Horror
Magazine Analysis
The first thing that catches the eye is
the masthead, this is what the brand has used as its recognition, the style
represents blood dripping from the letters and the red is a symbolism of gore,
a title depicting horror films to know what type of genre of magazine this is.
The main cover line is a bold white title, the white is symbolic of the
paranormal, using the franchises movie text in order for the audience to
recognise and identify the magazines main story to the hit movie ‘Evil Dead’.
The cover lines use a dark yellow font, this makes up the third and last house
colour used on the front cover, yellow gives the impression of moonlight and
night, and stands out from the dark background because of that reason.
The magazine, however, does follow the traditional magazine
conventions with the barcode in the bottom right corner and also in that right
third is the tag at the top talking about issue number and price on top of a
puff. At the very top is the selling line, ‘blood, guts, gore and more!’ a very
suiting line for a magazine advertising horror, it grabs the target audience’s
attention and gets them to find out what the ‘more’ is on top of the list of
horror features. The last feature of the magazines conventions is the ‘Plus!’
at the bottom, an indication there’s loads more on top of the big interviews
and other highlighted articles already advertised on the cover.
The left third has the other featured articles in which they
use an image of the most iconic characters, for example pyramid head is one of
the most notable villains of all time, with the cover line and a small
description underneath of what’s in the magazine. This is a stand out
convention used in a few of the scream magazines, just set out in slightly
different ways in order to suit the main image.
On first glance the masthead is the first notable aspect of
the front cover due to its brand iconography, the size and impacting style
gives the magazine a haunting look. The name itself depicts itself in two
words, fan and gore, a connotation to simply fans of gore instantly enable
consumers to know this is a genre magazine and what’s included. Though, another
way to see it is the word ‘fang’ being the first word to see, this outlook is
also inspired through the style of the font where the ‘f’ and ‘a’ give the look
of fangs from a vampire. The vampire being an iconic monster, made one of the
main faces of the horror genre through the likes of ‘Dracula’, another way to
depict the magazine is all about horror, the red outline seeming like there’s
blood running down the fangs.
The house colours of the cover are white, red, yellow, and
black colours very commonly seen on the front cover of many horror magazines,
following traditional conventions to give it the professional appearance. The
red portraying blood and gore, whereas the black gives the impression of
darkness and shadows, lastly the white has the phantom look whilst also
emphasising the other colours.
The main image really grabs the reader’s attention, all
features surrounding it emphasises horror villain. This is taken from the pale
complexion, a sickly look, often referring to death, similar impression is
given from the green hair. The outfit, though hard to see, appears to be a
Victorian style apparel, she’s been around a long time, nothing living or human
could live that long relating to her not being either. The grasp of the candle,
which is the only light in the entire image everything else is shadowed out
seeming as if she’s hidden somewhere putting the audience on edge, and that she
controls the only light. Her blacked out eyes and smile gives an eerie sinister
look, staring back at the consumer reading the cover.
The only other images are the four laid across the bottom,
all recognisable shots from horror movies, gaining the attention of the readers
who recognise these through this effective sell line, the cover lines then
giving context to the images to show what’s actually in store in the magazine.
Another feature of this aspect is the film strip border that clearly shows the
audience, who have not noticed already, that this is a magazine surrounding
horror movies in particular.
The masthead is one
that captivates the reader, a grimy yellow font with a shadowed font, a rugged
bold style is what captures the audience’s attention. Though the unconventional
style fits with the style of the rest of the magazine, unorganised and
unconventional, though this still works effectively in giving the audience the
impression that this is a horror magazine. The only other primary colours are
white, black and red, this is very conventional within a horror genre magazine
as seen from the other two magazine covers I analysed, the dark colours
represent horror in their own ways, the red gives the portrayal of gore, whilst
black is the impression of darkness and shadows. Yellow, though considered a
bright happy colour, also has many negatives such as caution, especially a
dirty yellow such as this which gives off the impression of decay and sickness.
Below this however uses a small selling line, it’s not that
catchy more of a description, and not very emphasised either; this could be
considered one of the front covers flaws.
The cover lines are untidy, to suit the rest of the cover
this is done through the titles being in all thirds of the screen and not
sticking firmly to just the left and/ or right thirds, though they all stand
out and hook the reader in with the aspect that they are all impacting titles.
The white makes it stand out from the backdrop considerably, similarly to the
masthead it looks rugged and dark, the purity in the white has been desecrated.
To give context to the cover lines the taglines are done in a subtle fashion,
darker than the masthead however, though this is to keep the other aspects of
the magazine more highlighted to grab the reader’s attention in all the right
places.
The main image is different to most in the sense that it
uses a drawn image, though of a horror entity still, it does follow main conventions
of a horror magazine. The darkness in the background that she seems to be a
part of, it includes the main colours of red, black, white and yellow. Her skin
is a tinge of yellow that makes her seem old, dangerous and diseased, where the
red gives the impression she doesn’t get fazed by the amount of blood and cuts,
especially from her mouth, an indication she doesn’t belong in current reality,
the white apparel is desecrated with blood given the image that this pure girl
has been changed to evil. The facial expressions give a very sinister ambience,
first notable feature is the eyes, completely wide, an unnatural yellow, and
shadowed where the psychotic appearance isn’t highlighted. The smile is another
fearsome quality, this may be from the blood coating the teeth and pouring from
the mouth or the wideness of the smile in combination with the eyes.
