I believe that defining my short film by one genre is inconvenient. My film bares all the trademarks of a psychological thriller: its storyline follows a decline into insanity, it’s a relatively normal piece that becomes more abstract as it progresses. Although, my film also contains unanswered questions with possible dark answers, such as who sent the mysterious package? Who are the characters and what are their purposes? Where is the location? Through asking myself these question I have decided that the most accurate genre to label my film is the hybrid genre of a psychological-horror.

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One convention of a psychological thriller film poster is that it usually centres on a single character. A prime example of this is ‘Black Swan’ (2010) The poster focuses on the protagonist, we establish that she has perfect, hair, skin and makeup however her face is cracked to expose a powder like substance, a similar experience that you would get if you dropped a makeup powder pallet. From this special effect we can determine that the film will explore a mental health breakdown that is externalised by the crack in the protagonists face. Similarly, ‘Shutter Island’ (2010) shows the protagonists face, only half exposed through the light of a lit matchstick this externalises the battle between light and dark, sane and insane that the protagonist faces. ‘Shutter Island’ also prominently features the actual shutter island itself. The poster is dominated by dark colours, surrounded by a black and stormy sea with a dimly lit light-house, another acknowledgement of the fading hope and disturbed mental state of the characters in the film. Common iconography of the physiological thriller genre is the portrayal of the eyes, as eyes are the window to the soul and this genre in question predominantly feature around the collapse of the ego, personality and sanity.

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In contrast, Horror posters do feature characters of the film however the designers deliberately frame them ambiguously. Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ (1982) features what appears to be a male character in the snow. We can assume this by his costume (gloves, boots and a thick polar jacket with the woollen hood pulled over his head) we can also assume this by the blue colour scheme, as masculine blue also has connotations of winter, ice and snow. However, the poster doesn’t show the character’s face, instead a blinding white protrudes from the characters face and throws beams of light across the poster. From this the audience can establish that this character is a supernatural or alien creature. The poster for ‘The Witch’ (2016) features an unknown female character with her back turned to the audience. She is walking through a woods (supposedly in winter as none of the trees have leaves, giving them skeletal looking limbs) whilst the full moon shines overhead (the full moon is another powerful symbol associated with witchcraft and evil). Sinister (2012) has a simple colour scheme of white and red. A female character dressed in white/grey clothing walks across a crumbling white/grey wall (from this the audience can establish the urban decay location) the character drags her bloody hand across the wall to create the face of the main antagonist. I believe that this is effective as it does show the main antagonist, yet does not completely give his character away, leaving more to be expected.