (1990) however Darkman's sequels Darkman II: The Return of Durant (1995) and Darkman III: Die Darkman Die (1996) were both straight to video releases and were received poorly. This tells me they are independent companies as a Mainstream company would have no issues getting their films into cinemas as they would have a much larger budget that they could use for distributing the film into cinemas.
Paramount Pictures
Paramount pictures is an conglomerate film company who have created many films since their beginnings in 1912. While they have made loads of iconic horror action films such as the Friday the 13th film series which is regarded as one of the greatest slasher films of all time. However, I'll be looking at one of their more recent horror films that they have created so that I can compare to a much older horror film such as The Evil Dead. The film I chosen is 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) a sequel to the 2008 film Cloverfield. Unlike the first film Cloverfield lane doesn't follow the found footage style of cinematography seen in the first film instead using more conventional forms of cinematography which was heavily criticised in the May 2016, Volume 26, Issue 5 of Sight & Sound magazines. This can be seen when critic Adam Nayman said the film had a 'lack of imagination' referring to the cinematography and the cop-out ending.
Howard Stambler
Comparing it to The Evil Dead we see a large amount of differences despite both being from the horror genre. Firstly, The Evil Dead is very similar to many horror films from the 1980's which can be seen through action hero styled protagonist and the excessive gore that was used to terrify audiences more. However, Cloverfield lane follows a fear of the unknown route as you never truly see the main antagonists (While Howard Stambler can be considered the main antagonist as he is around early in the film and dies close to the ending). But at the ending of the film when Michelle escapes the bunker it's revealed that the earth is being invaded by aliens presumably the same race as the one from the first film who attempt to kill her linking it to the original film. Also, another difference we see is the difference in the protagonist. As I mentioned earlier Ash Williams is a stereotypical 1980's action hero however Michelle is much more of a realistic character compared to Ash which can be seen throughout the film. For example when she wakes up in the bunker she looks out a window and notices Howard's truck she remembers that she was forced of the road by a truck because of this she desperately tries to escape the bunker. Now that type of scene would of been dramatically different if it happened in an 1980's horror film as she would of most likely still escaped but be killed by the aliens immediately afterwards to show the rest of the characters the real antagonist of the film.
After analysing both a Mainstream and Independent film company. I believe that it would be best if we used a mainstream film company as it would be less risky when creating the film as we would have a larger budget and because of this it would much easier distributing are film into cinemas so a larger audience would be able to see the film whereas if we used an independent film company while we may have more overall control of how the film is made much less people would see the film if it was only shown on TV or went directly to DVD. A mainstream film would also see much more advertisement in the media so that a larger audience go to see it upon its release.
BBFC logo and slogan
As we are doing an action horror film it's important to find out how they are rated before we create it as the rating of a film dramatically effects the audience who will be viewing the film upon its release. In England films and TV shows are rated by the BBFC (British Board of Film Certificates) their purpose is to accurately rate films so that they are suitable for audiences.
X certificate
Before a film can be released for the film it must be rated which determines what age group can watch the film. In the UK films are rated by the BBFC, there are currently 7 different ratings that a film can be giving which can be changed over time such as the X certificate which was renamed to the 18 certificate in 1982 as the letter X had garnered a lewd reputation. The current BBFC ratings are as follows:
U: Rated U means Universal so the film is suitable for all ages these films are very popular with families as they can all go to a film that they will enjoy. A good majority of films that Disney release are rated U as they can then be enjoyed by a larger audience.
PG: PG means Parental Guidance this means that while the film can be viewed by all audiences parents may want to watch the film with or before their children to make sure their is nothing unsuitable for their kids in it. Many PG films are still made with children in mind these include Harry Potter and the sorcerers stone (2001), Frozen (2013) and surprisingly Jaws (1975).
12: A 12 rating means that you must be 12 and no less to see the film this is the first proper rating which the audiences who can see the film as no one under 12 can see the film. These films also start ti include more mature themes which may include moderate violence, and very minor bad language. Films in this category include The Woman in Black (2012) and The Bourne Identity (2002).
12A: 12A ratings mean 12 Adult this means that people under the age of 12 can see the film however they must be accompanied by an adult before they can watch. Many films that are rated 12 are also rated 12A such as The Dark Knight (2008).
15: 15 rating means you must be 15 to see the film and it doesn't require you to have an adult accompanying you to the film. These films allow strong language and violence but also more controversial topics such as having the inclusion of racist/homophobic characters but not racial language. They also allow minor sex and nudity scenes and also sexual/sadistic threats. Films in this category include Insidious (2010), Logan (2017) and Alien: Covenant (2017).
18: 18 rating means that only people who are the age of 18 can see the films these films can include pretty much anything except for vast nudity and strong fetish material. Examples of rated 18 films are 300 (2006), Predator (1987) and John Wick (2014).
R18: Restricted 18 is the only thing above the 18 rating, it's straight up pornography as it includes the only things 18 can't such as vast nudity, strong fetish materials and all other things in the pornography industry.
Banned: While not technically a rating a banned film is not allowed to be distributed to the public by legal methods (cinema viewings, shop products) these are sometimes referred as Video Nasties but this is dependent on the type of content in the film. The contents of these films can vary ranging from hate crime to extreme sexual content (rape) a couple of example of banned films that are still banned to this day are Hidden Rage (1988), Hate Crime (2015) and the uncut version of Human Centipede 2 (2011) which had to be cut 32 times to make it an 18 rated film.
Looking at our idea I believe that the best rating for our film would either be rated 15 or 18. This is because both ratings allow strong language and violence which are conventions of the horror action. It also allows us to create a more serious tone for our film trailer which will attract a larger audience to our film.
As we are creating a Horror Action film trailer I've decided to look at a variety of film trailers of that genre I will also look at film posters from Horror Action films as they share many conventions with film trailers.
Camp Crystal Lake
The first poster that I'll be analysing is for the film Friday the 13th (2009). The first thing that stands out to me first is Jason Voorhees the films antagonist with the title of the film in bold block capitals so that they stand out. This makes it so people can instantly recognise the iconic film franchise because of this more people will want to go and see the film as they are aware that it's an very popular series of film. Furthermore, the red font also shows that this is a horror film as the colour red connotes blood and death which are major conventions to the horror genre. Another key element to the poster is the tagline above Jason which reads 'WELCOME TO CRYSTAL LAKE' crystal lake referring to a key setting to the films. This is important because a tagline is a quick, catchy phrase that created buzz for the film and may cause the first wave of buzz as some posters come out before the teaser trailer for the film. Another thing that I noticed is that the dark greens and blues in the background make the red stand out much more which could suggest that the film contains lots of blood and gore. The background also appears to be in a forest most likely referring to camp crystal lake from the films.
The Nightmare Factory as shown in Freddy vs Jason (2003) Notice how the dark red lighting make Freddy look like a shadowy figure making him more ominous and demonic
Another Horror action film poster that I'll be analysing is for the film A Nightmare on Elm street (2010). Looking at this poster I can see that it shares any similarities with the Friday the 13th poster both posters have the films antagonist in the centre of the poster this one having Freddy Krueger, The titles are both in red, bold writing and a tagline conforming to key themes in the films as the phrase 'HE KNOWS WHERE YOU SLEEP' references how Freddy kills his victims in his sleep consequently leading them to die in real life. However this poster does have some differences, the most obvious one is that Freddy appears to be standing over his next victim I believe this because although the low key lighting hides Freddy's and his victim's face we can slightly see that her eyes are shut implying that she is sleeping. Also the entire poster has a reddish tint giving it a more demonic vibe. This may be reference to the Nightmare factory a recurring location in the films being the place Freddy kills most his victims. After looking at these two posters I believe that if we create a poster for our horror action film we have the the main antagonist in the centre of the poster with potential victims surrounding him, we will also make the films title stands out among the rest of the poster and so it empathises the themes of the film.
