Horror Magazine Cover Analysis 1

The Masthead for the magazine is in large capital lettering in order to capture the attention of the target audiences, in this case horror fans. The main title of the magazine is FANGORIA which sets the tone of the magazine by incorporating the play on words with gore, this will create an appeal to the horror audience. The titles is literally made up of two words which separate into "fan" and "gore"combined, which explains why it features many gory horror auteurs and gory horror, such as the likes of Tom Savini as shown at the bottom of the magazine. The red colouring of the text connotes danger and gore and is a common feature within horror magazines, and when combined with the main cover image furthers that idea of gore by portraying a picture of innards. The colour scheme of the magazine cover is primarily black, red, yellow and white which have different connotations. The black for instance is used a lot in horror to connote darkness and shadows which create senses of eeriness, whilst the red connotes blood and gore, a common feature within horror films. The yellow is used in certain movies such as The Exorcist  (1973) to give the central character Regan's skin a sense of decay and disease. The main image is the iconic moment from VideoDrome (1983) which shows guts coming from a television set, this image is very gore driven with the blood lining the innards, which creates a sense of sickliness and creates another appeal for horror fans, also by using this type of image it will draw in fans of the movie and make the magazine eye catching for audiences.

The headline of the magazine is 'Videodrome TV with Guts' which is a nice pun included in the title, it also helps to emphasise the main image, the headline uses the sickly yellow colouring to continue the colour scheme of the magazine. The strapline of the magazine is a play on the word 'exclusive' but in fact it reads 'Acksclusive' which is using the noise of general sickliness, by doing this it helps to fit the overall thematics of FANGORIA magazine. The coverlines of the magazine are all coloured yellow which is again playing on that unsettling colour scheme idea, it also helps to draw attention to these titles in order to capture the target audiences attention on particular items such as the Tom Savini article. The magazine's coverlines also mention some pretty big names such as David Cronenberg and Tom Savini who are both contextually horror nuts, Cronenberg is known for other horror movies such as SHIVERS (1975) and The Dead Zone (1983) and by using David Cronenberg on the front cover it will entice fans of his other movies to purchase the magazine. Also they use the other big name of Tom Savini who is contextually considered to be the master of practical horror effects with liquid latex such as in the hugely successful Dawn of the Dead (1979) and by using such a big name it will draw fans of his work, which around the time was greatly influential.

The subimages at the bottom of the magazine all include monster characters, in the first we have a wolf beast, in the second we have a zombified woman and then a large monsterlike character in the final shot. By using these images it helps to capture the attention of the horror audiences. The border used around these images is a mockup of a piece of film strip which continues the idea of horror movies.