As said throughout, The Amityville Horror has been a huge influence on the making of our teaser trailer. While the familiar story line of family moves into the 'unusually' cheap house which no one seems to want to talk about due to its history may seem simple, it takes a lot of different conventions from the horror genre itself to make it scary.
The Amityville Horror does not only use the haunting of the ghosts to scare the audience but one of the key themes throughout the film is that the house on its own possesses evil which no one can escape. Above are two official posters of the film which were released before the trailer. They are both interesting because they play on different aspects of the film to tease with. The first one uses a simple layout of the clouded, almost illuminated half of the house to tease the audience into wanting to know what is inside that house. This poster raises questions because of its simplicity. The black background with the dimly lit house gives an eery feeling as if the house is its own presence, erupting from the darkness with the ivy plant creeping up the side of the house. Almost showing its abandoned, stand alone feel from its unkempt appearance. The viewers eyes are immediately drawn to the house emerging from the darkness because it takes up the top 2/3 of the poster.
The contrast between the white house and the black background makes the front of the house which is shown stand out. The surrounding darkness from the house, clouding at the sides could illustrate as if the house is being consumed by darkness, or consumed by evil. Combining the dimly, pale white/grey house and complete darkness around the house it highlights the fact that that only the windows at the top of the house are lit, as if something is happening there. While the windows at the bottom of the house are dark, the lights being off could symbolize death, or evil as horror movies tend to use darkness to portray a type of villain or the unknown. With the windows at the top of the house slightly rounded and lit up it almost personifies the house with the windows being eyes, as if the house is watching, or the evil within the house is watching. The title of the film uses quite a simple formal font, although the graphics of making it look slightly smudged or flickering like a candlelight gives an uneasy feel as though the candle lights represent the supernatural and paranormal presence. The blurred aspect to the font also uses the illusion factor of the film. The blurry font almost symbolize whether to believe the spirits or ghosts are real.
The second poster still use the house as a key attribute of the film except as the image is shot from a low angle it makes the viewers of the poster feel vulnerable and intimidated by the sheer size of the house. This low angle shot makes the house seem like its looming over us, towering and closing in around us as if we can not escape. The man's stance in front of the house looks determined, his shoulders are squared with his head bowed as if he is preparing himself with something. The gun in his hand makes the viewers confused as to whether he is the hero or the villain this is also because the way that the man is positioned looks as though he is up against the house, in competition to defeat the evil.
The colours in the poster are not as contrasted as in the first one, they are more dimmed and light greens and greys. The font of the title of the film is also different than in the first poster, the use of red colour is a traditional convention used by horror movies signifying blood, violence and death. The enlarging of the Y letter in the title could symbolize a trail of blood, or a trail to hell as the colours at the end of the letter lighten to more fiery yellows/oranges. Finally the slogan of the film is hand-scratched into the wall which immediately creates unease because of the idea that it is some one's attempt to convey a message. The 'katch em and kill em' slogan purposefully spells the word 'catch' wrong, this plays on the idea that a child may have scratched the message into the wall. The way the slogan is spelt creates a short and prompt order to fulfil which teases the audience to want to know who is the killer and who is being killed.
Both posters specifically use that the film is based on a true story, they write this under the title of the film as if it is the headline of a newspaper, the horror which took place in this house is portrayed and then reminds the viewers of the film that it is a true story which can attract viewers because it may scare them more to know that what they watch is not fiction and that it actually happened.
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