Film Poster Textual Analysis – Bronagh Hunte

The film title: Saw 5

Year of the film release: 24^th October 2008

Director: David Hacki

Producer: Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan

Production/Financing Company: Lions Gate

Actors: Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor and Scott Patterson

Films origin/info: Saw is part of a franchise and a sequel from four other films.

Synopsis: what is the film about? The film focuses primarily on the events that led up to Detective Mark Hoffman becoming an apprentice of the Jigsaw Killer, as well as his efforts to prevent anyone else from learning his secret.

Saw 5 by David Hacki is one of four other sequel films, released in the UK on the 24^th October 2008 and was distributed by Lions Gate.

This poster was displayed on Billboards, film theatres, in magazines, the internet, and most commonly on the side of busses, this is a way to entice the audience and persuade them to go and see the full movie, or research more in to on the internet and on the films website.  

The main colours used in the poster are low key and it has a grey scale it also has a white edge around the characters face which highlights the detail and the prop used. The colours used have the characteristics of death and misery.  Grey can also symbolise a variety of topics such as a decaying body, mourning or the connection between good and evil which links into the plot of the movie, that being ‘innocent’ people making bad mistakes and they are therefore punished for their wrong doing.

The posters in the Saw franchise only ever have one main image as the focal point, this is due to the major success in which the previous films have had, the use of using one image also heightens the audience want and almost need to see it, and it causes anticipation amongst the audience and for the release of the film. The Saw franchise rarely have very ‘busy’ posters and their posters leave the audience wanting to see more, this poster does not give anything away, it does not have the release date of the film, the actors names, no information about the plot, which is why they have been given the name ‘teaser posters’. The main image in the poster is a man who appears to be either naked, or his torso is uncovered, this may relate to the victims of the film as they are vulnerable. The connotations of nudity in the horror genre connote a sense that the person who is naked is in a bad situation and are defenceless. There is also another connotation that nudity can uphold, and that being that the stereotypical teenager in a horror film is partaking in sexual activities, however this is not the case in Saw, as very rarely have they used teens being the main characters in the movie.

The male in the poster, has a human fleshed mask. The previous films in the Saw franchise, the audience are led to believe that ‘Jigsaw’ is dead. The audience are enticed to see the fifth one in the franchise to uncover their suspicions. As the poster suggests, someone is carrying on his role as they are wearing his flesh as a disguise. This is also emphasised, as we know that the main character from the Saw films ‘the murderer’ is an old male; from the image on the poster, the male doesn’t look very ages, which we can see from his broad shoulders and his hair, although the poster has a grey scale, we can clearly see that it is not grey which would lead the connotations of a older man. This shows that someone must be carrying on his work as we know from the previous films that the male lead of the films was very old and fragile. We can also see this from the mask, as the mask has wrinkles and looks like an older person. In relation to the previous films, if you are able to escape the trap which you are in, you are granted freedom, however in one of the films, there was a young girl, who after escaping helped Jigsaw and became his accomplice. This may be the case in this film, as the pigmentation from the males body is not even, this suggests that he may not look after himself, or that he has done something which Jigsaw believes is wrong, as he has cancer and he believes he led a good life, which is why he is punishing people who take life for granted. So this suggests that the man behind the mask got out of the life endangering trap and now went on to finish of Jigsaw’s work. The convention of the killer being Caucasian is followed throughout the Saw franchise. The majority of films the killer is a male and the mainstream idea is that he is Caucasian.

The main image is done photographically with some clear adjustments to the lighting to create the highlight affect around the face of the male; the title is also near the male’s heart. It could have been situated more to the left of the poster, instead it is very close to his heart, which follows on the theme that it is someone who has escaped Jigsaw’s traps and now carries on his legacy and it is something which is close to his heart. This suggests that the character, led a very lonely life or that it was unfulfilled, or possible that he has never achieved something. Because he has achieved the fight to survive it is now something which he truly believes in.

There is not much text in the poster, because as it is the fifth instalment to the franchise people are aware of the film and the previous ones. Horror lovers may have seen all of the films in the sequels, however for people who have only seen one or even none of the films they are still aware of the films and what happens in them. There are roman numerals ‘V’ which means five; the trademark of the Saw films is to have the roman numerals, and this indicates what instalment of the Saw franchise which the film is. The Saw movies are always coherent with the October and Halloween being the event which horror films usually comes to cinema and theatres. Saw 5 was released on 24^th October 2008 which is a few days before Halloween, and follows the tradition of the films in the horror genre being released around this time. The audience for this poster would be the western side of the world such as the US and the UK, as many other countries don’t share the same hysteria for the Halloween celebrations. The feature of the production Company ‘Twisted Pictures’ shows the rare amount of people that may not have seen the film that Saw 5 is a film which is from the horror genre as the lexis ‘twisted’ conveys. It also has ‘Lions Gate’ present which keeps the audience away that it is from a huge production company, and may also tell the audience that it will be good as many films are from this institution.

All of the text in the poster is in capital letters and has no punctuation; this shows the simplicity of the poster. The popularity of the film is also highlighted as it does not actually have the title of the film. This shows that it has a huge fan base and very many people anticipate the film as they don’t even have to put the title and automatically from the image, the audience are aware of what film it is from.

A common convention for film posters is to have the website address for the audience to find out more, as there is no information on the poster. This may have been left out, because as it is the fifth movie in the franchise people are aware of the things they need to do to find out more information. In the first film which was released, the poster contained more information such as the date of release and the website address. With Saw being the highest grossing films, they do not need to have these forms of information, as it is so popular people are aware of the websites and where the audience can find out information.