Although the marketing of American films has gone through plenty of major changes across the history of the medium, the movie poster is an advertisement art form that has been around for quite some time. Movie posters carry a lot of weight, selling any given movie to an audience with only a single image.
As such, sometimes miscommunications can occur. Posters are sometimes able to evoke the general mood, plot, and genre of a movie to attract the proper audience, but other times they leave much to the imagination. When audiences fill in those blanks, they could end up having expectations for a film that do not match its actual genre.
The Secret Of NIMH (1982)
Much of the advertising for The Secret Of NIMH, including this poster, suggested that the film would be a fun fantasy adventure with talking animals and maybe the occasional spooky villain, but nothing too traumatizing. Today, though, the film is remembered as one of the scariest kids’ movies ever.
Audiences who saw the poster were likely caught off-guard by the Don Bluth film’s darkness, as the film deals with impending doom and moral dilemmas on top of scary imagery like the glowing eyes of the Great Owl. What’s more, “NIMH” refers to the National Institute of Mental Health, putting some serious and realistic subject matter into the film.
Crimson Peak (2015)
This poster for Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak evokes a haunting gothic horror story, as a spectral Mia Wasikowska in bright red floats in front of a sky blue manor. The word “BEWARE” warns audiences that this could be a gothic horror story for the ages, although it’s a little bit of an inaccurate impression.
Wasikowska plays Edith, a woman who moves to her new husband Thomas Sharpe’s (Tom Hiddleston) family manor, where she is terrorized by ghosts. Despite these horror-tinged aesthetics, though, the film plays more like a gothic romance with some drama and thriller elements thrown in, surprising audiences who expected a full-on scare-fest.
The Fifth Element (1997)
Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, and Gary Oldman’s faces stare out at the viewer amongst several speeding spaceships and within pillars of dramatic light on the poster for The Fifth Element. This is a poster that promises epic spacefaring adventure with serious and high stakes.
The movie, however, brought audiences into a zany, whimsical, and vibrant world that does not contain much of the self-seriousness of the poster. Audiences may have been delighted or shocked that the film mixed the high sci-fi drama of the poster with memorable images like wild hairdos and opera-singing aliens.
Lady In The Water (2006)
In the poster for M. Night Shyamalan’s take on fairy tales, Bryce Dallas Howard appears surrounded by her hair and a variety of images draped in blue: wolves, skulls, a man with a flashlight, and others. These images evoke images of a fantasy adventure, perhaps with some elements of horror.
In reality, Lady In The Water is a thriller set in a fairly realistic world in which fantasy creatures known as Narfs (fairies, like Howard’s character) and Scrunts (wolf-like monsters) suddenly appear to Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) in an apartment complex pool. The film is not well-remembered today, but audiences at the time were certainly surprised by the lack of traditional dark fantasy to be found here.
Kramer Vs. Kramer (1979)
Adorned only with a family photo of the titular family (Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Justin Henry) and the title, the poster for Kramer Vs. Kramer suggests that it may be a heartwarming family comedy. The film’s title might suggest some strife, but the photograph itself is happy and reassuring.
As it turns out, the poster’s optimism is ironic, as audiences who knew little about the film quickly found out when they sat down to watch an emotional drama about the process of the Kramers’ divorce and its fallout. While the film is not entirely pessimistic, it does deal with its characters deeply and dives far into intense emotional experiences.
Vanilla Sky (2001)
The poster for Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky doesn’t give away much information. It features lead Tom Cruise looking off into the distance in front of a backdrop of blue skies and white clouds. Such a nondescript poster conjures images of a lighthearted drama, or perhaps a dramatic comedy, about this man’s day-to-day life.
In reality, Vanilla Sky is a sci-fi romance/thriller in which David Aames (Tom Cruise) falls in love with Sofia Serrano (Penélope Cruz) shortly before becoming disfigured in a car accident. From there, strange occurrences start to make Aames question his reality, just as audiences may have questioned the poster’s relationship to this enigmatic thriller with plenty of secrets.
Evil Dead II (1987)
The original The Evil Dead was notable for its over-the-top nature and some dark comedic tendencies, but it was still ultimately a dark horror film. So, when the poster for Evil Dead II was released featuring a grim skull with terrified-looking eyeballs, audiences probably expected another semi-serious tale of demons.
This sequel, however, ratchets up the comedy quite a bit, putting its hero Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) into increasingly ridiculous scenarios like fitting himself with a chainsaw hand and a room full of laughing furnishings. So, the somewhat frightening poster doesn’t entirely capture the film’s funny side.
Bridge To Terabithia (2007)
Despite the fact that it was based on a prominent children’s book, Bridge To Terabithia was misleadingly marketed as a fantasy adventure with a poster that suggests magical adventure (with some versions covered in fantasy creatures). The film’s magic, though, is all imaginary, and the movie is actually a tragic coming-of-age drama.
Outcast kid Jess (Josh Hutcherson) befriends new girl Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb) in the movie, and the duo create a fictional world of Terabithia that they escape to. While the film’s imagined fantasy creatures are rendered in CGI, the core of the film is the emotional story of this friendship’s arc.
Tolkien (2019)
A major selling point in the marketing for the J.R.R. Tolkien biopic Tolkien was the use of imagery that recalled his famous Lord Of The Rings books and the many other works that filled in that universe. So, while audiences may not have anticipated a fantasy adventure, they may have gone to theaters expecting to see the connections between real life and fantasy onscreen.
Unfortunately for those fans, much of Tolkien details the author’s life before his first book The Hobbit is even written, making the film into a fairly straightforward biographical drama with some war drama elements. The apparent promise of the clashing warriors and writerly scribbles on the poster recalling the series’ iconic scenes remain mostly unfulfilled.
My Sister’s Keeper (2009)
The poster for My Sister’s Keeper prominently features a smiling Abigail Breslin and Cameron Diaz, apparently promising a heartwarming family romp filled with comedy, family-friendly fun, and bubble blowing. In reality, though, the film, much like the Jodi Piccoult novel that inspired it, is a serious drama.
Breslin plays Anna Fitzgerald, a girl who was born primarily to provide organs and other compatible life-saving materials to her sister Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), who has leukemia. Eventually, Anna decides to try to become medically emancipated from her parents, Brian (Jason Patric) and Sara (Diaz), creating an emotional moral drama that is far-flung from its gentle poster.
