FINAL GIRL explores the slasher flicks of the '70s and '80s...and all the other horror movies I feel like talking about, too. This is life on the EDGE, so beware yon spoilers!

May 20, 2011

awesome movie poster friday - the TRIBUTE edition!

Horror fans with eyeballs know that the movie poster business has been in the toilet for quite some time. Floating heads and overwrought Photoshop atrocities and blandness have become the norm because let's face it: posters simply don't play as large a role in getting butts in theaters as they used to. Mind you, I don't necessarily think that folks are sitting around spending time and money while saying "Bah! We need not make this poster enticing. Crap something out!"...although sometimes the finished product indicates just that. However, everything is fleeting now, and posters are here today, forgotten later today.

Or maybe I'm just old and I think that everything used to be better Way Back When. Regardless, citizens both pro and amateur with a keen eye for design and the ability to wield computers like...magic computers have taken matters into their own hands and designed horror movie tribute posters with a more artistic bent than the current crop at the AMC 842569. Simplicity...she is powerful, yes? Visit their websites for more awesomeness.






















12 comments:

David Robson, Proprietor, House of Sparrows said...

These are uniformly fantastic.

Anonymous said...

These are all gorgeous. I especially love the ones for Jaws and for Carrie.

Girl on Gore said...

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing! There's something about each of them that draws you in. Makes me wanna re watch um all!

Anonymous said...

Wow. I want them all.

I recently snagged one of the UK Insidious posters on eBay (first one in the link).

http://www.horror-movies.ca/2011/05/a-couple-of-minimalist-uk-insidious-posters/

Ray said...

All of these are awesome. Especially love The Shining - ingenious use of the door to spell out the title.

Kmork said...

Amazing stuff.

Evol Kween said...

The Carrie poster is so, so awesome!

StrangeFlesh said...

I'm a big fan of these minimalist/retro redesign posters for movies (there are several galleries out there, check the Argento superminimalist ones).

But I think they only work because everyone is already familiar with the movie, and the icons used in these posters have their impact pre-imbedded. If I hadn't watched Carrie or The Shining or Psycho, I'm not sure I'd be very interested in seeing them just from these posters.

Granted, some of the original posters would make me even less likely to see the movie (I'm looking at you, bulgy-eyed kid and electric yellow text The Shining).

Ulrich said...

I'm in love with the Carrie poster. Period.

docvoltage said...

StrangeFlesh is correct. In fact, two of these posters are "spoilers": PSYCHO & ALIEN would have been poor choices for the original runs.

My favorites:
ALIEN - innocous symbolism transformed to horror.
SHINING - makes me not care what the movie is about, I just HAVE to see it. Great translation of decades of Eisner's SPIRIT logos.
JAWS - would have worked then, works now. Perfect mood piece.
HALLOWEEN - grindhouse rework. Spot on!

These missed the mark:
DRAG ME TO HELL - hohum.
NOTLD - sorry, but that's been done already.
EVIL DEAD - nice, but an unnecessary replacement of an iconic poster.
THING (flamethrower) - too "comics"
PSYCHO - conventional.

The quality of the graphic work is uniformly tops.

J. Harris Speed said...

I thoroughly enjoyed these. Thanks for posting this shit. It would be great to get these in print and hang them on a wall.

Anonymous said...

Yes! This is a better approach to modern horror poster design! But don't get too much into it!

Bernard B.