Poster analysis 3 - The Descent

The poster consists of six women holding each other up in certain positions as if to protect themselves or stop them from entering what appears to be a fire of sorts. The shape the women make is similar to that of a skull, a typically spooky object that is connected to death. This may be foreshadowing that the six women are going to die a painful death, especially if you glance up towards the woman with her mouth open in pain as she enters the fire. The skull is also symbolic in South American countries and they are decorated brightly, this could be mocking their tradition or a 'play' on their tradition. 

The gathering of the woman is reminiscent of witches around a coldren, concuting a spell. It can be said that this image appears to be similar to the situations in which witches were burnt at the stake. The women, especially the two in the middle seem to know their fate, that it is brutal and their lives will end. While the woman screaming at the top of the skull structure looks as if she is in agony. So the fact that all the women are together, holding tightly onto each other and remaining unified makes us question what their relationship between each other is. It may be that these women are part of a religion or cult of some sort as it seems unlikely that six friends would end up in this odd situation. All the women are scantily clothed, and showing a lot of skin- which is the norm in horror movies, however the two characters in the middle are wearing what appears to be climbing/sports shoes so goes against the 'blonde, pretty, stupid final girl' stereotype.

The fire like substance is also reminiscent of hell, and the character at the top of the skull structure does appear to be entering hell through the look of her expressions. If you allow your eye to wonder towards the edges of the skull, the brown substance appears to be dirt or earth which reinforces the idea that this may be the entrance to hell. It is not clear whether this entrance to hell is through a cave or down in the ground as the skull structure confuses the audience members. On the other hand if you can be distracted by the extravagant image of the skull, you may notice that the name of this movie is 'The Descent', which supports the notion that they are entering hell. On the earth/cave like wall if you look closely you may see odd shapes and lines that could be creatures grabbing towards the women. Also the woman laying horizontally at the bottom of the skull structure looks as if she is being cooked alive- the colouring beneath her looks like it could be blood dripping from her body. The outer edges of the poster are coloured darkly which usually connotes that evil is hiding in the darkness, however in this instance I believe the entrance to hell is much more of a threat, so having a smaller amount of darkness allows the audience to fully take in the whole poster.

Overall I think really appreciate the thought and careful positioning of the actors, as it is simple but so abstract, I would love to create something similar to this!