Art Blog 3

Us Movie Poster

I love it when a movie is great, but I especially love it when there is a great movie poster to accompany it. One of my favorite movie posters and the poster I will be analyzing is the Us Movie poster. The poster is of Red, one of the doppelgängers in the movie, holding a mask that embodies the face of Red’s doppelgänger, Adelaide. This movie is rather complicated, so if you would like to get a better understanding, click this for a synopsis. 

 Writing Invitation

“Writing Invitation: Behold artwork with colors that thrill you. Focus on the artist’s palette and write with the mood that the colors stir within you” (Baugher). 

An aspect of the poster that I enjoy is its use of color. The all-black background contrasted with the red jumpsuit that Red is wearing is chilling. The way the black background fades into Red’s jumpsuit gives me the feeling of being alone with this character and a feeling of not being able to escape. 

Facial Features

Based on the faces' conflicting facial features, you can draw assumptions about each character's lifestyle. Red’s face has a bag under her eye, exaggerated with dark shadow wrapped around her eye, and barely noticeable eyebrows. On the other hand, Adelaide has red-tinted lips, and defined eyebrows, and does not have eye bags. The difference in facial features suggests that Red lives a much harder life than Adelaide, and the movie backs this up. In the film, Red is Adelaide's doppelgänger that lives her life underground, copying the movements of Adelaide practically her whole life while Adelaide lives a comfortable life with her family. 

The Mask

The focal point of this piece is the mask of Adelaide's face that Red is holding. I usually associate a mask with a facade or a distraction from what lies beneath. The mask perfectly symbolizes this definition. At the end of the movie (spoiler alert), it is revealed that what we thought was the protagonist, Adelaide, might be the bad guy. Adelaide represented as a mask demonstrates that she will be the one who deceives us in the end. 

Get Out Connection

Red has a cold and numb facial expression as a single tear rolls down her eye. The person in this image has an almost identical expression. The image is of the protagonist in the director's previous horror film Get Out. Because the character presented in the image above was the protagonist you could make the connection that Red, the person holding the mask, is the true protagonist. 

Final Thoughts

Exceptional movie posters like this one are interesting pieces of art because, unlike a painting or sculpture, a movie poster is accompanied by a film that fills in the details that you might not understand prior. When I viewed the Us poster before watching the film, the familiar facial expression on Red’s face akin to the main character's face in Get Out drew me in and convinced me that this film would be of the same caliber as the director's previous film. Although I thought the poster was engaging, the details of Red and Adelaide's faces were meaningless until I watched the film and was able to make those connections. From my experience, exceptional movie posters are the ones that not only convince you to watch the movie but also analyze the poster after viewing the film to make those connections. Movie posters are meaningful because they are a representation of a movie's ethos. An exceptional movie poster with intentional artistic choices can lead to unique analysis and reflection that paintings and sculptures can not replicate. 

Works Cited

Baugher, Jenée. The Ekphrastic Writer: Creating Art-Influenced Poetry, Fiction and Nonfiction, ebook, McFarland & Company, Inc., 2020.

IMDb. “Us (2019).” IMDb, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6857112/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2022.