[BEST & WORST '12] The Worst Posters Of Year! -

[BEST & WORST '12] The Worst Posters Of Year!

Movies
Posted by EvanDickson on December 31, 2012 @ 2:04pm | 12 Comments
Category: Movies / Editorials

Posters, when done right, are an art form. Sure, they’re advertisements, but they’re also such a great artistic challenge. Representing the identity of a movie – and getting people in the door – with a single image? That’s tough.

So tough, in fact, that it’s rarely done properly anymore. And look, I know that studio mandates can wreck a poster (floating heads etc…) just as much as a bad artist can – but a wrecked poster is a wrecked poster. This year our most egregious offender was blandness itself, where a fear of alienating the audience by actually being interesting took an even deeper hold than before and subjected us to some truly boring imagery.

Hit the jump to check out some of the year’s worst posters! Click on the banners to check ‘em out in full!

THE APPARITION

I’m not sure why they felt the need to make the lovely Ashley Greene look like Snooki, but I imagine that dozens of people were disappointed when they realized this film was not about the comeuppance of the “Jersey Shore” star.

TOTAL RECALL

We spent a lot of money on this movie. It’s got famous people and it’s shiny. Hope you like stormtroopers!

GREYSTONE PARK

A truly horrendous design. Gone are the days when VOD releases carry the same stigma as direct-to-DVD did just a few years ago. When will the posters start reflecting that? Alas, one could only hope that the actual movie was as zanily entertaining as this monstrosity.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4

There’s got to be a better way of letting people know that you’re a Paranormal Activity movie than being the ugliest, most boring poster out there.

THE POSSESSION

I’m done with moths. They’re not scary. I’m also done with people tilting their heads back. Being limber is not a sign of possession. Flexibility keeps you young, I don’t know why supernatural horror picks on it so much.

HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET

Our movie has Jennifer Lawrence in it. We won’t tell you anything about what it might be like in terms of tone, but we did smear her face in butter.

SILENT HILL: REVELATION 3D

A textbook example of limiting your audience only to the people who are already familiar with your product and like craning their heads. I literally had no idea what was going on here until after I saw the movie.

WRONG TURN 5: BLOODLINES

Because anything that reminds me of this movie is poison. Also, is this girl even in the film?

12 comments

anezka

2:33 pm, December 31, 2012|

I have to disagree in one thing: moths are scary for me! First time I saw one, I hated the experience and I don’t really like the thought of puking them. I just don’t know what it has to do with possession…
About House at the End of the Street, I remember watching the trailer thinking “is this the girl from The Hunger Games?” and I didn’t even pay attention what the film was about, but, in the end, they do say that in the trailer. The fact that they are advertising her appearance in the film makes me think they don’t have anything else to ad. And, by the way, in general, I prefer horror films with unknown actors (or, at least not the ones you can easily associate with a specific character) because it is easy to forget it is a film.

Zombie-Killa

3:18 pm, December 31, 2012|

Is it just me, or do you REALLY despise Wrong Turn 5, Evan? lol.

And I agree about the “stormtroopers” stuff for the Total Recall remake. But If I had to pick the worst out of the bunch, I would go with The Apparition poster, just awful.