Kiss of the vampire

Kiss of the vampire, textual analysis.

This poster uses codes and conventions to display immediately that it is part of the horror genre, The bats in the background connote darkness and act as a proairetic code, especially as they're increasing in size as they fly forward, building the sense that they're going to come out of the poster. This builds nerves in the audience and these nerves tell them that it's a horror movie before they recognise it completely themselves. The bats grow in size until they're bigger than the character's on the poster, this re-enforces that it will be a horror genre with supernatural themes, alongside the lexis vampire. Blood can be seen on the poster dripping from the film title, this blood is not only a convention of the horror genre and is a hermeneutic and proairetic code, but it almost breaks the fourth wall. The film title is not embedded with the action behind it. It uses a font with a black border which makes it appear to be further forward than the character's and separate from the actual film. By having blood dripping from this font it seems as though the blood isn't part of the movie, and is closer to the audience than the character's, bringing the danger to the audience. This use of layout also helps to create a symbolic code. The 'V' in the word 'VAMPIRE' reconstructs a vampire fang, a vampire's fang is stereo-typically recognised as it's key weapon and method of killing. By having this fang made out of the word vampire as well as being at the start of it vampire's are represented as only being cold-blooded killers with nothing more to offer. The colour of the font used looks like human bone and could be a symbolic code for death. Meaning that the 'kiss of the vampire' is death and will kill you. In the background of the poster there is a full moon, another convention for the genre of supernatural horror. There is a man knelt directly below the moon, he is covered in blood which suggests he has been injured and is in pain. He is being held back by a women who is joyful and in power. This is made clear by the bright gold dress she is wearing , the brightness connotes happiness and the gold connotes wealth, which is equivalent to power. The gender roles being subverted by a submissive man and dominant woman has a specialised effect on a 1963 English audience. As at that time society remained misogynistic, this creates an even more supernatural sense, which is re-enforced by the full moon directly above. 

Whilst some gender roles are subverted you can still clearly see many being followed. The women's costumes are an example of this. They are wearing revealing dresses with lots of skin being shown even though it is clearly nighttime and it is safe to assume it's very cold. This suggests that women's prime purpose is to be sexually appealing, not to take care of themselves. Both the women also wear high heels, despite the fact that in an emergency that's the last kind of footwear one would want to be wearing and the proairetic codes make it clear that it is an emergency. This suggests women are too stupid to be properly prepared. The lexis 'kiss' is stereotypically feminine, it makes the audience think that the women will be the ones engaging in kissing vampires. This makes them seem as though they lack common sense. The women's vulnerability is being fetishised, this is made clear by the way she titlts her