You've been posterized

Premiere Magazine has listed the top 25 movie posters of all time. It is an interesting list as it is not filled with obvious ones that we have all seen a million times. The list has more obscure films like Straw Dogs, Anatomy Of A Murder and Gun Crazy.

I have included the poster for an obscure 80s sci fi film called Krull. For some reason, I used to love this poster. I had it up in my room and I still have not seen the film. I don't even know what it is about. The only thing I know about it is that it was one of the first films for both Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane.

It's funny how movie posters have evolved. They used to work like a press release for the film. Stars names, pictures either from the film or what could be from the film. Little phrases detailing the excitement you will witness in the film (come for the action! stay for the romance!) stuff like that.

Then movie posters became more artsy thanks to the French New Wave genre and the amount of European films that were becoming available in North America. But with the advent of the home video market, production companies started making posters less subtle. You want horror, the movie poster is a guy with a knife/axe/chainsaw. You want nakedness, you get Shannon Tweed, dripping wet in what is clearly a very cold room.

My current favourite type movies posters are the ones that do not sell anything at all. They just have the lead actor or actress with a smug look on their face. In other words, they don't want to tell you what the movie is about, just that it stars this person...so it must be good.

Obviously, certain genres lead themselves to having better posters. Romantic comedies have to be the worst. It is usually the lead couple either looking happy or sad and nothing more.

Top 5 movie poster genres

1. Film Noir

2. Western

3. Horror

4. Science Fiction

5. French New Wave