The Silence of the Lambs
The poster of the 1991 horror classic, The Silence of the lambs shows an image of a woman's face with a moth covering her mouth. The moth and the woman's eyes are both in yellow and brown colours which stands out against the light tones of her face. This suggests that there is danger, blood, death and violence in the film. This is a common thriller feature as the colour red is used very often in thriller and horror films. This helps to give the audience an idea of what is in the film and also helps to create a mysterious sinister atmosphere.
This poster shows the contrast between light and dark: The woman's face is pale white whereas the area around her face is black. This suggests the presence of good and evil in the film (Her being good and what's happening around her being evil). Chiaroscuro lighting and the symbolism of good and evil are classic features of thriller films.
The title 'Silence of the Lambs' is interpreted in to visual form in the poster as there is a pale white female face (representing a lamb), with a moth over her mouth which would be silencing her and preventing her from talking. The moth being in red colours suggests that it represents the evil in the film. There is also a skull on the back of the moth which adds to the connotation of it being evil; skulls represent death and contributes to the mysterious and sinister atmosphere of the poster.
Unlike many thriller films, the character in the poster is female; if you have not watched the film you may believe that the film has a female protagonist rather than a male. This shows how the film has challenged the classic thriller conventions by not having a male protagonist shown on the poster.
The female characters face almost looks completely emotionless and gives a cold feeling to the poster. This is often used by thriller genres as they don't want to give anything away about the film.
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