I am going to be looking at 2 different official film posters (used for advertising before the release), one for the first Woman In Black film (2012) and the other for the 2015 film "Woman in Black 2 - Angel of Death." The sequel (Angel of Death) is a historical horrror thriller with elements of the psychological sub genre within it. The plot concerns two teachers and a group of evacuees who have to stay in a secluded mansion called Eel Marsh House, in which a ghost haunts and preys on children.
The withered and cracked hands would draw the audience in due to them arguably looking creepy/disgusting. The alien, grey colour of her skin is also scary looking and contrasts with the darker, more human like colour of the child she is touching. Her nails look dirty, adding to the overall gruesome, repugnant look of it. We can identify the hands as belonging to a female due to the Edwardian looking dress she is wearing, the black lace gives it a morbid look (as well as identifying her as the woman in black), something that would be arguably intentional due to the genre - the Edwardian flare gives the audience a clue that it is historical, and the state of her hands show it is a ghost, incorporating paranormal, horror elements into it.
There are two visual elements in this poster which point to psychological undertones in the film. The first of them is the way the woman is covering the child's eyes. It could be inferred that the child is being silenced by the woman in black, or that he or she is being smothered by her, or more effectively her wrath. It could also be interpreted as a symbol of her power over children, as she almost bewitches them into death.
The second is the smaller writing that reads "she never left." The font of this adds to the overall effect, as it looks as though someone has scratched it on, indicating a tormented state, in turn adding to the subsequent horror of the film.
Another way of looking at this would be that the handwriting font is infantile and therefore links to the motif of children present in both films, and the audience who have already watched the first film know that she preys on their innocence, showing a continuation and therefore appealing to previous audiences/fans of these films, which would be another intention in releasing this poster.
Something I think that does not fit with the genre of the film in this poster is the red used. I agree that it captures the attention of passers by (another key intention) but I do not think it fits with the general agenda of the first film (and the second). The subtlety of the underplayed horror element was a success, therefore I think if they had been in a grey coloured font it would have looked better and fitted with the criteria of these films which have turned them into successes.
The first film is a supernatural thriller and concerns Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) "a widowed lawyer whose grief has put his career as a lawyer in jeopardy, is sent to a remote village to sort out the affairs of a recently deceased eccentric. But upon his arrival, it soon becomes clear that everyone in the town is keeping a deadly secret. Although the townspeople try to keep Kipps from learning their tragic history, he soon discovers that the house belonging to his client is haunted by the ghost of a woman who is determined to find someone and something she lost…and no one, not even the children, are safe from her vengeance." (CBSfilms.com)
At first glance, this poster is particularly disturbing because of the way someone has scratched out the two children's eyes. This links to the disturbing subject matter seen within the film, but its primary purpose is to shock the viewer, leading to intrigue. If you look closer at the picture there is a ghostly face that is contorted in a scream (just above the two children).
On top of this, there is what looks like a hand clutching onto the baby, although this is ambiguous and could just be a stain like the other marks around the picture, but this could be used for effect. The caption 'what did they see?' again leaves the viewer guessing, and the way in which the photograph is composed makes it look as though the two subjects are looking at something - or someone.
The font used for this question is the same, child like handwriting previously mentioned, conveying an emotionally disturbed, obsessive state through the repeated scratch like markings.
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