Horror magazine cover analysis- Paracinema

The masthead of the magazine is portrayed in a big yellow font in the top third of the magazine in order to catch the eye and the attention of the target audience members. The yellow font is darker around the edges giving it connotations of grime, and when linked with the main image, connotations of eerie sickness as well. The title helps to reinforce the representation of Regan from The Exorcist along with making the magazine represent an eerie, supernatural horror.

The magazine has a yellow, brown and, white and black colour scheme and they help to signify different representations to the target audience. On the image of the girl her skin is a pale yellow and brown which connotes sickness, death and disease. This, combined with the wide, disturbing smile and wild sickly eyes this all comes together to give the girl a representation of a sick evil, and seeming as she’s from The Exorcist it fits into the ideology of the film that she is sick from an evil supernatural possession.

The white and yellow are also used for text and coverlines with the white font denoting a title and the yellow font denoting information about the article. They made the font stand out by making it big and boldly coloured so to attract the attention of the target audience.

The information for The Exorcist article reflects the angry and anarchical nature of the film’s villain by mentioning “shitty gender roles” and “pissed off daughters”.

“The woman’s issue” is an interesting coverline as it reflects women’s power in the horror genre.  “All articles written by women” connotes a degree of power and can be used to represent the female gender in the horror genre. The power women have in horror films comes from the “final girl” theory where the surviving character is an innocent girl and portrays an ideology where women are stronger than men as they survive.  The fact that “all articles [are] written by women” represents that females have extensive knowledge of horror films and are able to use this to inform the target audience.