Horror Film Poster Analysis 1

The Omen (1976)

Director: Richard Donner

Country: America/Britain

Genre: Suspense Horror

Considered one of the best horror films of all time, The Omen’s poster is simple, yet effective. Supposedly, the words ‘The Omen’ being red in colour and the centrepiece of the poster is based on the famous Jaws poster. This isn’t all; The Omen had two weeks of sneak previews prior to the launch and a novelisation by screenwriter David Seltzer, all part of an advertising campaign inspired by Jaws’ own.

The title is very eye-catching on the poster, because it is the only part in colour; the text is the largest size seen on the poster; and the presence of the ‘666’, the supposed ‘number of the beast’. Red is commonly used on horror film posters as a signifier of death, evil and blood. Coupled with the black background (another symbol of horror), we instantly know what genre the film is of, and roughly what to expect: scares and blood.

The font itself is quite gothic, and the slight tweaks in the placing of the characters could represent the disruption that the evil will surely cause. This is also represented in the outline/shadow of Damien Thorn (Harvey Spencer Stephens). The shadow, which is an outline of a jackal (relevant to the film), looks like it was roughly scratched onto the poster, like something that isn’t human has scrawled it on, so that it appears that Damien is more evil. On his own, he would just look like an ordinary little boy, but the fact we just see his outline, and the addition of the jackal shadow suggest a lot more: that he is lurking, waiting or watching you. Personally, I feel the inclusion of Damien’s parents, Robert and Katherine, is a bit unnecessary. I think the poster would have been just as powerful, if not more-so, without their faces there, just making it look like they were put on the poster because their contracts said that they had to. I could even go as far as to say that their presence actually takes away from what is quite a fascinatingly simple, endearing and thought-evoking poster.

As for the tag-lines, in my opinion there are far too many. Just “You have been warned” would have fit perfectly on its own. It seems that the rest of the text is just there to fill up space. A poster is supposed to catch the eye and interest of a passerby, not necessarily get them to stop and look at it for a while to read it.

So in conclusion, this is a good poster, but I think it could be made better by taking away the image of Robert and Katherine Thorn, moving Damien to the middle and taking away all of the text apart from “The Omen” and “You have been warned”. The poster would then express the horror of the film through its simplicity.

So in conclusion, this is a good poster, but I think it could be made better by taking away the image of Robert and Katherine Thorn, moving Damien to the middle and taking away all of the text apart from “The Omen” and “You have been warned”. The poster would then express the horror of the film through its simplicity.