Horror Poster Analysis: SCREAM 4

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SCREAM 4

The first thing we look at in this poster is how the iconic scream mask is transformed into the blade of a knife. For anyone that hasn’t seen the film this would tell them right away that this is a conventional slasher horror. Slasher horrors almost always feature an antagonist with a mask and bladed weapon much like Halloween, Friday the 13th and Texas chainsaw.


The mask appears to be the only thing lit in what looks like infinite darkness which connotes not only a sense of isolation but fear of the fact that in this darkness, the only company you have is this masked killer. The mask is ghostly and skull like which is a representation of the dead and death is the most important part of the iconography of horror. The knife part of the face Is made to look painstakingly real with its clean metal finish and the blade its self is detailed in a way that denotes it has just been sharpened.

The shine on the end of the blade suggests to the viewer that it is brand new and ready to strike into its next victim. The scream San-serif font is very clean with its straight sharp edges all representing the very nature of bladed objects. This poster being for the 4th film cleverly incorporated the 4 into the text as the A. The 4, the date and slogan are written in a blood red font which is a direct representation of spilling blood from a victim. The red also connotes fear and danger to the viewer. The scream mask in its self is a representation of fear and death, so the mask turning into a knife is conventional to the iconography of the slasher Horror genre.