Psychological thriller posters follow a set of codes and conventions which help to convey to an audience the genre they are

centred in.

The above picture breaks some of

these codes and conventions; for

instance, the dark and light effects

that we see in other posters, such as

‘Sixth Sense’ and ‘Shutter Island’ are

absent. Instead, the makers of this

poster utilised the idea of bland

colours, a familiar actor’s face on

front, and an ominous tagline in

which to draw the audience.

Light and Dark; Represents the purity and darkness in the characters. Taglines; Gives insight into the plots and the unstable mental conditions of the main characters – creates tension. Character Faces; A familiar actor will entice audiences to watch the film more so than with an ‘unknown.’ Dark or Bland Backgrounds; This gives the idea of a bleak mood

underlying the film.

It must also be noted that the trees

have been photo-shopped in a way

similar to the effect scene from a

fish-eye camera lens, which gives an

idea of a ‘distorted’ sort of outlook.

A poster is arguably a form of Barthes’ Hermeneutic Code, as it

prompts the audience to discover more about the film. The Enigma

Code argues that it pushes spectators to learn more about the film, by

providing ‘sneaks’ of the plot, utilising such symbols like the forest/old

house setting in ‘Awakening,’ or the insane asylum island in ‘Shutter

Island.’ These sorts of symbols coincide with Semantic and Symbolic

Codes.