The
poster features a woman with pale blue skin. Her eyes are yellow, in a
honeycomb-like pattern. A bee is sat on her nose and she has red glossy shiny
lipstick on. Her hair is dark blue and her forehead is being pulled by another
person’s hands. The woman has bumps and holes across both cheeks and sides of
the face.
The bumps on the face are in an unusual pattern, which is
the trigger for an unofficial disorder called Trypophobia. This is the fear of
irregular patterns/clusters of holes and bumps. People are repelled and
disgusted by this fear which infers that the series will focus on phobias and
fear meaning that it is ready to mentally and emotionally traumatise their
audience in order to get across the genre of horror.
The eyes are a golden colour in the shape of honeycombs/hive.
A worker bee is sat on her nose and these bees are known for collecting
nectar/pollen. These bees work to death and have no other purpose than to serve
the queen. The eyes represent the honeycombs, which is linked to the notion of
the hive mind. Hive minds is a sci-fi/nature trope which refers to a collective
conscience/intelligence. In nature bees are united by a single collective
intelligence. This hive mind involves indoctrination of people and it links to
the title: ‘CULT’. Cults are a small
group of radicals that intend to change the world through radical measures. The
link of bees, hive minds and the title all infer that the series will focus on
the terror of cults and control: the way the indoctrinated people become cult
members to work for a charismatic leader which, will ultimately lead them to
their death. Just like a worker bee.
The hands pulling the eyes is an intertextual reference to
the 1962 novel/1971 film A Clockwork Orange.
A Clockwork Orange follows Alex, submitted
to a behaviour modification technique to condition him to be repulsed by violence.
The hands pulling the eyes references the scene where Alex is forced to watch
disturbing images and it once again reminds the audience that control over
people is a major theme. The direct address to the audience, sends the message
that the series will force you to watch on. However, it also could refer to the
idea that the poster is seeing you with wide eyes. The poster is attempting to
persuade you to watch the series. This will intrigue and disturb audiences
which is what the series is about.
The two shades of blue contrast for dark blue has
connotations of depression and loneliness whilst the pale blue is a reference
to alien. The shades of blue refers to the factors of cult members for they are
usually marginalised people that feel alienated from society and this means
that the series is a form of comfort for those who feel marginalised from
society. Katz and Blumer would regard this as ‘personal identity’, for the
reason people turn to media is to discover personal identity. The bright glossy
red has connotations to blood and anger which means that the series will
involve intense gore but also present the anger of those that feel marginalised
from society. The gold is a reference to honey and wealth which is an irony for
marginalised people do not usually have enough money for society. The gold
links to the colour of honeycomb hives. All the colours form an impression of a
clown which is a popular phobia. This further supports the view that the series
will focus on fears.
The clown make up could also be a reference to the 2016
clown reference where numerous of people dressed up as clowns to terrorise
people. The clown phenomenon helps to make the inference that the series will
involve people dressing up as clowns to terrorise people in order to cause
people to fear. It uses a close up to ensure the full focus of the poster and
directly addresses the audience.
The narrative for this poster is that a cult is rising which
will use the element of fear and phobia to scare marginalised people to seek
comfort from the cult. The cult will force the indoctrinated to work for the
leader until they die. The main theme is fear and control.
