Fangoria is an internationally distributed US film fan magazine. It specialises mainly on horror subgenres such as Slashers, Splatters and Exploitation films.
The Masthead of the Magazine is positioned at the top of the magazine across it. It is in a sans serif Red font with a white outline around it. The magazine denotes the main image which shows a midshot of the antagonist from The Texas Chainsaw of Massacre. This is an appropriate image to use for the front cover as the magazine is of a horror movie genre. Therefore it’s good to use an antagonist from a well known horror film as to attract the audience to read the magazine. We notice that his arms are covered in blood and he is holding his iconic weapon towards the bottom right hand corner of the page, suggesting he is about to kill someone with his chainsaw.
The antagonist’s Non-verbal-communication suggests that he is serious about what he is about to do. Also that he is strong and very masculine as he appears to be holding the chainsaw in a way that makes it look easy to hold and use.
He also has on a mask to cover his identity. As we cannot see any eye contact with the audience, this could suggest that the antagonist is reserved and does not like people prying on his business. It could also symbolise the mystery that is usually present in horror films. His hair is long and looks quite messy and sweaty, which is good as this compliments his costume and the fact he is a killer, therefore suggesting it takes a lot of strength to capture someone and kill them using a chainsaw.
His costume is a top and apron in a dark faded green colour. It covers him from just below his eyes all the way down to his feet. This could have been used as to put across that his “job” (to kill people) is quite messy and tricky that he needs to dress appropriately. The use of the prop is good as to allows the audience to see what the killer uses to attack his victims. The lighting used in the image is low key lighting; we can notice that it’s shone towards the antagonist from the left hand side of the page, making the right hand side of the page appear to be darker than the left. This lighting could have been used because it is a convention of horror films and to create a horror atmosphere. The setting of the main image used for the main image appears to be a basement as you can see a staircase behind the antagonist.
This magazine front cover has a dark background, which is mainly of the colour black. This is a good colour to use for a horror movie magazine front cover as the colour black is a convention horror films, also because it allows the other colours such as yellow, red and white to stand out. All the colours that are used on the front cover are quite bright and can be easily related to a horror genre film. For example the colour red which could symbolise the danger and death associated with horror films.
The main Cover-line of this horror movie magazine is ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning’. This is just below the masthead beside the main image. It is in a Greyish/Faint greenish colour. Unlike most of the types of fonts used on the front cover, this cover-line uses a serif font, this could connote the fact this version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the old fashioned version as it is the original version of the film. The colour of the text used for the main cover-line goes with the costume of the antagonist as well as the colour of the chainsaw. The other cover-lines are on the left hand side of the magazine indicating the front cover of this movie magazine follows the left third rule, which allows the audience to see some of the cover-lines that this magazine issue has when displayed in the shop. The layout of the cover-lines is not exactly neat, but in terms of being positioned in the same column it is. It is quite eye catching due to the different kinds of colours that are used. As this magazine is a horror movie magazine, the cover-lines all relate to films of the horror genre. For instance one of the cover-lines is about ‘The grudge 2’, which is a horror film. Just above the text is a picture of someone’s eye looking through what looks like a box. We notice that the eye has a black iris and pupil and has a blood shot on the right hand side. This is not really a nice picture, but has the word horror written all over it. This allows the audience to feel good about buying the movie magazine as it does include pictures that are quite scary and unsettling. The fact that this front cover has quite a few cover-lines is good as it does not detract the attention from the main image.
A convention of a front cover magazine is the dateline of this magazine, for this movie magazine, it is found on the right hand corner of the magazine. It is positioned next to the title in a small white sans serif font. The dateline of this magazine, allows the readers to see that it’s published monthly. Throughout the whole front cover, we can also notice that the main font that is used is used is a sans serif, connoting a more modern feel of the magazine.
This movie front cover also has a puff to help attract the audience to buy it. In this case it’s to ‘Win Nightmare on Elm Street DVD’s’ which are likely to attract the audience as this is also a well known horror film many people like.
Like many magazines that try and attract more readers, Fangoria also does this by having an image of a suffering victim on the top left hand corner of the magazine. This may attract the audience because all people that love watching horror film like to see people suffering or in pain, as this is what the whole point of horror genre is. The barcode is found on the bottom left hand corner of the page.
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