Made for Universiti Teknologi Brunei, CC2221 - Digital Art & Design
Task 5: Structural Semiotic Analysis of a Film Poster (Semester 3, 2018)
Structural Semiotic Analysis OF THE INTERNATIONAL Poster OF INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY (2018)
BRIEF
In a group of 3, analyse the international poster for Insidious: The Last Key (2018) & discuss any meanings or messages using semiotic perspectives.
"Semiotics is an investigation into how meaning is created & how meaning is communicated. Its origins lie in the academic study of how signs & symbols (visual & linguistic) create meaning." (Sign Salad, 2018)
The objectives are to:
1. Identify the signs & codes within the 'text' (printed ad) to interpret their meaning.
2. Identify the distinctive concepts (pragmatics) & its structural relationship between the various referents (syntactics).
3. Discuss the ideological functions of the signs in the text & of the text as a whole.
International poster of Insidious: The Last Key (2018) by Concept Arts
ABOUT THE FILM
Insidious: The Last Key is a 2018 supernatural horror film & the 4th installment of the American supernatural horror film franchise Insidious. The film is second chronologically as it is a prequel to the events of the Lambert haunting arc (Insidious (2010) & Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)) & the sequel of the Brenner haunting arc (Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015)).
The plot delves into the backstory of one of the main character of the franchise, Dr. Elise Rainier (played by Lin Shaye), a psychic who received a call from a desperate man haunted by demons. Unlike the usual demon-hunting business call however, this one prompts Elise to revisit her childhood home in Five Keys, New Mexico where she suffered abuse from her father. Along with her self-proclaimed sidekicks, she embarked on a trip to free the man from the literal demons of her childhood. What they have yet to know is that horrifying revelations and twists await.
Director: Adam Robitel
Writer: Leigh Whannell
Producer: Jason Blum, Oren Peli, James Wan, Leigh Whannell
Cinematographer: Toby Oliver
Editor: Timothy Alverson
Music: Joseph Bishara
Production companies: Blumhouse Productions, Stage 6 Films
Distributor: Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures Releasing International
SIGNS & CODES
Signs - the physical, conceptual, or contextual objects in the mind of an interpreter.
Codes - the interpretative, textual, technical, or social systems of signs which create meanings.
1. Children in horror movies typically serves as a representation of innocence, goodness, purity, vulnerability, and/or weakness. Characters like Eleven from Stranger Things (2016) who is actually very powerful and Esther from Orphan (2009) who is secretly an adult woman with stunted growth uses this stereotype to show character growth or effectively creates a plot twist (respectively). In this poster, the young girl, who is the main protagonist Dr. Elise Rainier in her youth, can be seen alone, scared, & in desperate need of help based on her facial expression & the way she's holding tightly onto her teddy bear as if she's holding onto the little bit of comfort she has left.
2. Young Elise is hiding under a bed, a very common hiding spot in horror films besides under the blanket or inside the wardrobe even though these places aren't always effective. She's appears to be hiding as to not get caught by someone or something (which makes sense in combination to the next sign) but this only highlights her innocence & naivety for thinking that whatever is looking for her couldn't reach her under the bed.
3. Just above & behind Young Elise are some creepy fingers grabbing the bedframe from the top. The fingers are long & slender with keys for fingertips, suggesting that these fingers belong to some sort of humanoid but not human figure. The position gives the impression that whatever this figure is is currently hunting Young Elise & suspects that she might be under the bed, rising the tension as it possibly reveals itself at any moment. Interestingly, only 4 fingers hence 4 keys are shown; this may be to tell the viewers that this is the 4th installment of the Insidious franchise, a subliminal hint that the figure is clawing for Elise (i.e. the titular "last key"), due to anthropometric logic that the thumb would be gripping the bedframe out of view, or all of these reasons.
4) Zoom in / Close up view which only let audience focus on the expression of the character. The character is also looking above which help to direct audiences view to the hand.
5) Low key lighting implicitly tells the audience that this film belongs to the horror genre. Blueish monochromatic tone adds a certain creepiness and sadness to the feel of the poster. It also creates a sense of danger in the atmosphere; making the figures more prominent & emphasizing the sense of danger. The light is brighter on the girl (young Dr. Elise Rainier), highlighting her facial expression and body language.
6) Texts with title displayed with the largest font size, accompanied by the tagline and other things. Aside from the typical movie poster block of texts, there are lines with the purpose of attracting horror moviegoers by showing other films the creators of this film was involved in.
7) Spider web under the bed may symbolize the lack of love the protagonist received in her childhood. As it shows that the parents did not clean her room which translated into the lack of effort the parents may be committed in giving to her.
PRAGMATICS & SYNTACTICS
Syntactic refer to formal properties of sign and symbols. It talks about the rules that govern how words are combined to form phrases and sentences.
Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘insidious’ as something that gradually causes harm. In this case, the insidious entity in the film is shown as the mysterious figure with the is the spirits in the protagonist home which slowly affect the owner of the home and influence them to do sinister things.
“The Last Key” may imply that this film is the final installment of the franchise, or that some event in this film is a key point of the whole franchise and the fact that the event happens completes the film series as a whole.
Syntactically, the title follows the common format of Hollywood naming conventions for film series or film franchises. Typically, films in a series use the format [series title] + [connector] + [the installment title]. Following this naming convention explains to the general audience that the film belongs to a certain series and viewing the other films in the series may be necessary to fully understand the whole story.
This naming convention have existed long before the big trend of film franchising, for example with ‘Star Wars: Episode [episode number] - [episode title]’ beginning in 1977. Modern film franchises still use the same conventions, like Marvel Studios naming their Marvel Cinematic Universe films with ‘[Hero the film is about] + [name of the event happening in the film]’ like “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” or “Thor: Ragnarok”.
Since all four Insidious films are connected in a single timeline, it only makes sense that the film was titled the way it is. Perhaps purposefully for the sake of play of words, as the story takes place in Five Keys, New Mexico.
The tagline cryptically explains what the film is about. The phrase implies that we will see the events of someone’s childhood, which has a long-lasting effect that will haunt that character even into adulthood.
Pragmatics refer to the relations between signs and their effects on those people who use them which may vary from one person to another based on their background knowledge and culture.
The poster focuses on a young girl who seemed scared based on her facial expression and a creeping hand with keys for fingers. The girl appear to be in danger and in desperate need of help by the way she hold tightly onto her teddy bear (which may symbolize the little bit of comfort she has left).
Typically in films, children characters especially female tend to be introduced as either vulnerable and lost or good and pure until some event or revelation happens. This stereotype was used when introducing Eleven in Stranger Things (a 2016 Netflix series) as a mysterious character who is confused, weak, and in danger until later in the series when we see her abilities. It even helps strengthen the twist in the 2009 drama-thriller film Orphan, where the adopted 9-years old Esther is revealed to be a 33-years old woman with physical condition that stunted growth, using her pure angelic exterior to mask the murderous evil interior within her.
Her eyes peering to the top of the poster indicates that the girl can see the key-finger hand. This may represent that she is aware of the danger that is upon her, hence why she seemed fearful.
As one of the focus of the poster, the implication is that the little girl will play a huge role in the film. The young girl is Dr. Elise Rainier while still in her youth. Elise is not only the main character of the film; she is main component of the Insidious film series, tying the films together.
The other focus of the poster is set on the creeping hand with keys of fingers. In all the official posters of the film, including this one, the hand of the mysterious figure is shown but not the face or the body. Only four key-fingers are visible in the poster; interestingly, four is a superstitious number, often viewed as unlucky or death in East Asian cultures. Insidious: The Last Key is also the fourth installment of the film series.
Anthropometrically speaking, the creature may have another finger on the outer side of the bed frame; meaning that the creature may have a grip on the bed and hence total control over the girl’s safety and fate. Based on the positioning of the elements, it can be assumed that the key-fingers creature is looking under the bed for something or someone. In this case, the creature may have caught young Elise hiding under a bed.
Hiding under the bed is common for children or young impressionable minds to do. They do it in the movies too often that children actually start to stay still under their blanket to hide from whatever is scaring them. Even adult characters in horror or slasher films still do this cliche.
The poster is quite dark and uses light extremely minimal. The lighting is low key and dim, which is an immediate telling that the film belongs to the supernatural or horror genre. The light that shines on young Elise highlights her terrified face and closed off body language while also emphasizing the hand. The blueish monochromatic tone adds a certain feel of creepiness and sadness to the poster, almost like suggesting the viewer to feel sympathetic to the little girl.
The way the poster is framed balances between the hand and young Elise. Young Elise is the largest visual element in the poster, but the hand is at the center of the frame so both elements equally catch the eye of the viewer. It is also very zoomed in, crowding the space. The top half of the poster is covered by the bed, cobwebs and the hand, so young Elise only have the bottom half to breathe, symbolizing how she is fearful, not in control and is under a certain danger. This framing creates tension, making the area feel claustrophobic and that young Elise is really trapped under the bed.
Overall, the visual elements blend together to tell a story. Along with the title and tagline, the poster suggests that the movie will be centered around the young girl as a character and the fear she has that followed her into adulthood. That fear is an insidious figure with keys for claws that can harm the young girl, a literal demon haunting her past.
IDEOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF THE SIGNS IN THE TEXTS AS A WHOLE
Amongst the texts, the title is displayed with the largest font size, followed by the release date, the tagline, and other things.
Just like how the framing of the poster gives off the feeling of a small tight space, the way the word “Insidious” is written with a narrow font and minimal spaces in between each letter can give off similar feelings. The bi-colour nature with “SI” being red while the other letters remain white have been done since the first Insidious film released back in 2011 (excluding the third installment), though no meaning or reasoning have been confirmed by anyone who worked on the films. The colour red however, is often used to represent warning, danger, anger, blood, or even death. The fact that Insidious (2011), Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) and Insidious: The Last Key (2018) all have red letters “SI” in the title may not be a coincidence, as fans of the film series generally agree that Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) (the only Insidious film with all letter ‘I’ being red to hint at it being the third Insidious film) is the installment that feels the most disconnected from the main story of the franchise.
The color red itself have important meanings in the franchise, with the “red door” being the portal for the antagonists of the first two films to travel between dimensions, and the antagonist of the first film referred to as the “Red-Faced Demon”.
Besides that, the common credit text blocks are placed high up rather than at the bottom (common convention for movie posters) helps emphasize the crowdedness & claustrophobia of the visual elements, adding to that feeling of young Elise being trapped with nowhere to go.
The other textual elements visible with quick glances are mainly for marketing purposes. The release date “IN CINEMAS FEBRUARY 8” immediately relays the information to the viewer while “FROM THE PRODUCERS OF …” are to attract avid film goers or horror enthusiasts to check out the film, as the 3 films mentioned (Annabelle: Creation, Paranormal Activity, Get Out) are all praiseworthy films.
ASSUMPTIONS TOWARD THE AUDIENCE
Fans of the franchise may be excited when seeing the poster of the film showing a new antagonist (or spirit) being featured. All the spirits of the Insidious series have distinctive features like how the Red-Faced Demon from the first film was often compared to Darth Maul of the Star Wars franchise, while the Black Bride, Michelle Crane, the Dancing Boy, Doll Girl and the Long-Haired Fiend boasts unique character designs.
Showing only the hand of the spirit can intrigue the fans; inviting them to watch the latest installment of the series just to know how a spirit with keys for claws can fit into the film universe.
Even for non-fans or general audiences who have no experience watching the prior Insidious films or know what the word ‘insidious’ even means can get the general idea that it is nothing positive. The aesthetic of the poster is enough to convey the message that the film will be creepy, unsettling, or even scary, while the texts may convey that the film will be good because of the crews who worked on it.
GENRE & HOW IT RELATES TO THE TEXT
The movie, according to Cinemablend, is a supernatural thriller film. It is categorized as horror on various movie sites such as Amazon and Apple iTunes.
The font used in the film poster is Neutraliser Alternate. It is thin, san serif font which resemble seriousness. The color used is white and red. White is used to make the text stand out against the dark background. While is also the color of typical ghost and paranormal entities. Red is eye-catching, and is used to highlight certain letters.
