Analysis Poster - 28 Weeks Later

The target audience for 28 WEEKS LATER is male youth between the age of 15-24. This group is represented through the use of media language.

The initial denotation of the poster leads to it being mainly red feature one main image lots of large text and overall looking like a piece of war proper gander. The large “Warning!” suggests that it would be emplaced as a notification to the public this could connote that the setting is in a zone with marshal law. This is linked to the genre as a lot of horror films have involvement to do with the forces. This appeals to the target audience of males because according to Halls "Storm & stress" model youth seek excitement and "warning" suggests danger and ultimately should invoke a thrill in audiences.

The poster uses one singular image of a man in a bio suit we also see a bio sign behind the film name 28 weeks later. This connotes that there is a link between the story line and some sort of epidemic or infection if a fan of the original film this is obvious but if someone is new to the two films then this is a good indication to the core story behind the film. The use of “Quarantine” also links to the fact of it being an infection of some kind as the only time people are kept in quarantine is to help prevent epidemic or sometimes to prevent someone from relaying information ect linking the poster to horror yet again. This appeals to the audience because they know it will be a perhaps easy story to follow perhaps meaning the film will be more action driven then story and dialogue appealing the male stereotype of loving action.

The red of the poster connotes danger, violence and anger and is also the colour of blood which links to the zombie horror well as the biggest parts of zombie horror utilised are the gore and making the audience jump. As afore mentioned this will appeal to the target audience based on the fact it creates a feel of danger that should invoke excitement. The danger and violence aspect work well with the horror genre as it suggests there will be a danger aspect and some sort of violence behavior this sort of actions are what would be expected of a horror as appose to something like a psychological thriller as that tends to play a lot more on the mind then it does the “boo.” 

“Deadly force will be used to protect this area” is a quote on the poster and connotes that there may be some sort of violence action in the film as the statement could be used as a foreshadowing to hint into what the story is about the violence connotation also links to the horror basis of the film as violence is commonly seen in horror. When linking to uses and gratification (Blumer and Katz (1974)) the poster is used for information to gain knowledge about the film and entertainment for filling time analysing the poster. 

The typography of the poster fits with the theme of the Poster well. It has a grainy texture look that creates the affect of the poster being folded or to be a certain age. This links to male audiences because the text its self is bold and straight to the point it is not curly and well present like a stereotypical female font would be, this gets the point of the film across being serious and simple that may apply to a male youths behaviour.