Posterwire.com is a movie poster weblog. From images of the latest Hollywood one-sheets to vintage movie posters, this film poster weblog hopes to offer a bit of insight into film key art.
In honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday, it seems appropriate to post a few horror film posters this week. Our first horror one-sheet is what we like to consider The Scariest Movie Poster Ever.
The 1974 film Abby is the story of a female marriage counselor who marries and becomes possessed by an evil spirit — the Demon of Sexuality. The film, by exploitation producer Samuel Z. Arkoff and director Willam Gridler, was reportedly to be titled The Blackorcist. (Not surprisingly, the film was the subject of a lawsuit by the film studio Warner Bros. as being a rip-off of The Exorcist.)
As for the Abby movie poster itself, when you mix such a strange and scary image of actress Carol Speed with a few great low budget genres (Blaxplotation and Horror), it’s hard not to take notice. (This movie poster is also yet another example of the “Big Heads Floating in the Sky” movie poster layout cliche. Or in this case, a “Big Head Possessed by a Demon Floating in the Sky on Fire” film poster layout.)
Leave it to the film advertising executives to approve a rash of illustrated movie posters in recent months just as we’re spending so much Posterwire.com weblog space lamenting the death of the traditional illustrated poster.
“Drawing” on today’s most recent example: the stylized 1930s avant-garde look to the A Good Woman one-sheet. It’s hard to resist the vibrant “Fauve” color palette of this Art Deco style painting. The poster reproduces many traits of the Deco movement in it’s artwork, including the sweeping lines and floral motifs. (And for a modern comparison, you need to look no further than A Good Woman official UK website to see a traditional “Big Heads Floating in the Sky” photo composition take on the film’s key art.)
It’s nice to see a movie poster for a 1930s period film that actually uses the look of an art movement from that era — it serves as a reminder how innovative Art Deco posters were at the time. (Unfortunately, as with all things related to film advertising, it’s difficult to find out who created this one-sheet.)
What could be better than “Big Heads” on a movie poster? The answer is obvious: “Big Heads Wearing Sunglasses” on a movie poster, silly. Actors wearing sunglasses in a piece of key art can help establish a character, especially when that look is featured in the film itself. Sunglasses are also one of the few examples of a product placement making it onto a one-sheet poster. For example, did Tom Cruise wearing Ray Bans in the film poster for Risky Business help drive sales of the Wayfarer style sunglasses? Yes. Woody Harrleson’s small rimmed specs in Natural Born Killers? Not so much.
From The Aviator wearing Aviators, to Kate Hudson looking Almost Famous, shades seem to be everywhere. This is especially true in science fiction, as all killer cyborgs, agents in secret government agencies, and everyone inside the Matrix are required to be wearing sunglasses.
Stop me if you’ve seen this poster composition before: Large images of movie star faces (often of a couple), with a small scene (usually at the bottom of the poster one-sheet) depicting some sort of action or scene. Sound familiar? In the film advertising industry, this is known as Big Heads Floating in the Sky. The “big headed stars” layout is so common it is often a point of criticism directed towards modern poster art. But that type of layout has been around since the beginning for one simple reason: stars sell movies. It was true for Casablanca, and it is even more true today. After all, if Paramount just paid Tom Cruise $20 million dollars to star in a “tent-pole” picture for the studio, you can bet they aren’t going to keep his a participation a secret on the film’s one-sheet art.
