Mehrabi Ward, Deconstruction of Typography

Deconstruction of Typography:

Typography in horror films is the type of text style that has been used for the film title a the beginning. This is things like the size, colour, font style etc. I will be looking at the typography used in five different films.

The first film I am going to use to look at typography is 'The Cabin in the Woods'.

Above is what the title of 'The Cabin in the Woods' looks like. The main words in the title are larger, for example the words 'Cabin' and 'Woods', this makes them stand out more to the viewer, as it tells us more about what the film is going to be about. The text almost looks as though it has been scratched out or worn away, showing a sense of danger. The text used is called serif, this is when it has added points to each letter, I think that this adds a age to the writing which adds effect as most horror stories are from the past, as they are not considered to be a modern.

The next film title I am going to use is 'The Conjuring'. This title is very large and bold so it stands out to the viewer. The name itself suggests something supernatural as it actually means to cause a spirit or ghost to appear. This title is also serif, again which gives the aged effect. The colour is plain black, which you usually associate with darkness or sadness. Giving a mysterious feel to the film.

The title above is from the film 'Sinister'. This title almost looks as if it has been drawn on a wall, as the writing in some places is slightly smudged, and at the bottom looks as though it is dripping down. The colour of the title is black, giving it a sense of unknown and darkness and possibly danger especially as the word 'Sinister' even means danger. This title has also been written using the serif font, adding age to it. The size of this text is very large, and quite spaced out making it stand out to the viewer, as it fills up quite a lot of the screen. 

This is the film title from the film 'The Ring'. I think that this title is very effective as it looks like it has been hand written, and it also looks like a child's writing as there aren't any capital letters, the letters are quite spaced out and it doesn't look very neat. This adds effect as you don't usually consider children to be scary but as they seem so innocent they could be controlled and this makes the title seem much more thrilling. This title is different from the others as it is not serif, it is san-serif. This makes the title seem more modern and less aged. The colour of the title is white but it almost has a glowing effect, especially with the ring itself around circled around the title. As there is no formality to the text it makes it look more effective as it looks less staged, making it seem more realistic.



The image above shows the title from the film 'The Grudge'. This title is coloured red which you associate with blood or danger, which adds to the horrific effect. The text itself also looks as though it has been worn away or been scratched through, which shows the viewer that there will be some sort of danger or possibly a predator throughout the film. The style of text used is, large and very bold and it is san-serif, showing the viewer it could be more of a modern concept to the film.

Overall the most popular titles that I found were usually text styles using the serif font, with both either skinny or bold writing. I also found that the title would almost always be quite large. I came across two film titles where the text of the titles looks as though it has been scratched out. I recognised this from 'The Grudge' and 'The Cabin in the Woods'. The colours used for the titles were never usually too bright, most commonly black, but white and red was used. From this deconstruction I am able to see what is most commonly used for titles in horror films, and I could use these ideas when it comes to making our own film title for our short film opening.