Film Magazine Cover Analysis

Friday The 13th

This magzine cover has many features which make it appealing towards its target audience of the creators.  The first feature is the house style of the magazine.  The  first feature I am going to discuss is the house style which the creators have chosen to produce.  The developers have choose to make their masthead in a horror styled font.  This horror styled font links into the horror theme of the magazine because the drips on the letters are meant to symbolise blood, but the developers have made the colour yellow to draw away from the gour.  Also the background of the masthead, again, links into the horror themed genre of the magazine.  The background is a piece of wood with nails, this is often represented as a horror prop/decoration as it mostly symbiosis danger.  The subtitle "Blood, Guts, Gore & More", creates a horror feeling to the magazine, the words "Blood, Guts and Gore" are all symbols of the horror genre, the creators have done this to have a horror presence to the magazine.  The background of the is a forestry theme, the creators have done this to link in with the setting of the film (Friday the 13th), this creates synergy between the magazine and the film.  The background is also quite dark, whichs links into the horror genre of the magazine and film. 

The images on the magazine complement the horror themed genre of the magazine.  The main image is the main topic of the magazine (Friday the 13th), and it features the main fear of the film.  It features a man, who looks mysterious because of this covered face.  The image uses the rule of thirds concept and places the image in the centre of the cover because the viewer will notice it instantly.  This man looks like the main fear of the film and the creators have chosen to put him on the cover because it fits in well with the concept of the horror magazine.  This man is also holding a machete which symbolises a violence/horror based scenario because a machete is a dangerous weapon.   The man is also entire covered which gives the illusion that anyone could be him, also the costume chosen makes will looks more violent which links into the horror based scenario.  The machete also has faces of people on it, this might confuse a viewer because it could mean the people he has killed or it could a reflection of light and showing the people he is about to kill, the creator has left this question so that the viewer will buy it and find out why there are faces on the machete.  Another image on this is the image of a young boy who looks disturbed or possessed.  This boy is a symbol of the film insidious, and people who have seen the trailer will recognise this because he is shown as the main villein in the trailer.  The boy looking possessed links that to the horror theme of the magazine because being possessed is considered to be a scary and horrific event.  The other image is the image of a man screaming as he is looking up at something.  This symbolises fear which links back to the horror theme of the magazine because screaming is considered a scary noise.  Also the fact that this is a grown man, and he is screaming means that the figure he is screaming at must be scary because men are normally considered to not scream at figures.  The final image is the image of a old man being frightened.  This image might be considered scary because the image of a man being frightened might frighten a viewer or put confusion to why they are frightened.  The three images are use the same style as the headline and look like they are nailed to wood to make it more like a horror based scenario.   

The main text of the front cover is the name of the main topic of the magazine (Friday the 13th), the creators have done this so that the audience will know what the main topic of the magazine is.  The text is stands out from the others because it has a different font style and different font colour, this makes it stand out more.  They have made this text stand out more to make the main topic stand out more.  Also this text links to a horror based scenario because it is red and red is normally associated with blood.  The text under this is a separate piece of text about the director.  This might intrigue the audience because they might want to know more about the director of the main film.  The three separate pieces of text down the left hand side are have the uses towards the front cover.  They all consist of a title and text under them.  The title is in bold green to symbolise that it is a title and the text is a brief explanation of the title.  The creators have done this to make a brief explanation but so that the viewers will want to buy it and find out more about the topics.  The text on the bottom uses the same technique but it has on an explanation and also has a list of puffs which will make the audience want to buy it.