Epic Poster and font

 Because my project is heavily inspire by slasher films and slasher inspired games I wanted to create a poster that fits in to the typical slasher style with some influence form the games that I'm using as influence from my project. Because my game is heavily inspired by Clock tower I looked at the film that inspired clock tower, The burning.

The burning was a 1981 film directed by Tony maylam and its known for it infamous gory killings as well as the titular killer,  Cropsy, who goes around a summer camp murdering the fraternizing teens. I wanted to mainly look over the posters used to advertise the the film and what one is more effective than the other.

The first poster is probably the most iconic the killer leans over the river the blood from the weapon turning the river into a flow of blood, The campers unaware as there canoes are entering the killers jaws. This poster references one of the most graphic scenes within the film as a group of campers are rowing in there canoes, the killer then jumps from the river and kills all of them despite them being in separate boats. The colors of the poster are also quite chilling with sharp light with only a few key colors, red, white and black. The use of minimal colors helps draw the viewer to the chilling visual of the killer, who while we see his full body his face is largely obscured, giving him a more threatening presence as we don't know his identity.

The most popular burning poster

The second poster is more of a traditional slasher poster. The killer is positioned above the victim looming over them unaware of the killers presence the teenagers are unaware. Like the first poster there is a strong sense of contrast to draw the viewer to the point of interest, the murder weapon. The font on the poster remains the traditional bright red with flames referencing the killers disfiguration caused by a twisted pranks done by the kids of the summer camp. In a lot of other slasher posters the font is sharp and harsh like a knife. In a lot of poster a consistent theme throughout is the killer or killer's weapon is positioned above the victim who is either unaware or is screaming in horror. 

The alt burning poster

Halloween poster

Prom night poster

From looking at these poster I've gone through multiple attempts at trying to imitate the formula. The first I wanted to have the scissors coming up from below however after multiple tests I decided to go with the scissors from the top with the main character unaware of the presence looming behind her. Having the scissors coming up from the bottom I felt did look good I just had trouble rendering it and think that it doesn't display the power dynamic that well so having the scissors come from the top not only illustrates the power dynamic between these two characters but also  fits into the trope of the traditional slasher poster, the killers presence is always above the victim.

With the final version of the poster you can see there's a huge difference from the wip to the final. In a lot of the wips I tried to use some harsh lighting like the original burning poster to create a heavy contrast and make the character, weapon and font stand out. 

For the font I wanted to make sure the Nights stalker part stood out, as it was the most notable part of the title. So I decided to use two fonts one for "the" and one for "Nightstalker". 
 

Name of the fonts I used