Film Poster Analysis-Orphan

Film Poster For Orphan 

In this essay I am going to analyse the film poster, for the film “Orphan”. Orphan is in a hybrid genre, and is in the genres of horror, mystery, and thriller . The film was released in 2009 by the media institution Warner Brother.

The film is horror, mystery, and thriller. A convention from the poster to show that the film is a horror, is the fact that there is a close up of the girl, this makes us feel uncomfortable, and make us slightly scared of her. The convention which allows us to see that the film is a thriller, is the fact that the girl is wearing a choker, this has a sense of mystery to it. Finally the part of the poster that lets us see that the film will be a thriller is because, although you can see that there is a scary girl on the picture, she is not doing anything violent, this connotes that it is going to lead us to a story that will unleash her hidden past.

The poster has a lot of mise-en-scene, it has this to allows the audience to know what the film is about without telling them directly.  The poster has a green background, green has the connotations, of nature, youth, and envy. The film is a girl who lies about her age, she is acting as a younger girl when in fact she is much older, this is why the connotations lead us to believe she is much older. Esther is wearing  typical school clothing, but it is rather formal, and  unusual, this connotes that she is evil and assists with the convention that this film is going to be a horror. Esther is wearing a large choker, this connotes that she has something to hide. Even the name of the film ‘Orphan’ has the connotations of having something to hide, a dark unknown history. Esther is staring directly at the audience, this makes the audience feel uncomfortable, wherever the audience looks at this poster from the girl is always looking at you, this makes it personal, and makes the audience have a deeper look, because they are curious, and uneasy about a girl staring at them. The font used in the title appears to be scratched, this connotes violence, and struggling, this makes the audience aware that the film will have a horror twist to it. The girls eyes are black, this connotes that she is evil, powerful, unknown and is the antagonist, this makes the audience have negative connotations towards her. 

The target audience would be a mass adult audience, this is because it only has mild horror, has elements of humor, and is generally mild in all of its potentially off putting parts. Although this film would have a mass audience, children would most likely find it offensive or scary.

I believe that the poster was effective at conveying the general feeling and mood to the film. The poster is interesting, and slightly scary at the same time. Because this is traditional media, the media institution has to make shore people will stop and look at the poster, and not just ignore it, this poster makes you stop to see a nicely dressed little girl, but on further examination of the picture, the audience can tell that there is something not quite about this girl, with the line ‘There’s Something Wrong With Esther’ this makes the audience aware that Esther is not a normal girl, this makes the audience curious about what such an innocent little girl could be hiding that makes her so bad.