Not only have I compiled the best and worst one-sheets (in my opinion), but I’ve cobbled together a few fun extras such as similarly-themed art and the lazy-ass posters/DVD covers distributors figured would slip under our noses yet would catch the eye of the indiscriminate, impulse-buying Walmart customer (after all, in the large scheme of things, that is who they are catering to).
In addition to the best and worst categories, I added “best/worst multi-poster campaign” just to spice it up. Feel free to use our comment boards to weigh in with your own personal favorites!
Shall we begin?
Before we launch into the best and worst of the year, let’s take a look at some trends…
There seemed to be a theme with exorcism-fueled fare. Back-bending and wall-crawling apparently come with the possession territory and these posters – for Apartment 143, The Cloth and Back from Hell – demonstrate just that. Just make sure your color palette is white, black and gray.
Now, here’s the one that always gets on my nerves: The “crawling girl” key art and I’ve compiled only the 2012 offenders. Trust me when I say there are plenty of others examples to choose from throughout the years.
Want some girl-on-girl action? The Moth Diaries and Jack and Diane delivered. But both films proved to be painfully dull.
And let’s not forget the imitators.
This year’s release, Mr. Hush, versus Trick ‘r Treat. Nice try, gang.
Area 407 versus George Romero’s Diary of the Dead.
The 2012 DVD release of Creature versus Feast.
After Dark Films’ (still unreleased) Dark Circles unveiled its poster and it looked vaguely familiar (there are other examples of “eye” imagery we point to).