Poster Analysis: The Collector

The Collector is an American crime-thriller-horror movie released in 2009 about an ex-con who breaks into his employer’s house to rob him, only to find another, more sadistic criminal has already targeted the house for their own devices.

 The main focal point of this poster is the head of the person, specifically the gap in the back of their mask. This character is the antagonist of the film, a fact that can be coined from the fact that they are the main subject of the poster and that the title is ‘The Collector’. The tagline ‘He Always Takes One’ highlights the sinister aspect of this character and since we know it is a horror film, it is very unlikely that this character is good or positive. From the tagline and the title, we can assume that the film will involve some sort of kidnapping. This is further enforced by the antagonist wearing a mask and gloves to hide his identity and that he is facing towards a home, suggesting that a home invasion features in this film, a common aspect of kidnappings. Also in the background, we can see what appears to be people in the windows, further enforcing the idea that the antagonist will be breaking into the home forcefully. The positioning of the hands gripping the lace almost looks like the antagonist is holding piano wire, a common weapon for people sneaking into places to kill people. From this, we can gather that death will be a main feature of the film. This is further enforced by the gap in the mask, which almost looks like an open wound. The lace tying it shut could be seen as stitches, showing that there may be a medical aspect to this film, so maybe people will be hurt and then stitched back up. It may also allude to the presence of torture in this film, as in many horror movies featuring torture, medical tools are used.

The title ‘The Collector’ is in white, to stand against the black background of the antagonists clothes. White is commonly used in films to represent innocence in characters, however the title has a damaged effect applied to it, looking like it is breaking apart. This could represent that the antagonist is going to destroy the innocence of somebody in the film by killing them or someone they care for. It could also mean that the antagonist themselves has lost their innocence in one way or another and as a result, has begun to hurt and/or kill people.  Overall, the colour scheme in this poster focuses mainly on black and yellow, with small sections of white. The white is mainly being dominated by the black, again to show the destruction of innocence, the dull yellow could represent sickness or decay, aspects commonly connected with death. This could, again, allude to the presence of death in this film and the effect death has on those connected to those who are deceased. There are also two small sections of red in this poster. The first is the line “From the writers of Saw IV, V & VI”, which are highly successful horror movies, which is meant to entice fans of those movies to see this one. The second section of red is the website name, placed so those interested by the movie can seek more information. The use of red here is used to connote blood and danger. Saw IV, V and VI are very blood-filled movies and the use of red when mentioning them connects the level of bloodshed in those films to this one, suggesting that fans of those movies will find this film just as entertaining.

After this analysis, I would consider the target audience for this movie to be males, aged 18 - 24