From just looking at the visuals of the poster, one
prominent feature expressed on the page is the title of the
magazine, Diabolique. The typeface of the title is in a bold,
capitalised, serif font that has been outlined in a bright
orange liner. This combination of features portrays a circus
esque feeling to the poster, which does juxtapose the genre
of the genre of the movie, horror. The colour connotations
linked to orange and white portray a sense of warmth and
purity, which steps away from the typical colours used for
horror magazines/posters which are red and black. This
may have been done intentionally by the producers in order
to place more emphasis onto the magazine name instead of
the movie, and to make it stand off the page.. The son-serif
font also represents traditionalism and professionalism
within the magazine therefore may be used to represent the
type of horror movie that the Woman in black is; based in
the early 1900s where serif fonts were mostly used. In the
majority of movie posters/magazines, direct address is
achieved by the protagonist on the cover looking directly at
the camera in order to create an interpersonal relationship
between the producer and receiver. This tool allows the
audience to feel connected to the movie therefore
encouraging them to watch it in cinema. However, on this
poster direct address is not seen so is used to create a
different effect on the audience's emotions. The
protagonist (Daniel Radcliffe) is looking into the distance,
beyond the audience thus making them question as to
what he is looking at and to heighten the mystery
presented. The mis en scene of the magazine also gives
some insight to the audience for the time period of when
the movie is set (1912). For instance, the attire that he is
wearing is from the Edwardian era therefore suggesting
that the style of horror is very authentic and possibly
realistic. The ancient manor home in the background
furthers this idea and puts forward a haunted
house element to the storyline. Small features on
the magazine, such as the outline of the woman in
black in the background, presents the magazine as
professional, due to the high level of detail,
therefore insuring the audience that the magazine is
of a high profile. There are many features present
on the page, such as the masthead and the main
image, that take up a lot of room and attention,
therefore the cover lines are a little more subtle so
that they are not too obvious on the page. In order
to achieve this, the typeface is fairly simple (son-
serif) yet bold to add some slight definition to the
page. The colour scheme of the text holds some
juxtaposing themes to the genre of the movie, as
the colour white have connotations linked to
innocence and purity, which contrasts the movie.
However, the choice of these colours allows the
key information to stand out against the
background as well as linking to the blue sky
behind the house. The purpose of cover lines are to
inform potential readers about the content inside
the magazine, so that it can target a wider
population within the target audience. For example,
there is reference to the rock music group Black
Sabbath, which further widens the audience who
may read the magazine, but to also estimate the
type of music that an audience, who enjoys horror
movies, may be interested in.
Along side the masthead, the main cover line The
Woman in Black is written in a larger, bolder more
detailed font type than the rest of the text, to
represent it as the most important and featured
story within the magazine.