The film ‘Shutter Island’ is a Psychological thriller. The title suggests the storyline is set in an obscure location, which the outside world is ignorant to, and leads the audience to assume that anyone who lives, or goes there shall not return due to the play on word ‘Shut’.
The Title block utilises a blunt lettering style which is used across all advertising and promotional materials, therefore making it recognisable. The title draws in the readers attention due to the use of colour, the shocking red on the mainly black and white image causes a sense of misbalance as black and white together create harmony therefore there is clearly a disruption. The colour Red and the rippling effect could also be associated with blood, therefore Horror, suggesting fear for the audience.
The layout and composition of the poster is multi-layered and consists of two main images that have been merged together, to identify the genre as either a Horror or a Psychological Thriller due to the remote location and close-up on a lead character. The poster suggests a central enigma, as the tag-line states ‘Someone is missing’, therefore an audience would assume that there is a mystery or unanswered question. This creates an Intellectual puzzle, leaving the audience questioning Who is missing and why? Where is this island? Who is the Character and why is he there?
The poster suggests the movie also offers a Visceral pleasure of fear of the unknown causing the audiences heart to race, or by making them jump with shock. It also offers an emotional pleasure as feelings of empathy for the character who is within’ the unknown. The film’s appeal is mainly the intellectual puzzle, but also perhaps the familiar actor.
The central character is clearly Leonardo DiCaprio, a recognisable film star, however, not usually for this genre. His name is extremely prominent as it is situated above the title in a bold, white font this colour is suggesting the character’s purity.
The two main images consist of a medium/long shot of an intimidating and unwelcoming island surrounded by the unsettled sea, placed just off centre of the middle of the page. This image conforms to the conventions of a horror film; showing an old, spooky building in the middle of nowhere alongside a light house which creates a sense of warning. The large close-up image above the island shows the lead male character’s face which creates a sense of his domination in the location. The character is positioned with only one side of his face illuminated by the flame of the match, the other is partly obscured by shadow, which seems conventional for this genre, hiding one side of his personality from the audience. His facial expression shows his suspicion and the character appears to be uneasy. The darkness makes the audience empathise with the character as he is shown to be vulnerable, therefore perhaps a victim, yet the positioning of the image suggests the character is dominant over the spooky island. The shadow is created by the iconic image of a burning flame from a hand held match, this prop could represent heat or destruction through fire, or light to guide the character to an answer.
The film poster appears to target an audience of 70% males and 30% females between the ages of 18 and 40 as the film consists of a dominant male character who’s portrayed to be in his late 30s. Females may be attracted due to previous knowledge of his characters in romantic genre films and males can identify with him and are more attracted to the psychological thriller genre.
The poster conforms to conventions by have a billing block which contains names of the main cast members along with key crew such as the director, producer, and the writer. The billing has a distinct lettering size and style due to contractual obligations.
The films, director Martin Scorsese has produced over 40 films including, The Aviator, The Departed and Catch me if you can which he also worked successfully alongside Leonardo in the main role.
It also provides the information of the film’s release date, which is October therefore, creating the fearful tone of Halloween and all things supernatural.
Overall the film appears to have a unique genre as it reveals a combination of both horror and psychological thriller with an intellectual puzzle, whereas most film genre’s tend to be specific. Therefore it attracts a wider audience. The film also appears to have an individual, high concept as it seems the main character could appear to be both the victim or the suspect/’bad guy’. Leonardo DiCaprio is also a unique selling point, due to his success in this genre and his popularity.
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