Friday One Sheet: IN THE EARTH

Seeming to take inspiration in equal measure from the red-eyed creature in Horror Express and John Boorman's floating visage in Zardoz, this eye grabbing key art from Empire Design is for the new Ben Wheatley horror picture, In The Earth.

As has been mentioned in this space before, the power of the subject-person looking directly out of a poster to engage with the onlooker is significant. And, if you are going to do it with horror, this entire series of posters amplifies it a thousand-fold, demonstrably, by simply removing the eyes for blank space.

The title's standard red typeface (a staple for the genre) used here is nearly overkill -- we know damned well this is a horror picture without even thinking. Pull quotes are beside the point next to the power of the image. The credit block, however, has been suitably minimized in a thin beige at the bottom.

But here (and rarely so) type and text do not matter a lick, you cannot look away from those missing eyes. The abyss stares back.