Chloe Sorley

PRINT ANALYSIS

MAGAZINE COVERS

SCREAM & THE EVIL DEAD

The colours used on this magazine will straight away attract the target audience as it is clearly a horror magazine. The title ‘SCREAM’ is more effective as it is main skyline in red, and red is often connoted with blood, fire, and danger. The colour palet rule is red, yellow, black and white, the yellow skylines stand out from the black background and so make good use for the sub headings to be drawn to. The black is used as darkness more often in horror films than any other genre, this makes the audience aware of the darkness and gives us the fear for it.By having a sub heading of ‘BLOOD, GUTS, GORE & MORE’ the target audience audience will expect a lot from Evil Dead, as it is the main article and we are drawn to the image, it will attract more viewers who trust the magazine.

SCREAM DECONSTRUCTED

The magazine features other films on the front cover, and although it is not the main story the readers who are interested will be more likely to buy it and then read about the evil dead and therefore be more tempted to go and watch it.

As I already have mentioned about the colour used, the font used for the magazine title is very effective as the colour red already gives connotations of blood, the writing appears to be dripping, as if it is blood.

Although there isn’t a lot of writing on the front cover, the language used is very informal, this will appeal more to the target audience as they are most likely a younger audience of about 18-30 and more formal language is used in magazines and newspapers with an older target audience.

SCREAM DECONSTRUCTED

By having the main image using most of the space on the cover, this gives the indication that the story inside is a big one and not one to disappoint. Fans of the original Evil Dead will be quickly drawn to the story as the remake is very talked-about. The use of ‘EVIL DEAD’ in white writing, again, stands out in comparison to the dark background. The image chosen for the film is a good choice in that it looks very scary and the chain indicates that it is locked up and wanting to escape. Her dirty broken skin and yellow eyes is a good use of mise-en0scene that it gives the reader the thought thought of the film including the use of possession and the title ‘Evil Dead’ is a violent one.

FANGORIA COVER

The ‘FANGORIA’ magazine cover is well constructed and I think it achieves what it sets out to very well. This is shown in the colour palet, the title, font, language and image positioning. The film reel at the bottom is also very attractive to the target audience as it gives horror fans more of a choice. If the reader is a fan of one of the movies on the reel they are more likely to buy the magazine and read through everything else, attracting them to other horror films and leaving them wanting to view them. Similarly with the huge image in the centre of the cover, it doesn’t give the audience the chance to take everything in and we are reeled into the scary image.

FANGORIA RECONSTRUCTED

The title is used very well here as it indicates that it is a horror magazine. This is incated through the word ‘fang’ and the font is shaped like sharp vampire teeth, this is also shown in the colour as the white represents the teeth and the red surrounding the white represents the blood line.

The colour palet rule is used well as the main colours used again is red, white, black and yellow, similar to ‘SCREAM’ magazine. The red connotes blood and danger and while white connotes innocence, which works well with the insidious film as they are a normal innocent family who are terrorised by demons.

FANGORIA DECONSTRUCED

The positioning of the image is centre framed, this allows for the cover to have the image as their readers main attraction. The lighting of the shot is dark and only lit up by candle light. By having the heading and sub headings over the image it gives off the feel that the image is watching you, which becomes apparent after watching the film as it cling on to the characters and possesses one of them. The blackness of this shot gives the viewers and readers something to fear as we fear the unknowingness of the dark.