Context and Media Language

The year of the advert

1963

Producer

Hammer film productions

• They had success with other monster movie franchises such as Frankenstein

Distributor

J. Arthur Rank and Universal

What was the film intended to be the 2nd sequel for?

1958’s Dracula

Cultural context

• The 1960s audience for this advert could be assumed to be familiar with the codes and conventions of ‘monster movie’ film posters, such as it’s composition, fonts and representations of the monster and its victims

Codes and conventions

• Capitalised serif font of the title creates connotations linked to the vampire film genre with it’s wooden style and blood dripping from the letter ‘V’

• ‘Painted’ main image is highly conventional of the film period, links to Christopher Lee’s ‘Dracula’

• The gloomy grey, black and brown colour palette reinforces the film’s dark, scary conventions while the red highlight colour draws attention to the attacking bats

What does the order of the list of names signify?

It shows male actors as more dominant.

This is because, Conventonally, stars are listed with the more highly paid male actor first, and in order of fame.

Roland Barthes - semiotics

• Suspense is created through the enigmas surrounding the connoted relationship between the male and female vampires (emphasised by the ‘kiss’ of the title) and the fate of their own victims, (Hermenuetic)

• Images of bats is conventially associated with horror (semantic code)

• The moon, and the male victims submissive gesture code are symbolic codes through horror

Claude Levi Strauss

Binary oppositions

• opposing representations of vampires and their victims

  • Vampires are strong, victims are weak

• Romantic connotations of ‘kiss’ opposed to the stereotypical ‘vampire’ monster

  • “Kiss” opposes “Vampire” One is about romance, love, whereas the other is about danger, horror etc.

  • This suggests the film is a romance and horro film/