Streeborama and the Lost Art of the Movie One Sheet.

Welcome to a special edition of Streeborama as we are going to discuss the lost art of horror movie one sheets!  I expect this to be an ongoing series here at Streeborama.  I want to discuss the good poster art of the past, what made it work and what makes modern poster art so terrible.

Whether you’re a filmmaker or just a fan – we are all extremely familiar with one sheets – or posters as they are referred to in the common vernacular.  I remember being twelve years old with a green apple lollipop in my hand wandering the aisles of the local mom and pops video store and being enthralled by the sights and horrors peering at me from the cover of the VHS boxes lining the shelves.  I was never allowed to watch the movies but they intrigued me nonetheless.  They often featured a mix of blood, skulls and beautiful women but it was always in a way that implied that something sinsiter was at work behind it all.

This was a time when poster art was REAL art.  They were conceived by artists with an actual goal of creating something eye catching to draw a potential viewer in.  Poster art was exciting, mysterious, inspirational and most all of – intriguing.

(Read the rest after the leap!  Posters!!!)

 

They had to tell enough of the story to make the viewer want to know more.  This is a concept and an art form that has all but disappeared over the past fifteen years.  Where horror films used to feature artwork from great artists like Neal Adams’ classic one sheet for Grizzly, they now feature a row of floating faces.

The Nineties saw the rise of the mega-video stores like Blockbuster – driving the Mom and Pops stores into obscurity and with it went the art of horror movie one sheets. In 1995 the horror genre was reinvigorated by Scream forever tainting the art of the movie one sheet.  Scream was a success in part because of the marketing strategy which involved removing any sense of poetry or storytelling from the movie poster and replacing it all with the floating heads of the stars of the film.

Once Scream hit blockbuster status bringing in $500 million worldwide – the bell sounded ten for the death of the horror movie poster.  It would be years before we would ever see another one sheet that tried to create a tone of terror or tried to tell any kind of story.  Instead we have been treated to a never-ending row of faces floating over a sea of black.

Even the indie filmmakers that aren’t beholden to CW stars for their success fail to create any sort of memorable poster art.  All too often the indie filmmakers fall into the photoshop trap.  I call a work “photoshoppy” when It is clearly a collection of images – usually actors – that have been cut out of other photos and all collaged together in the most unimaginative and boring mélange possible.

Gone are the attempts to tell the story or draw in a viewer.  Instead indie filmmakers tend to think that if they can somehow manage to squeeze every single character in the movie into their one sheet that it will somehow appeal to the audience that has no idea who these people are.  They’re often mismatched, mis-sized and feature flaccid compositions.  Photoshop gives indie filmmakers the ability to come up with their own one sheet designs – but unfortunately it doesn’t tell them how to do it well.

Craftsmanship is always important – but telling that story in one image so that the

audience is intrigued enough to buy a ticket is what is most important.  The major studios accomplish that with their sea of faces.  The indies need to accomplish it through creativity.  There seems to be no end to the amount of independent horror films coming out but there is a unbalanced ratio of bad to good one sheets.  All too often indie posters feature a poorman’s attempt to replicate mainstream studios with their face posters.  Other times they are just plain boring.

Since I am so dismayed at the lack of great poster art in both the mainstream and the underground – I thought we should take a look at some of the one sheets that do accomplish that goal of telling a story with one image.

Below you will see a variety of poster images that for whatever reason work quite well.  They either tell a story in one image or they are exciting and visually stimulating.  I’ve posted a few of my favorites from the Eighties, Nineties and recent years.  Next, I share an example of indie poster art from the madmen at Mutantville Productions.  I wrap it all up with a couple of fan made posters that outdo most efforts from the mainstream or underground today.  Enjoy.