When creating our teaser film poster we gained a great deal of inspiration from "The Amityvile Horror", combining both the house and the writing embedded upon the wall. The slogan is scratched into the wall as if evil was a part of the the house itself. The juxtaposition of the child like hand writing combined with brutal sadistic slogan "In order to survive, someone must take your place" creates a sense of unease for the viewer. However in order to create a slight twist, to bring originality to the poster we used the twins for a number of reasons. The reason we Incorporated the house was because it represents the origins of the paranormal presents and there are many connotations linked with the house that create a sense of horror. As an educated audience of horror the use of a house has connotations of safety, security and familiarity yet the layout of the house illustrated a doorway into the unknown and a presence of evil which the house possesses. This is emphasised further by the twins, and their subtle engagement to the viewer by being possessed on the left hand side of the poster. The blank expressions that appear upon their faces, create a sense of uneasy amongst the audience as it contrasts with the expected smiley,happy, bubbly child we see in our everyday lives. So it almost portrays a sense of death as they hold no life in their eyes. For the modern horror fanatic the twins should immediately represent something evil as it is one of the typical conventions of horror we see in such films as"The Shining". As the twins were our main focus of the promotional campaign, it was important for us to use them in our poster to allow the viewers to gain a sense of recognition as they are an established feature of our marketing campaign. However we decided to only give them a surface area of a quarter of the poster, to ensure there was still some mystery and to also live up to the title of creating an "Illusion".
The black surroundings on the poster connotes a typical convention used in horror movies as the sense of unknown can be more terrifying then of what is actually present, therefore an empty space is more scary because as viewers we are expecting something to fill it. The anticipation of what could be behind the darkness intrigues viewers to want to see the film. The point of view element from the surrounding darkness gives the viewer a sense of perspective as they feel that they are the ones watching the house, and are drawn in by looking at the door and the twins. This gives the viewer control over what they are witnessing yet they still feel a sense of vulnerability due to the darkness and the size of the house.
The certificate we gave to our film was an 18 and we believed the logo should be used on our poster in order to entice an audience who are willing to see the scariest of horrors. This is because we felt that an 18 movie is more successful as viewers assume that producers and directors have gone that one step further in order to terrify them to their wits end. Other genres of films tend not to include the certificate on their posters, yet for horrors this could be a crucial selling point as the viewers anticipate the higher the rating the more horrific the film. We also included a review from "Empire Magazine" as they are an established film critic, consequently receiving 5 stars from them would have more of an impact then that from "Heat Magazine". They are also who we have chosen to use for our promotional magazine cover.
