The Descent Magazine Front cover (Fangoria)

This is a magazine front cover for the film 'The Descent', the magazine is Fangoria. This magazine company are known for producing information on the horror genre, whereas companies such as Empire magazine focus more on the action genre.

The purpose of a magazine front cover is to persuade the audience to buy the magazine, by intriguing them with a picture and other information reguarding what the magazine contains. The magazine should aim for it's target audience, by using appropriate colours and features of the film. Horror films such as the The Descent, reveal that the main feature of the film is these strange creatures, that people encounter. This magazine intrigues the audience by showing this creature, making the audience aware of what they look like. It also uses the caption to make the audience want to go and see it, by saying it's 'The scariest film in 2006' this makes the audience anticpate how great the film will be and they will want to go and watch it. They may also want to know more about it and so they might be intrigued to buy the magazine, to find out more information, such as who is starring in it.

The colours used on this magazine cover portray a horror genre, the use of the black and dingy yellow of the creature create suspense. The black creates mystery and a sense of death, using the colour yellow in this way juxtaposes the overall meaning of what the colour stands for. As the colour yellow normally symbolises happiness, whereas in this context it is used to highlight that nothing will be happy and death will occur.

The layout of this magazine front cover is appealing to audience memebers as it is not overcrowded with loads of information, it is spread out across the page. It only reveals the important aspects of the magazine, which is the filme 'The Descent' and other little parts within the magazine. They show clearly the main aspect, it is easy for the audience to read, the image is big and makes a statement about the genre of the film. They have the title of the film alongside the picture, with the contents on the far left of the page. This is effective because everything can be found, it is big enough for audience members to read, they will notice it. The title 'Fangoria' is bold and red, this catches the audience's attention and they immedietly associate Fangoria with the horror genre. The other caption 'Summer's Hottest Horror Previews', intrigues the audience and tells them what the magazine contains, this also explains that the magazine is currently up to date with all the new films and releases.