Nor Azmira binti Tamizi (1819028)

ENGL 4056 (1)

Dr Nora Nasir

9 June 2022

A Semiotic Analysis of two posters

This paper will analyse two posters: typical and atypical posters from a particular genre. In
this analysis, the two posters are from horror/thriller genre films in which the typical poster is
a poster from Us (2019), and the atypical poster is Midsommar (2019) poster. Generally,
horror and thriller film posters will feature dark and mysterious elements. A film poster is
usually created to attract people to watch by illustrating some hints or questionable images.
For horror/thriller films, the poster usually gives off disturbing and weird expressions. This
analysis will compare and contrast the two posters and analyse some elements of the posters.

In the Us (2019) film poster, the most significant part of the image is the mask that
looks the same as the girl. Literally, a mask denotes hiding, disguising and concealing
something. The movie presents the plot where there was an experiment creating
doppelgangers or clones of people, which then sorted the doppelgangers to live underground
and the original lives in the above world. Making the image of a realistic mask with a similar
face to the girls foregrounds the movie's plot of humans with a doppelganger who tries to kill
them. The title "Us" also indicates more than one person. Further, the mask and the girl
connote the idea of marginalisation. The girl covers half of her face with a mask, and her
other half shows her crying face. The face hidden from the mask may connote oppression and
rejection of the other, which in the context will be the one in the underground. Also, the mask
represents people who are in the above as the face, and the mask and the face have different
expressions. The mask has a rather friendly look than the girl who is crying, which describes
that underground people are hidden and treated badly compared to the other lives above.

On the other hand, Midsommar illustrates a quite distinct image as a horror film. The
poster has a girl who wears a flower crown crying. A flower crown denotes a crown made
from flowers, usually worn during a festival in which it is part of the movie plot. The title,
Midsommar, is derived from the word midsummer, and the plot is about a group of
youngsters going to Sweden to attend a midsummer festival that then leads to disturbing
events involving a pagan cult. Moreover, flowers are usually associated with summertime and
the bright colour that fits summer days. The colour of the poster plays an important role in
this poster as it appears different compared to the traditional look of a horror film poster.
However, the image of crying is quite disturbing to fit such a setting, and the woman's facial
expression describes despair and sadness. Summer is usually described as part of happy
memories where people spend their holidays. However, crying girl features with other bright
colours such as blue and yellow may connote something uncomfortable. As crying denotes
sadness and despair, such an image connotes the girl might have been through an unfortunate
experience.

Although the posters seem to contrast each other, there are similarities between these
posters: both use female characters and have a tear in the picture. It can be depicted that the
main character of the film is female. Tear denotes crying, which is a sentimental action that is
usually labelled feminine. A photo of a crying woman will express more emotion as it would
gain more empathy than crying men would be represented as weak. The sentimental action
hints to the viewer that this film plays around with psychological elements.
 Next, colour and light are used in these films. Horror film posters usually play around
with black, white, and red colours with a high contrast effect. In this analysis, the typical
poster fits the earlier characteristic, but the atypical poster has the opposite features. The
typical poster from Us (2019) has the typical colour palette, which is black and red and has
low exposure, making the image darker. Due to the dark effect, the image of the girl is well
blended in with the background as the hair and ears of the girl are invisible in the poster.
Thus, it shows some mysterious effects. Moreover, the black colour connotes evil and
mystery, while the red connotes danger and anger. These colours describe the feeling of the
people who live underground.

On the contrary, Midsommar (2019) has a colourful and bright poster. A colourful
poster is rarely applied for gory and horrifying elements. But the colour fits well to the setting
where it takes place during summertime. The picture is bright, and it seems like the woman is
exposed to natural light during summer, where the background is blue. The poster has green,
yellow and blue colours. Blue can connote sadness which fits the image of a crying girl to
depict the girl's feelings. Yellow and green are the colours of the flower crown that associate
with festivals as yellow can connotes happiness and hope, and green usually represents nature
and also gives the idea of fertility. Summer is also known as the season of fertility.

Furthermore, the text, masthead and credits are stated on the poster. For Us, all the
text, masthead and credits are in white coloured. But the distinctions between all those texts
are the type of typography and its size. At the top of the poster is a sell-line mentioning the
director's achievement above his name and his previous work. This sell-line is in all
uppercase, but the director's name, Jordan Pelle, is in bigger font than the other word, and the
title of the previous movie, Get Out, is a slightly bigger font and italicised to give the focus
more on that information. Hence, people who know either the director or the previous movie
may be interested in watching the film. The masthead and credits are positioned at the bottom
part of the poster. The title, Us (masthead), is the biggest text in the poster with calligraphy-
type typography, which will draw attention to the title. Below the masthead are the credits,
and it has very thin typography but is still eligible to read to those who want to read it.

For Midsommar, the texts in the poster are written from the centre to the bottom of
the poster, and all are written in white coloured. In the middle of the poster, there are words
listed down which are "let the/festivities/begin", which actually makes a sentence "let the
festivities begin", and below it is the date for the showing. The texts are written in uppercase.
Next, the bottom part has the masthead, which is written in the biggest font compared to the
rest of the texts. The typography used is quite basic and classic. Above the masthead is the
sell-line stating the director's name and his previous work. The sell-line combines two
typography types in which the director's name and his previous film are in uppercase and
basic font, while the other text in the line is italicised and lowercase. The difference may
make the director's info stand out without affecting the focus on the masthead. This poster
does not focus on the credits as it only states the production house, which is at the very
bottom of the poster under the masthead.

In addition, both posters include their sell-line to attract people to watch the film. Us
(2019) uses "A new nightmare from the mind of an Academy Award Winner" to indicate that
a great director makes the movie. The filmmaker's name, Jordan Peele and his award-winning
film, Get Out also are mentioned in the poster. The poster is trying to attract people's
attention by using the publicity of the filmmaker and his previous famous film. Similarly,
Midsommar's poster also features a similar thing where the poster inserts "from Ari Aster,
director of Hereditary" in the name of the director and his work is mentioned. Hereditary is
the director's previous horror film. People who knew the director and liked the previous film
may be anticipated and may create publicity.

Besides, the Us poster has film information that mentions the directors, casts,
production crew and companies like any other typical film poster. It also includes the rating
information, which is R means restricted, thus indicating the movie is not suitable for
children and contains explicit or violent content. In contrast, Midsommar as an atypical
poster does not have much content of film information except the production company, A24.
Having the companies mentioned will attract people who know about the companies'
production.

In terms of structural and formal dynamics, both posters are in portrait layout as it
gives more focus to the image. For Us, the poster has an image of a girl in a medium close-up
shot in the centre of the poster. The image of the girl is about to fill the whole poster. So, the
poster focuses on the girl's expression and the action of holding the mask. The girl's hand is
also in the centre part of the poster. Meanwhile, Midsommar has the image of a close-up shot
of a girl. However, the poster only shows half of the girl's face as it shows more details on the
woman's facial expression where the tear on her face can be seen clearly and also the details
of the flower crown to represent the summertime feelings. The text in the poster is well
positioned on the woman's face to make the text stand out, as the woman's face has a warm
tone to contrast the white text.

Last but not least the mise-en-scene of the posters. For Us, the mise-en-scene can be
seen through the costume worn by the character, where she wears a plain red shirt that looks
almost like a uniform. The red colour that connotes danger could indicate that the girl is
dangerous as her costume is quite bold with the orange-brownish leather fingerless gloves.
The bold costume portrays the girl's bold action and determination. The realistic mask she is
holding is also quite disturbing, as if the mask is an actual human face. The mask may as well
indicate the act of taking their doppelganger's identity by killing them. The low lighting
makes the girl's image as if she just comes out from darkness which relates to the plot where
the woman is coming out from the underground.

Meanwhile, Midsommar's mise-en-scene is from the costume and props worn by the
woman. The woman in the picture wears a flower crown and a white shirt with blue
embroidery. The white colour usually connotes purity which is also a symbolic colour to the
characters in the film because the people of the cult in this film are only wearing white. The
prop is the flower crown which is associated with summer and also a festival. Besides, the
text in the poster also states, "let the festivities begin." However, the woman's expression
shows irony as she has a sad expression with a tear on her face. The bright colour and the
flower crown depict a happy event. Although the picture shows a delightful setting, the
viewers can predict unfortunate events would happen in the film as the woman's expression
portrays otherwise.

In conclusion, Us and Midsommar have portrayed some mysterious and psychological

elements. Both films may trigger the audience's curiosity, where Us shows the disturbing
realistic mask and Midsommar's juxtaposition of sorrowful expression and lovely prop.
Compared to Us, the Midsommar poster may cause surprise to the new audience when they
watch the film. Besides, the cinematography of Midsommar is different compared to other
horror films, as mentioned earlier, where the setting takes place in bright and wide spaces.
Besides, the title itself is quite odd, instead of spelling it correctly as midsummer, it is spelt as
Midsommar may indicate a different kind of midsummer. Hence, the atypical poster is to
portray the plot of the film that involves many peculiar elements.