Textual Analysis Poster - BERRY

Film Title:  Saw III

Release Date: 27 October 2006

Director: Darren Lynn Bousman

Characters: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Angus Macfadyen, Bahar Soomekh & Dina Meyer

Storyline: In this Saw there are almost two story lines, one of which a man whose son was killed in a car accident is thirsty for revenge. He is given the opportunity to receive this revenge when the sick Jigsaw gets involved. However, the revenge isn’t as simple. Meanwhile, the Jigsaw’s sidekick kidnaps Dr. Denlon and keeps her in a horrid storehouse where a collar with explosives is attached to her. They tell her that unless she saves the Jigsaws life the collar will explode, even though he has terminal cancer.

The poster displayed above follows a number of horror conventions. Starting of simply with the colour, it seems that there are 2 main colours, excluding the title which is a dark reddish colour and a pale skin colour. Both colours are quite dull, calm and not at all bright.

The reddish colour of the gums contrasts to the black background of the mouth therefore making the gums stand out. The gums are a vital party of the image so this is effective.

Most horror posters, movies, trailers etc use dark colours as dark colours represent bad/negative things such as sadness, fear and pain.

The whole poster, from the title, to the face is tilted towards the left. This effective convention is to create a sense of off-balance. Clearly, the person in the poster is a victim and is in pain therefore; there is is an element of unstableness in their life due to the pain or discomfort they are experiencing.

The teeth in the picture are also stained and dirty, in contrast to the victim’s clean-shaven skin. The stained teeth represents the condition the victim is in while the contrasting clean 0shaven skin simply shows us this is a normal man who has probably been taken out of his natural environment and is now been subjected to pain. I feel that the few teeth, although grubby have been placed there to show that this person is still human. It also makes the fact that other teeth have been pulled out more evident and noticeable.

Evidently, the victims top teeth have been pulled out this gruesome image are to captivate the audience. It is out of the norm and will therefore cause shock. We understand that the victim is being subjected to pain due to the mental hooks being applied to the side of the victim’s mouth. These hooks look like the ones used in old-fashioned dentistry. This causes more interest as we, in the modern world are unfamiliar with such equipment. We can conclude that some form of painful dentistry is being performed on this person.

The title of the film has been cleverly positioned on the left lower half of the person’s mouth. It is situated where teeth should be. This almost tells us that the title itself is a part of the pain. The font emphasises also as the sharp shape of the letter W almost appears as a tooth itself or an instrument of pain.

There is an element of play on words in the poster as it says ‘opening wide this Halloween’ instead of maybe ‘coming this Halloween’. Seeing the dentist has always been seen as a fearful necessity and the line ‘open wide’ is almost a famous line most of us recognise from our trips to the dentist. Incorporating this line into the advert causes us to relate.

Last but not least, this poster is an extreme close-up. It simply displays a small part of the victim’s body. However, this is effective as the close up allows us to see pain. The detail of the graphic image is had an emotive effect and provokes thought and wonder. Showing us only a small part of the face also gets us wondering and we want to see who it is? What is happening? But to answer these questions we must watch the film. This is every film posters aim.

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