kiss of the vampire

PRODUCT CONTEXT 

The film and poster was produced by Hammer Film Productions and Distrubuted by J.Arthur Rank and Universal. Kiss of the vampire was intended to be a second sequel to 1958's film the dracula which was sucessful. However, there was no refrence to the dracula film so they made it into it's own. The 1960's audience for this advert could be familiar with the conventions of 'monster movie' film posters, such as the composition, fonts and how the representation of women are usually shown. 

ADVERT ANALYSIS

genre The genre of this advert from what we can see, is a horror film. We can see this from the use of vampires, blood and darkness which are typical elements of this genre.

composition -  A Z-line composition is used in the poster. The first section of the poster that the audience will see when they look at it, is infact the title. This insures that the audience are aware of what the poster is about. Then the eye leads you to the main characters, which take up a 

fonts- The title is a capitalised serif font, which could connote the link to this vampire and horror film genre. The styling is a wooden effect too where the V in the title, represents the fang of the vampire, by the blood on it. The white coloured text, contrasts with the dark background behind it.

image- The main image on the poster is a painted image in colour which connotes that this film could be a modern telling of an older story. We can also see this from the central image. The central image on the poster is a vampire, who is holding a girl at his mercy while another woman is holding a man at hers. The darkness of the image, connotes the genre that this film falls into, which is a horror film.

colour - The gloomy grey, black and brown colour palette reinforces the film’s dark, scary conventions while the red highlight colour draws attention to the attacking bats, the vampire and the blood – all key visual signifiers for the genre. Although both of the characters standing up seem superior to the ones below them, the male vampire still seems more superior due to the colours he is wearing, which are dark colours. This contrasts with the woman standing up as she is wearing more lighter

representation- 

The difference between the two female characters shown, represent that both genders can be either weak or powerful. The clothing that both of the woman are wearing however, still fall under the sterotypes towards women. The clothing they are wearing is loose clothing, and both of their skin are shown which puts them in the position of vulnerability and purity. This accentuates their femininity. The man on the floor is dressed stereotypically masculine however, is inpowered by the woman above him. The main person in charge is in fact the vampire who is dressed in darker clothes than all the other people. The gesture code of the woman on the left is that of the stereotypical passive victim of the ‘monster’, his power highlighted by the fact that he’s holding her by just one arm. Baring her teeth and with her arm raisedalmost fist-like as she’s being bitten by the bat, the second woman’s gesture codes are more aggressive, and the submissive pose of her male ‘victim’ (including being on his knees with his head back and throat exposed) represent her in a non- stereotypically dominant way.

THEORITICAL CODES

semiotics – roland barthes- suspense is created through the enigmas surrounding the connoted relationship between the male and female vampires (emphasised by the “kiss” of the title). Barthes’ Semantic Code could be applied to images of the bats and their conventional association with vampirism and horror in general. The Symbolic Codes (Barthes) of horror, darkness and fear are more widely reinforced through signifiers such as the moon and the male victim’s ‘submissive sacrifice’ gesture code.

 strucuralism - claude levi-strauss- The idea that texts are constructed through the use of binary oppositions could be applied to the opposing representations of the vampires and their victims, and the romantic connotations of “kiss” opposed in the film’s title to the stereotypical “vampire” monster.

stuart hall’s theory of representation- the images of a castle, bats, the vampire’s cape and dripping blood form part of the “shared conceptual road map” that give meaning to the “world” of the poster. The audience is actively encouraged to decode this familiar generic iconography.

david gauntlett’s theory of identity- perhaps the female vampire acts as a “role model” for women struggling against male oppression or to be seen as the equals of men, whatever the narrative or environment.

liesbet van zoonen’s feminist theory- assuming this ‘co-antagonist’ role, the female vampire is perhaps contributing to social change by representing women in non- traditional roles (Van Zoonen, 1989) though the passive female victim does reinforce these.