Genre as a Marketing Tool

This is the Resident Evil: Afterlife film poster. It has a relatively dark background, signifying the nature of the storyline, and it supports the horror genre of the three previous Resident Evil films (and games). The image of Milla Jovovich is in an action shot of her falling from a tall building, with a couple of firing guns - suggesting the action genre, but this image of her is a long shot, getting her whole body in, and some of the darkness above and below her. Within the mise-en-scene (this might not be entirely clear from this smaller image), there are wrecked vehicles and damaged, unused buildings, suggesting the danger and human peril in the plot.

The date and 3D is noted in red coloured writing, which represents blood, again linking to the horror concept, ranks these words behind the more important ones (the film title in shiney silver, brand/franchise identy), and the date is smaller as well as being red. The red contrasts less with the dark background, whereas the silvered title contrasts more and stands out.

The fact that the main charatcer is a woman, it subverts the Proppian theory. I think that the reason why she is represented here in dark clothing helps to signify the darkness and horror elements in the film.