Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie poster analysis

The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie was first released on 1st October 1974 in the USA, since this it has spawned many sequels and went on to later be remastered and re-released, the most recently released being in 2013 this was in Imax 3D. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is predominantly a Horror, but it also fits into the Crime and Drama genres. As a sub-genre of the Horror genre Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a Slasher film. The main image on the poster is of the film's antagonist 'Leatherface', wielding his trademark weapon, a chainsaw, hence the title The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. As he is the most dominant character in the film, he dominates the poster space. A typical convention in Horror films is for the killer to be deformed or inbred, this is the case with Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Leatherface wears a mask made out of the skin of his victims' skin which he and his family eat. He wears this mask to hide his facial deformity, which is visible on the poster slightly, as he and his whole family are inbred and deformed. Leatherface's mask and chainsaw are the most memorable images of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and so are at the forefront of this poster because of how iconic they are to the film and its franchise. The poster's tagline "THE SAW IS THE LAW" is symbolic to the film as the film is set in a small area which after Leatherface kills the only police officer in the area and his father takes charge as the only police officer in the area has no laws. Thus making the only law in the area "the saw", if Leatherface or his chainsaw believe you should be sentenced to death, he will hunt you down and he will massacre you with his chainsaw. The main colours of the poster are red and black, conventional of the Horror genre. Red connotes blood as in a massacre there is a lot of bloodshed, and also connotes evil and danger, on this poster there is a lot of blood on the chainsaw, Leatherface's clothes and down the walls so the connotations of the colour red are very much so blood. Black connotes darkness, both in the events of the film and as the majority of the film is set at night. Horror movies typically have night time settings however this isn't always the case as the majority of Tucker and Dale vs Evil is set in the daytime.