The Amityville Horror film poster meets the conventions of a film poster because it has a Central image. The man in the central image is small, but he still attracts the audience because his posture and the weapon in his hand suggest he is dangerous. The house also attracts attention because it is large and is quite light compared to the black surrounding it, the image of the house is also an old, scary house so it tells the audience straight away that it is going to be a typical horror film. The other image at the bottom of the page saying 'catch em & kill em' gives the audience an insight to the film before they watch it. It also leaves the audience in suspense because they are left wondering who is going to be caught and killed. It is quite small compared to the other images on the page so it is only seen by people who look at the film poster in detail and not just glance at it. At the top of the film poster it says who made the film, it also gives another horror film he made. The other horror film he made was highly rated so it gives the impression this film is going to be just as good. It is quite small because it is not one of the most important things on the page as most people would not take notice of who made the film. The 'catch em and kill em' could also be seen as a tag line as is it catchy. It is an easy tag line to remember and is quite large compared to average tag lines so people who look at the film poster will remember it. The movie name is the only colour thing on the page as everything else is in black and white. This automatically makes it noticeable so it doesn't need to be large. The y in Amityville is stretched down to the end of the movie name, this gives the effect of blood and also adds detail to the movie name instead of it just being simple. Underneath the movie name it has 'based on a true story', this added fear to the poster as people will remember it when they are watching the film. It is also in white so it contrasts with the red above it, it does not take up much room on the page because people will see it after they read the larger movie name. This movie poster subverts the conventions of movie posters as it does not have a release date. This means people have to research the movie to see when it is out, this could be a good thing for the promotion of the movie as when people are researching they will come across other things such as images that would also attract them to the film. It has quite a large billing block at the bottom of the page, but even though it is large the writing is small and hard to read so it is still not noticeable. The billing block includes actors, directors, producers, etc, but would only really be read by someone who is interested in the making of the film. Colour is used in a very dark way to show the darkness of the film. The red is used to represent blood, but the movie poster is mostly black to show there is nothing to be happy about. The images on this film poster are simple as they do not include colour, they also do not give much information about the film except there is a violent man and a house involved. The target audience for this film would be older teens and adults, it appeals to the target audience because it leaves you wondering and you can tell a lot is going to happen. The cohesiveness with the trailer is achieved because the trailer is also dark, it does give off more information than the film poster though because it shows different things that happen in the house. It also shows you the front of males so you see the front of the person you see the back of in the trailer. It also gives you background to the story at the beginning of the trailer so you understand what is happening. The conclusions I have drawn from analysing this movie poster are that dark posters can have the same effect as colourful posters, and that if you have a good image the movie name does not need to be overly large.
At the beginning of The Amityville Horror teaser trailer there is video tapes and there is a midshot of a police officer talking into a microphone on the tape. This shows that the police officer does not need to be shown in detail and he is just someone talking, no one particularly important. The shot is quite simple also so it doesn't distract people from what he is saying, which is more important than seeing him. On another video tape there is a close up of some one's mouth when they are saying 'shot'. This shows the importance of the word shot and makes people watching remember that. There is a close up of a printed picture of a suspected murderer, this is to the audience can see him in detail to make an opinion about him and so they remember what he looks like. There is a long shot of the new family who are moving in playing with their children, this shows the happiness of them and shows fully what they look like (clothes, etc) so people can see what they are like. There is a midshot of the girl with the black hair who lived in the house before, this shows people what she looks like but not in too much detail, just enough so they remember her. There is also a low angle of the man from the new family in the bath looking scared and moving his arms, this shows that even though men are meant to be stereotypically not scared of things, he is. When the tapes are playing at the beginning there is a dissolve between them, this is to give the effect of video tapes playing and it also shows it is not a typical reality. There is a straight cut when a man is talking about people being shot, this contrasts that being shot can be a reality and it is a true thing that happened. When there is a long shot of the house there is a straight cut after to writing which shows the house is real and is someone's real house. At the end there is lots of short takes with lots of straight cuts, this quickly shows lots of things that happen and leaves the audience wondering what happens to the new family in the house. There is strange non-digetic sound over the tapes and when the newspaper reports are being shown. The music sounds a bit sci-fi but goes with the trailer as it seems unrealistic. The diegetic sound of the voices on the tapes are serious and show it is a serious case, they also add a sense of reality which contrasts with the non-digetic sci-fi noises around the same time. There is diegetic sound of the baby laughing when the new family are moving into the house, this contrasts with the rest of the sound in the trailer as it is happy, it also shows a sense of innocence because the baby does not know anything about the history of the house. When the short takes are happening at the end of the trailer there is non-digetic sound that builds tension right up until a woman's scream at the end of the trailer. The costume's of the Lutz family are light which shows they are a happy, normal family who think they are going to have a normal life, the sky is bright around them which adds to the happiness and normalness of their lives. The prop of the sign outside the house says "high hopes" which adds confusion as the last family were not very hopeful, the alliteration of the h also makes it memorable. The props of the flies on the man's face so weird things happen in the house, it also leaves the audience wondering why because flies are quite common and not scary. The girl who lived in the house before has a black costume on and has black hair, contrasting with her very pale face. This shows the girl isn't normal straight away, and it also adds to the horror of the trailer as children are usually seen as innocent. The target audience for this trailer would be older teens and adults and it attracts them because it leaves them in suspense, it has action towards the end and it is interesting. The conclusions I have drawn is that diegetic sound is effective if it is not used throughout the whole trailer, I have also concluded short takes are good if you want to show a lot of action.
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