Deconstruction - Typography

The use of typography varies from genre to genre. However, in the horror genre in specific, i would say that the typography is a vital element in giving the audience the first impression of the film when the opening credits roll on. If not, before that when picking up the dvd case. Although people ought not to judge a book by its cover, they will do just that regardless of the film quality. If the front cover of the film looks good, the audience will think it'll be good (and hopefully the product will be) which includes the professionalism of the typography.

There is a distinct difference between the typography used in a horror film and that of a rom/com from the 80s. if we compare the typography used on the cover of scream 4 and compare it to dirty dancing, there's a very large difference.

when we look at the dirty dancing typography, we immediately associate it with being one of those 'old but timeless' "classics" which is just a polite way of saying the film is outdated. Nevertheless, the curved typography almost mimics handwriting which is an immediate way of linking the idea of a girl writing a love story in their diary as opposed to the example we have for scream 4.

The typography of this film fits just as perfectly into the horror genre as the typography for dirty dancing fits into its own genre. The give aways of the cream 4 typography placing the film in the horror genre are the fact that they've used all white except for the red 4 which is the film number. The white silver, pairs with the seemingly sharp points to the writing makes me think about the steel blade of a kitchen knife whilst the red 4 makes me think of a bloodied kitchen knife, making it conform to the horror genre.

One thing that is very common in the world of horror film making, is that the title will usually be a single word, attempting to associate to either the body, to violence or to fear. Scream, for example, is a perfect depiction of a conforming horror title in regards to its single wording associated with fear, paired up with a very well thought through colour scheme and typography shaping. The same goes for the dirty dancing typography, where the pairing of the words "dirty dancing" makes dancing, already an opportunity for intimate occurrences within the film, to seem a little sexier as its calling the dancing style to be "dirty".