Commodifying Dread: The Visual Rhetoric of Indonesian Box-Office Horror Posters

Abstract

In the contemporary global context, studies on media and visual culture suggest that visual objects like cinema posters are important sites of ideological production. But there have been many semiotic studies and critical discourse analyses. There is an gap in the mapping of visual rhetoric at the macro level in box office hits. This study aims to analyze the construction of visual rhetoric and the development of aesthetic trends in Indonesian horror film posters that are successful at the box office. This research uses a qualitative text analysis method with a purposive sampling technique of 7 best-selling horror movie posters of the filmindonesia.or.id website. Analysis of thematic data was conducted using Finnegan’s triadic visual history framework, which includes the phases of production, reproduction, and circulation. The research results show two prominent patterns in building public fear: reaffirmation of the conventional mysticism/reality trauma and hybridization of the horror-comedy genre. Lighting, colour palette, intertextual digital typography and creative status hierarchy are strictly used in the manufacturing and reproduction process to generate economic credibility. In their distribution these posters are a commodity of dread, a terrain for negotiating collective pain. In conclusion, this study contributes theoretically to the development of Indonesian film visual communication theory by including local cosmological systems, Islamic eschatology, and historical trauma. This study has practical implications for graphic designers and ethical implications for media regulators in terms of the monetization of public trauma.