What makes a good horror movie poster? (Spoiler: it’s not about the gore!)

A good horror movie poster is all about evoking curiosity and fear. Effective movie posters often rely on textures, effects, and creative use of negative space to suggest unease. Let’s examine all these design elements and see how some of the most famous horror movie posters have applied them. 

A unique and provocative horror movie poster can generate buzz on social media platforms, encouraging the audience to share the poster and broaden the film’s reach. Whether you want to design your own horror movie poster or are just keen to understand how they work, read on to unlock the key elements of a successful poster.

A horror movie film poster needs to make a strong first impression and communicate the film’s tone and mood in a single image. Let’s break down some essential design concepts that can help us better understand what makes a horror movie poster successful.

Some of the most iconic movie posters do not shy away from using dark colors like black, deep reds, and grays. These colors evoke danger, suspense, and curiosity, so they help set the tone for a horror classic. Colors that create contrast can then add visual tension: think neon green or sometimes even white.

The Exorcist is a minimalist and effective horror movie poster. The imagery already creates a sense of dread—the silhouette of a man standing under a streetlamp with a glow of white light creates a mysterious atmosphere. With such sparse use of color, the harsh light from the lamp creates heavy shadows.

The color palette is restrained—just black, white, and some yellow—enhancing the feeling of isolation. The overall feeling is an unsettling poster that captures the horror of the film.

There’s a reason good horror movie posters are minimalist. A single powerful image is better than a heavy poster that communicates many different things. Using a single powerful image as the center—like a character, a threatening object, or an eerie setting—helps create focus and add tension on a specific detail.

Negative space is another important concept: leaving some space empty creates tension and can enhance the focus. Any elements that don’t add to the poster are best left out. Interestingly, most poster designers choose not to include shocking scenes of violence or ‘blood and gore’. Doing so would limit the poster’s reach, and it’s also more psychologically effective to hint at violence and let us use our imaginations than to portray it outright.

The horror movie poster for The Witch is a great example. It isolates the sinister and eerie figure of a goat against a completely dark background, leaving the rest of the story to our own imagination. The use of negative space and the monochromatic palette amplify the feeling of isolation and unease.

Designers often use visual effects to enhance a horror movie poster. Old textures can add decay or a ghostly atmosphere. Blood spatter and smoke add a touch of violence and danger without directly going all gory.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre poster (2003) uses gritty textures on the main image and the typography. The earthy tones give a sense of filth and reinforce the setting of the movie. While the font is serif, the gritty texture takes away any elegance and formality from the text.

Minimal light can create mystery and hide details, while deep shadows make us question what else is there. Silhouettes give us the sense that there’s something lurking in the background, adding more tension while revealing very little.

The poster for the horror film Hereditary is a great example of the successful use of lighting and shadow. The poster features a family with very low-contrast photography, dim light, and shadowed faces, creating an uneasy feeling.

Typography is an important element that can make or break a good horror movie poster. It can help set the tone and communicate the key themes. Varying the typography is a great way to convey the many subgenres of horror films: psychological, supernatural, slasher, etc.

Let’s take a look at the smaller details:

Serif fonts are often used for classic horror, evoking tradition and sophistication but with a more sinister undertone. Modern horror movies, on the other hand, often use sans-serif fonts to convey starkness. Other conceptual fonts or display fonts can show effects like jagged text or scratchy/grungy textures to convey violence or other supernatural undertones.

The old yet effective horror movie poster for Halloween is a perfect example of how a simple, bold sans-serif font creates contrast against the background. The eerie imagery is balanced by the chunky font for a simple yet effective poster.

The placement of text can create tension and disorientation all on its own. Text that isn’t aligned with anything or seems ‘off’ can evoke feelings of instability. The play of text and image, where the typography is intertwined or woven into an image, can suggest suffocation and chaos.

A great example here is the poster for one of the scariest movies of all time, The Shining. The poster uses clean, centered typography, but the font size is overwhelming. The image inside tells us the movie is about psychological horror.

Large text can create an imposing feeling, especially if there’s a tagline that’s much smaller than the main text. Subtle taglines can be small, and since we know size matters, smaller text is often read in whispers. These faint whispers translate into fear and a sense of intrigue.

The movie poster for It Follows is a great example of big, overpowering text supported by a subtle tagline. It creates balance but with a fearful apprehension that something is about to happen.

High contrast is good in horror movie posters to ensure legibility, and that’s why you never see text that’s hidden. Instead, bright text on a dark background is usual. White, neon green, and yellow text is often used for sci-fi horror movies, while orange and red are used for slasher movies.

A Nightmare on Elm Street uses red typography on a dark background. The red type reinforces the movie’s key themes of fear, danger, and supernatural horror. The sharp, irregular font mimics the slashing motion of Freddie’s iconic glove.

You can learn more about color theory in this course:

Display and custom fonts are great options for cool horror movie posters. Deconstructed fonts can give a sense of mystery and doom, while shaky handwritten fonts or script fonts can convey madness.

The movie Se7en is a great example of a cool horror movie poster. It incorporates handwritten, scratchy typography that reflects the psychological suffering of the movie. The distorted, fragmented font represents the darkness in which the characters live.

The irregular spacing adds unease, disorientation, and grimness. Those deliberate imperfections create an unsettling atmosphere that’s an iconic representation of the film.

It’s clear that the combination of typography and imagery is key in an effective and cool horror movie poster. Typography should reinforce the tone set by the imagery. Sometimes, the text will take center stage while blending with the image itself.

The poster for the film Carrie features dripping blood in the main text, while the images show the before and after of the main character Carrie. The after image ties the plot directly to the movie title, creating a unified message.

Combining typography and images will communicate the movie’s tone and mood powerfully. This is great not just for promotional and marketing purposes but also to draw viewers to the experience of the movie. The appeal of horror movies is emotional, so combining these two key elements can amplify tension and create a visually striking poster.

Let’s explore more spine-chilling horror posters that have left a lasting mark.

Alien is one of the most recognizable posters in the world. The first poster for the movie franchise features the iconic glowing egg in the center of the poster. A green light trickling out hints that there’s something unknown lurking around. Most of the poster is empty and has a dark background, evoking feelings of anticipation, vastness, and isolation.

The subdued color palette creates an eerie feeling, with the green glow tying the movie to something toxic and dangerous. The minimalist sans-serif font on the title is spaced out to reflect isolation. The title almost blends into the background, letting the egg shine and grab the viewer’s attention.

Us features the image of a mask held by a character, evoking themes of duality and confused identity. This type of imagery creates intrigue and leaves the audience trying to fill in the gaps, which makes it even more effective as a design piece. The dark background is haunting, and the color red represents violence.

The typography features a delicate serif font that almost feels handwritten—this enhances the feeling of intimacy and makes it even more personal and relatable. The text contrasts against the dark, eerie visuals. The mix of images and typography on this poster is very powerful and allows the concepts of mystery, duality, and horror to creep in.

The Smile poster centers on the disturbingly forced and creepy grin, which taps into something that isn’t human. That slightly ‘off’ feeling is unsettling. The poster uses negative space and focuses on the unnatural smile.

The sans-serif font is clean and bold, contrasting sharply with the dark background. The font is stark and almost clinical, and the combination of the creepy simple image and clinical typography hints at a psychological horror movie that’s deeply unsettling.

A good horror movie poster must evoke fear and curiosity, not only for marketing purposes but also because a successful poster will drive audiences to movie theatres. From the design perspective, a successful horror movie poster needs the right balance of graphic design elements and typography.

Understanding how color, imagery, and fonts work can help you tap into the audience’s emotions and give them a hint of what awaits them. Horror movie posters are vital in connecting with audiences emotionally and psychologically without giving too much away. The combination of elements is essential for marketing and storytelling purposes.

Want to stay in horror mode? Check out our must-watch horror shorts, or explore the top Halloween marketing trends of 2024.