Before almost every American had TV’s, the one of the only ways to advertise for a new movie was to make a poster for them. In many of these posters, the artist will create a small glimpse of what the movie will be like. For the movie poster Silence of the Lambs, the artist used different elements that helped create suspense and mystery for the viewer. The poster for Silence of the Lambs depicts a pale woman, who is almost ghostly in appearance, with deep red eyes and an orange winded butterfly over her mouth.  By the artists using warm colors, a focal points and chiaroscuro, the artist is creating a sense of fear and worry for anyone viewing this poster.

The most important element to this movie poster is how the artist used warm colors when creating this poster. In the poster, the artist used warm colors for the women’s eyes and for parts of the butterfly’s wings. Although there are many different shades of red that could have been used for this poster, the artist decided to use a deep blood-like red that pops out to the viewers eyes almost instantly. When looking at the poster, the red used gives the viewer a sense of worry for women. The poster used red in the women’s eyes and on parts of the butterfly’s wings because red is associated with violence and danger. Another reason why the creators of the poster decided to use red was because they were trying to create suspense before people got to see the movie. The way they did this was by creating a sense of worry for the girl in the poster because of the association people have with the color red and blood. By using a warm color like red, this poster helps create a sense of danger and worry, but also adds a sense of mystery for the viewer about the welfare of the women.

Another important factor in the movie poster Silence of the Lambs is the focal point of the butterfly in the middle of the poster. Our eyes are drawn to this because the butterfly has the warm colors of brownish red and orange. Our eyes are drawn to this because the warm colors of the butterfly are in front of the white background of a woman’s mouth. The creators of the poster placed the butterfly in front of the woman’s because it is symbolic of the butterfly trying to silence her. The butterfly also has a white skull on its back which also draws the eyes to it because it pops out since it is surrounded by warm colors. The white skull draws our eyes because we associate a white skull with death. In this instance, the creators used the focal point of the butterfly to catch our attention and question why it is there and what the meaning of the butterfly is and why it is associated with violence and death.

This movie poster does a good job of using chiaroscuro when the creators transitioned from light to dark in the poster. In the poster, the light is the woman’s face and then it transitions to a dark background. This gives the viewer of the poster the sense that something bad is going to happen in the movie. Also, the color of the woman’s skin is light and almost ghostly in color, which tells the viewers that the women might be in danger and could possibly be dead or even close to death. The use of light to dark in this poster helps add to the mystery and suspense that this poster gives off, while also telling the viewer that there will be a conflict between good and evil in the movie.

Through using chiaroscuro, focal point and warm colors, the poster creates an image what we can get a good image of what we can expect the movie to be like. This poster made good use of the colors it uses because of the of the mystery that it gives the viewer. The viewer may ask many different question like why the butterfly is the only part of the poster that has color or why it is covering the girl’s mouth. By using these different elements in this poster, it makes the people looking at it ask question and helps build mystery around it.
