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The Exorcist Movie Poster Analysis

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Analytical Review

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Kersey 1

Spenser Kersey

Professor Julia Smith

English 106

February 8, 2014

The Exorcist Movie Poster Analysis

The Exorcist movie poster initially appears to be very simple. The house, streetlight,

sidewalk, and vehicle in the driveway all seem simple. With another look at the poster the

complexity of it stands out. The poster’s design took a very simple image of a house and made it

very complex by putting certain variations in parts of the poster. He shines a very bright,

powerful light out of the upstairs window. This light shines down onto a silhouette of what looks

like a man. Also, the light illuminating from the window shines directly at an open gate in front

of the house. All of these changes made to a quite simple image create a new level of interest and

complexity for this poster. The text used on the top of the poster gives the movie buffs a chance

to build their own expectations for the movie. The Exorcist poster intrigues not only horror

movie fans but all audiences.

The light illuminating from the upper left window speaks to those detectives looking for a

mystery to solve. The difference between this light coming from the upper left window and the

other lights is apparent, it has more power and overtakes all the other lights in this poster. The

light appears to be paranormal or something different than all the other lights. The appeal

towards the mystery fan base stands out because we, as the audience who have never seen the

movie before, do not know what rests inside that window. Not knowing what resides inside that

room sparks interest in all of the people looking to solve a mystery. Seeing this mysterious light

makes the viewer more curious and makes them want to not only solve a mystery but to solve the

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Kersey 2

one specific mystery that this poster illustrates. The poster appeals to the viewer’s emotions by

making them feel intrigued. The use of pathos makes theses intrigued viewers feel obligated to

see the movie.

The use of shadows attracts mystery solvers also. The shadowy figure immersed in this

blinding light casts a shadow behind himself. The light pole casts a shadow and the fence

running along the front of the house also does. The plants also cast shadows. Whenever there is

light there has to be shadows, right? As the audience sees in this image, shadows are casted but

not like typical shadows. The shadows do not extend through the bottom of the poster as they

would if the shadows were more realistic. The shadows get stopped by this darkness along the

bottom of the page. Viewers see this as a mystery also, why does the darkness over power the

shadows? The darkness seems to have a similar amount of power as the blinding light. Once

again the poster appeals to the viewer’s emotions by making them desire to solve the mystery.

The shadows and darkness now have just as much of a mystery to them as the light coming from

the window has. Now, on behalf of the powerful lighting versus the powerful darkness, a

mystery movie lover needs to see this movie to fulfill their want that the use of pathos gave

them.

The text along the top of the poster fascinates your typical horror movie fan. The text is

white surrounded by the darkest part of the poster. This contrast keeps building on the

assumption that the light and darkness could be equally as powerful. The first part of the text

reads “The Scariest Movie Of All Time Has Returned,” this text has significance because it

builds our trust in this poster. It gives this poster credibility because this movie has been done

before and now the scariest movie ever is back. Ethos’ use here allows the horror movie fans to

give this poster a second look. The second part of the text reads “In A Version You’ve Never

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Kersey 1 Spenser Kersey Professor Julia Smith English 106 February 8, 2014 The Exorcist Movie Poster Analysis The Exorcist movie poster initially appears to be very simple. The house, streetlight, sidewalk, and vehicle in the driveway all seem simple. With another look at the poster the complexity of it stands out. The poster’s design took a very simple image of a house and made it very complex by putting certain variations in parts of the poster. He shines a very bright, powerful light out of the upstairs window. This light shines down onto a silhouette of what looks like a man. Also, the light illuminating from the window shines directly at an open gate in front of the house. All of these changes made to a quite simple image create a new level of interest and complexity for this poster. The text used on the top of the poster gives the movie buffs a chance to build their own expectations for the movie. The Exorcist poster intrigues not only horror movie fans but all audiences. The light illuminating from the upper left window speaks to those detectives looking for a mystery to solve. The difference between this light coming from the upper left window and the other lights is apparent, it has more power and overtakes all the other lights in this poster. The light appears to be paranormal or something different than all the other lights. The appeal towards the mystery fan base stands out because we, as the audience who have never seen the movie before, do not know what rests ...
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Tags: The Exorcist Movie The Exorcist Movie Poster horror movie mystery movie powerful lighting versus the powerful darkness