Magazine Analyses

Empire 

‘Empire’ is a well-known blockbuster magazine which covers big Hollywood movies to hit the screens. Therefore, we see a lot of horror/thriller being included and portrayed to a wide audience as it is targeted to the majority of the media audience.

What primarily grabbed my attention in this cover was The Joker, an iconic character which Batman fans will be all-too familiar with. This means that the USP (unique selling point) of this magazine will be the figure featured in the middle. Focusing on The Joker himself, he has a direct gaze into the camera which subconsciously involves the audience, as well as possibly giving off an invasive and intruding impression as highlighted through his open body language, (legs turned out as well as feet).

From the rest of the cover, it’s easy to assume that the colour scheme has been adopted from the main figure which explains the use of green and purple throughout the fonts and icons. This has been done to create a balance throughout the cover and also emphasize the theme of the particular issue, (in this case, the new Batman film). Also, something to notice is the splatter-effect of the cover line about The Joker regarding his own makeup and how messy and uneven it is, thus reflecting his wild nature and crazy attitude. This could be another subtle link to harmonise the cover as it is linking the featured story to the main shot.

Scream

As horror magazines go, this is one of the most typical. There are a few interesting points about this cover which do indeed challenge the horror genre, but still get away with it.

Let’s begin with the masthead. The eye-catching, luminous yellow, caps-locked title conforms to most horror conventions. This could be due to the connotations of blood and unpleasantness being associated with horror, thus explaining why this dripping effect works so well. However, the colour is not so conventional and contrasts to most other horror magazines as it isn’t red. Traditionally, connotations of the colour yellow could be the sun, happiness, life, immortality etc. This could challenge the horror genre in terms of the ironic effect using a stereotypically positive colour with a horror magazine. The strapline certainly conforms to the genre as it labels what is primarily expected feature in horror films – ‘Blood, Guts, Gore & More!’.

The main shot captures the audience’s attention by featuring again another famous villain, Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13^th. This magazine has used a medium shot to capture enough of his profile to know who he is and to notice that he has a weapon, but with no need for a full-body shot. There is also good attention to detail in terms of the dirtiness on the mask similar to the wooden sign holding the masthead. This connotes to unpleasantness due to dirt and blood-stains, thus indicating the horror nature of the magazine. Jason’s weapon in the shot holds an interesting purpose as it includes reflections of himself and victims and even people from other films possibly. This has been done to reinforce the significance of Friday the 13^th in this issue of the magazine, furthermore indicating that this is the main feature of the issue. The setting used in this cover shows a forest environment which could indicate the solitary atmosphere featured in the film Friday the 13^th. It could also suggest the vulnerability of the victims, which in turn could make the audience feel uneasy.

The whole forest theme of the cover is reinforced with the featured articles down the left-hand side, as they have the appearance of being posters nailed to a tree. This is effective as it works well with the rest of the cover, and is also conventional for horror as most horror films are set in a ‘dark wood’ or solitary environment, where most bad things happen. Each featured article is a profile shot of a single character in different horror films, which shows the similarity and consistency throughout the cover. This could suggest the structured nature of the magazine, but also contrasts to the messy and dirty effects of the cover.

The main cover line is a form of anchorage text for the main shot on the cover, and it includes the title for Friday the 13^th in its original font and colour. This makes it recognisable to the audience, making it eye-catching and attractive to fans. It is important to address that the font is red, which has the most obvious connotation of being related to blood. This could indicate the bloody nature and gory contents of the film, which is also supported by the strapline above. Therefore this magazine cover is on the whole a more traditional horror magazine and has all the indications of featuring gory horror contents in this issue.

Fangoria

One of the main things to address is the colour scheme of this cover. There is an obvious contrast in terms of light and dark. The masthead is large and written in white which allows it to stand out, where if it was red like most other horror magazines, it is likely to be lost given the main shot being so dark. Due to this magazine being called ‘Fangoria’, it is easy to assume that the focus of this particular issue could be on the supernatural and mythical. This is supported by the use of white text as it could represent eeriness and ambiguity, as white doesn’t have much of a preference. Against the black background, white stands out and creates a contrast throughout the cover. The composition of the cover creates a kind of frame for the main shot. The masthead, cover line, and featured articles on either side work well in making room for the main shot, thus focusing more attention there than anywhere else. The masthead specifically helps due to the font style and the ‘fangs’ at the beginning and end of the title, this further helps the framing of the image.

The main image itself portrays a dark and spooky feel, primarily due to the distorted face and how some parts aren’t that visible. This effect connotes to mystery and creepiness as it is unknown. The supernatural theme with this cover is reinforced by the ghostly figure, and conforms to the shadowy effects of the background making the image all the more scary. The fact that there is a single candle in the shot could suggest that the face is only lit by that one source of light, which explains the shadows. There is an element of mystery as to the characters dress code, such as the veil. This involves the audience as they don’t know who the character is, or why they are dressed that way. Thus it is enticing the audience to watch the movie to find out.

The cover line is probably what has shaped the rest of the cover in terms of colour as it is written in the film title’s original font, therefore the rest of the cover will have adopted this theme to reinforce the significance of this particular film in this issue.

The puffs are interesting in this cover as there are two of them. One takes the form of a little bubble on the left-hand side, and stands out as the font is a different colour to grab the attention of the audience. The reason that it is a different colour and style is because puffs are used to advertise something unrelated to the main shot, therefore needs to be different, but still attention-grabbing. The other puff takes the form of a reel on the bottom of the cover, and this has visual enticements to show the audience what else is inside the magazine itself, without giving too much away.