The document analyzes conventions used on six magazine front covers promoting horror movies. It finds that all magazines feature the antagonist filling the background, conform to rules like placing the masthead at the top. This entices audiences to learn about promoted films and increases sales. Magazines also feature colors like red and black common in horror films. Maintaining consistent branding elements like fonts and layouts helps audiences recognize the magazine's identity across issues. Following these conventions can help make a horror magazine successful.

1. Magazine Front Cover Overview
The followingare arange of magazine frontcoversthatfeature the mostpopularhorror moviesin
orderto promote the newesthorrormoviesandtogain salesforthe magazine itself.Fora magazine
to trulycatch the audience’sattention,theyfollow somekeyconventionsof magazinestobe able to
sell more copiestoa wideraudience,Iwill be overviewingthese 6magazine frontcoversinorderto
helpgive me anideaof whatconventionsIneedtofollow inordertomake myown magazine
successful.These magazinesare some of the mostpopularhorrormagazine titles,including; Scream,
Empire and Fangoria.

2. All of these six magazine frontcoversconform tothe mainconventionsof amagazine inthe waythat
the mastheadisatthe topof the coverand the main image isthe backgroundandfillsthe wholefront
cover so that the audience canrecognise whatfilmthe magazine ispromoting.The mastheadisalso
alwaysthe largesttextonthe page,of whichall of the magazinesconformto,andthisistoattract the
audience’sattentionsothattheycanfindtheirfavourite magazine amongstthe restof the magazines
on show.In additionto this,the mastheadisthe largestbecause an audience mustnotice the brand
identity of the magazine so they can continue to purchase these magazinesin future issues and see
the symbiotic link between all of the issues.
As well as the conventions mentioned, there are many others that are conformed to by these
magazines.All themagazinesfeaturethe antagonistonthe frontcoverand fillthe wholebackground,
thisisthe entice the audience tomake theminterestedaboutthe filmthatisbeingpromotedinorder
to persuade them to go and watch the film or even just the trailer. Horror magazines often use the
antagonistto make the filmmore appealingtothe audience,because horrorfilmsare made to scare
the audience,soinorder to promote the filmwell,the magazine mustbe able to scare the audience
withimagessothe audience willknowthattheirneedswill be fulfillediftheygo andwatchthe movie.
For example,the 6th
magazine frontcover, Fangoria;promotingInsidious,featuresthe antagonistof
the movie whichthe spiritislitwithprofilelightingwhichenablestheaudience tosee thespiritwithin
the darkness that surrounds it, this will scare audiences.
Once again, like the postersthatI overviewed,mostof the magazinesfeature heavilyonthe colours;
red,blackand white andthisisbecause these are the commoncoloursthat feature inhorrormovies.
However only one of the magazines use direct address which I thought was a strong convention to
have to entice the audience. Fangoria’s magazine that promotes Jenifer’s Body, has a tagline under
the title of the filmname that says“Megan Fox will eatyoualive!”andthisis a greatway to promote
whatthe narrative andtype of sub-genre thishorrorfilmis.Italsogetsacrosstothe audience of who
the antagonist actually is, in this case Megan Fox.
Furthermore,all ofthe magazinesfeature askyline.Howeveronlyfive out of thesixmagazinesfeature
imagesfromothermovie titlesthatthe magazine will coverinsidethatparticularissue.Thiswillhelp
encourage the targetaudiencetopurchase the magazine andhelpkeepthe magazineopentoawider
audience, for example Fangoria oftenfeatures a reel of imageswhich suits well for promoting other
films.Inadditiontothisallof the mainimagesfeaturingtheantagonistallhave mediumcloseupshots
of the characterinorderforthe audience toseeupclosetothe antagonisttobecomemore interested
in what movie is being promoted.
There are alsosymbioticlinksthatthe magazinehastoupheldinorderforthe audiencetounderstand
the relationship between; magazine,poster and film trailer. So having the antagonist as the main
image of the magazine will help the audience recognise the poster and trailer to be linked to the
magazine.The filmname also createsthis effectwhichiswhy it has to be the secondlargesttext on
the page so that audiences can recognise the relation in the promotional package once again.
Furthermore the coloursalone canhelpaudiencesasthe colourscheme willoftenfeaturethroughall
of the promotional packages.
One of the main waysin whichthese magazineskeeptheirbrandidentityisthrough theirmasthead.
Asyou can see fromFangoria’smagazine frontcover,theirmastheadstaysthe same unlessthereisa
special edition, of which, the masthead is adapted to match the film presented on the front cover.
Fangoria’sfontstyle is unique asit is createdto looklike fangssuch of whicha vampire has,thiswill
have asymbioticlinktonotonlythe othereditionsof the magazinebywithhaveconnotationtohorror
inthe fact that it is promoting horror films and vampires have been in horrors since the late 1920s.

3. The Empire magazine has managed to keep itsbrand identity by keeping the same style and font as
the other editions,however,ithasmanagedtoadapt the mastheadwhilstkeepingthe same identity
to linkwiththe filmitis representing, inthiscase The Shining.Theyhave managedtoachieve thisby
having the masthead appear more old school as this is an older horror movie but have still kept the
same style for the letter ‘M’ which is the most recognisable letter in the name. Like posters, the
mastheadsonthe magazine frontcoversare all inuppercase whichallowsthe audience tobe able to
read it for one and also will stand out from the rest of the text allowing the audience to understand
that it is the masthead and therefore understandingthat it is the name of the magazine present.
Following the masthead conventions, the magazine front covers will always feature the characters
rather than the actors/actresses that play the role. Especiallyin the horror magazines this is a huge
conventionbecause itkeepsthe theme of the magazine inflow.WhatImean bythisis if youhad the
actor that plays the antagonist of Insidious the magazine would not have the same effect and the
audiences would be confused of the relevance that that particular actress has in promoting the film
Insidious. We know that the characters are being represented rather than the actor/actress due to
the use of costume and especially in The Shining, that image is taken straight from the movie.
The positioningof the barcode is alwaysfeaturedineitherthe bottomleftor rightcorner and this is
seenacrossall of the magazines.Thisisdue tothe rule of thirdsandthismeansthat it will be the last
thing that the audience will see as it is the least most important feature magazines have. Puffs are
usedmainlytothe special offerthatthe magazine may have inside,butalsoto show the price of the
magazine,asshownonthe magazineScream.The coloursconventionallystandoutfromthe magazine
to make it more effective andsothatthe audience cansee it,butfor the Screammagazine theyhave
used colours that continue the flowing colour scheme throughout,.
Each of these magazineshaveconformedtothe conventionsoftypicalhorrormovie magazines,Ihope
to be able to take this and implement them into my own horror magazine. All of the magazines
enabledme tounderstandwhathorror theyare promotinginthat particular issue andthishas given
me the basicknowledge ofhowtogoaboutmakingmy ownmagazinefrontcoverformyhorrormovie.
I will also go into more detail of two of these magazine front covers in my magazine analyses.