Hangover Poster Analysis

The Hangover is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Todd Phillips. The plot follows four friends who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, only to wake up the next morning not remembering a thing and missing the groom, whose wedding is scheduled to occur the next day. The film was inspired by the filmmakers' real-life misadventures.

This film poster is very eye catching for many reasons and when I analysed I took several key points from it.

• The three characters all look very distressed and been through a rough time. The clothes that they are wearing suggest that they are just normal people and that the tree people on the front could be anyone.
• With the background being lights it suggests that they have been someone with lights and glamour. Las Vegas is the location of the film and this is why the lights are there.
• Next up is the man holding a baby, which is wearing sun glasses. Even then the man holding the baby looks strange with a matted beard and sun glasses as well. This image really does shout out at the people looking at the poster that this could be a comedy.
• The font of the title is like a sign you would see outside a club in Vegas. Again this suggests that it is going to be set in Vegas.
• At the very top of the poster it says from the director of old school. This shows to people that the person who is directing this film has had past success's and that this one could be another one.
• The tag line is a catchy one and make you want to see how these three men fail at handling a trip to Vegas.
• Finally the absence of the actors names suggests that they aren't the most well known actors and the movie will rely on the story line to be a success.
• The genre indicators of this poster that suggest that it is a comedy is the body language of the characters. Also the clothes worn and the baby which is being held by the bearded man.

The things we can take from this poster is the background colour used. This sets up the mood of the poster and it sets the location of the film. Also the title stating the past success's of the director is something we can think of using. This would show to our audience that we have made other brilliant pieces of work.