Analysing Horror Film Posters - 'The Babadook'

The poster for 'The Babadook' contains a number of conventions typical of the horror genre:

• Low-key lighting and muted colours (drab greys and browns), creating a sinister unsettling effect - reinforced by the underlighting on the child in the poster.
• The use of black as a dominant colour connotes danger, death and evil (and is a common colour used in the horror genre), which often plays on the audience's fear of the dark. The use of white indicates a ghostly presence in the film.
• The reviews frequently use language associated with the horror genre, such as 'frightening'.
• The font is bold, suggesting the seriousness of the narrative, but it is also scratched, which is typical of fonts used in the horror genre.
• The rating is '15', a common certificate for films from the genre.
• The poster features children as characters - something which is common in the genre where children are either the victims or the sinister characters.
• The tagline directly addresses the audience with the word 'you', a common convention in marketing for films from the horror genre, and also implies that there is no escape from the monster.