Shutter Poster Analysis

Shutter is a 2008 American remake of the 2004 Thai horror film of the same name. The remake was directed by Masayuki Ochiai, and was released on March 21st, 2008. The film is about a newly wedded couple who are moving from New York to Tokyo due to the husbands new job there as a photographer. While travelling the wife runs over a woman in a thin dress (despite the freezing weather conditions) then drives into a ditch, after becoming conscious again they discover there is no blood or body on the car or road and presume the person was alright and leave. They later start finding orbs in all their photographs and then find out that they are being haunted, but not just by anyone, by the husbands ex. We discover that the ghost is seeking revenge on him and two of his friends due to some horrible things they done to her. At the top of the poster we see the text “From executive producers of ‘The Grudge’ and ‘The Ring’” this is a unique selling point for this film as these films mentioned were both very successful and popular. This means that people who have seen and loved either of this films will be more likely to go and see them at the cinema. The tagline for the film is situated at the lower right of the poster just above the title, this says “The most terrifying images are the ones that are real”. This gives away to the audience that the film has a lot of images and photography involved. The title is pretty simple, it is the word ‘Shutter’ capitalized at the bottom right of the poster. All the text on this poster is in a bright white colour, this could connote the flash from a camera or the presence of a ghostly spirit. There is a main image in the center of the poster, but around the outskirts of the image it ranges between 3 different colours: green, black and red. The green is very dark and connotes decaying and rotting, perhaps of a body or happiness, or even sanity. The black represents death and dying, and the darkness of revenge and lies. The red represents murder, the spilling of blood and once again death. Over the image there are a lot of lighter spots and folds, this gives of the impression that the images are aged and damage, and the white spots could be a ghostly presence. The main image on the poster is made up of lots of smaller images, this is intertextual to the name of the film and the idea of photographs being used within the film. The images have all been cleverly arranged to display a ghostly, skull-like face in the center of the image, with a blacked out eyes and mouth. The use of a scary yet clever image on the poster is good for gaining the audiences attention and making it more appealing to people who are fond of horror films. There is conventionally a website displayed in a clear font at the very bottom of the poster so that people can find out more about the film, for example the release date as this particular poster unconventionally does not display the release date.