Wow, a whole week went by with nary a peep from La Loba. What’s up with that? You’d think I had a life or something. Actually, I was busy pursuing that greatest of Zen mantras: Laissez les bons temps rouler.

Don’t worry…the blog post is already writing itself inside my loopy lupine brain.

However, today marks the last Friday of the great, blizzardy-white, freeze-my-paws-off month of January. This, of course, means the last of the special weekly appearance of my Poster Picks series. Guess this means that I should really start thinking about Flashback Friday again, eh?

On to the point then.

Regardless of your feelings toward the horror genre or this movie in particular, it’s relatively impossible to deny that the poster art for the 1973 classic The Exorcist is the very definition of iconic. The version that I chose to include with this post is the most stripped-down version I could find, without even the standard rundown of the performers, directors, writers, best boys, your mom, dogwalkers, company mimes, etc. All we get for text is the author of the story, the story title, and the director.

Here comes the standard font geek-out: I love sans serif and serif paired like this. In most of my own design work, I always try to stick to 2 fonts, and 9 times out of 10, it’s this kind of pairing (I don’t know why, but sans serif always delights me as the secondary font to a primary serif; gee, wonder where else I use such a pairing?). I also have a huge font-on for sans serif with “Ws” that criss-cross in the center the way this one does. Especially such a narrow sans serif. I’ve used fonts similar to this one several times. This is also a gorgeous serif font and the purple color is quite complimentary to the pea soup yellow-green tint of the image that follows.

Heh. Pea soup.

The writer-title-director combo of this poster has pretty much become the triumvirate of horror movie greatness. Blatty’s original novel continues to reign as one of the genre’s strongest offerings. The fact that he placed his story in Washington, D.C., and based it on an actual case of exorcism that occurred right in Maryland means that it gets extra coolness points from this resident of the Old Line State.

I’m delighted to say that, separate from this amazing novel, the movie stands as not only one of the greatest movies of modern horror, but constantly ranks very high on most critical and fan-created horror movie lists. To say this is a must-see of the genre is about as big an understatement as saying Dr. Crusher might be my favorite TNG character.

And who made it a must see? Friedkin. Love him, hate him, think he’s an asshole, the man made a masterpiece and, in doing so, secured his position in horror history.

Then we get that image. That glorious image that horror fans have burned into our souls (and some have etched onto their skin; actually, I’m going to have to say that Exorcist-themed tattoos might actually be scarier than the movie).

This is the movie’s defining moment. The beginning of the showdown. This is when shit gets real. This is the arrival of…The Exorcist.

Duh.

He stands outside the house, so unassuming and small in that blaze of light, which drowns out any details and gives us nothing more than his silhouette. His head is tipped slightly back, letting us know that he is looking straight into that sickly glow. All he brings with him is a satchel.

Oh, and the power of Christ.

One final nerd observation: I love how the streetlamp bisects the image, leaving a distinct separation between the evil on one side and the good on its own side.

Taken out of context (and without that fierce brightness emanating from that top-floor room), this is actually quite a benign image. Nothing more than a man standing outside of a townhouse. It’s a false sense of simplicity and security that permeates this movie…that things so generic can become so traumatizing, so horrific.

Today’s pick is for 2010’s Devil. If I’m not mistaken, this is also the newest poster to make it to the Poster Picks Pantheon.

Woots.

The design starts with the movie tagline: “Five Strangers Trapped. One of Them is Not What They Seem.”

I love two things about the appearance of this tagline. First, is the font: a sharp, clean squared sans serif. It has a modern feel to it without being in your face about being new and hip and with it. Secondly, I love the use of bold on the second part of the tagline. Yes, it’s a bit leading, but aesthetically, it just looks appealing.

I love the claustrophobic feel of the tagline’s sentiment. From a personal viewpoint, I can’t imagine much else more uncomfortable than being trapped anywhere with four people I don’t know. Honestly? I don’t even know I’d want to be in such a situation with four people I know very well. Add to this the “not what they seem” variable, and you’re already building a scenario destined to leave me with a humongous NO feeling.

Then comes the primary graphic element of the design: an elevator entrance, bright silver against a dark wall.This gives off an eye-catching chiaroscuro effect that is amped up even further by an unnerving fiery light seeping through the closed doors.

First, though, check the floor number: 6. Say that three times fast, right? Also, notice how the “Down” button is marked black with a red arrow in the center. Nice delineation regarding which direction this elevator is heading.

Now, back to the fiery light coming from between the elevator doors. I’m going to have to say, this is not the kind of light I’d want to see coming from anywhere, but especially not from a space the size of an elevator, where four other people are stuck with me.

Even better though? The light from between the doors connects with the light coming from under the doors and then connects with the reflection against the onyx shine of the floor just enough to give a very identifiable image of an upside down cross. Even those who don’t know or believe the tenets of Christianity understand the meaning of an inverted cross and the implications of the appearance of such an image.

Also, taking into consideration this imagery, think back to the tagline: “One of Them Is Not What They Seem.”

The Devil, you say?

Speaking of the Devil, finally, here comes the movie title. It’s typed out in another sans serif font, this time less squared, narrower, and kerned beautifully.

I love how the vertical support of the cross lines up, with the top aligned with the elevator number and the bottom lined up with the center of the “V” in Devil. The symmetry of this design is absolutely sinister.

Of course, the most frightening aspect of the design comes now: “From the mind of M. Night Shyamalan.”

Has a more chilling statement ever been written? Don’t believe me? Just think about The Happening.

Terrifying.

If you haven’t figured this out about Loba yet, let me inform you all now: I love a bit of PhotoShop trickery. True, I find it a little unnerving what one can do with PhotoShop if one has the necessary skills…but as someone possessing a modest level of Shop-Fu, I also know the immeasurable amounts of fun one can have as well (although I’m sure that those who have found themselves the focus of my PhotoShopping attention might disagree).

It’s no surprise, then, that I was immediately drawn to the teaser poster for the 2005 thriller The Skeleton Key. This is a beautiful example of how, even with mad PhotoShop trickery skillz in full play, giving away as little as possible will always have the biggest impact.

The poster’s composition is dominated by one thing: an unnerving close-up of an eye. Obviously belonging to an older person, as revealed by the deep wrinkles (which look like they’ve been more deeply defined by a little color burning) and the silver hairs within the eyebrow, the eye itself is gone. In its place is the superimposed image of a man in a wheelchair, sitting beneath a canopy of Spanish moss. His back is to the camera as he faces a slightly mist-shrouded house in the far distance.

Even before examining anything else about this composition, I have to say that I was highly impressed, not only by the sheer creepiness of the overall image, but also by the beautiful details that went into this work. The cropping of the image is so precise, showing us no more than what the designer wants us to see and bringing us uncomfortably close to this strange, aged face. The eye replacement is impeccable: The Spanish moss lines up perfectly, looking almost like the reflection of eyelashes; the shadowing is convincing; the photo curves along the natural curve of the eye in just the right ways; and I adore the added detail of still being able to see moisture along the bottom left edge of the eye.

[Loba Tangent: You know what’s really weird? I can’t stand the word “moist,” but I just realized that the word “moisture” doesn’t bother me at all. Crazy, huh?]

Beyond the off-the-scale creep factor of this image, what else can we infer about this movie? Obviously, it takes place in the American South. That house screams antebellum plantation house, and Spanish moss is only a regular resident of those warmer, stickier states as well. Already, I’m gearing up for a bit of Southern Gothic Horror fun.

The presence of someone in a wheelchair at the foreground strikes a balance between curiosity as to what placed him in this position as well as a sense of foreboding. A horror movie is a bad place to find yourself in a wheelchair, natch. Plus, he strikes such a solitary pose there on the grounds of that rather large and foreboding looking house.

Finally, who is it who is watching this man? This mysterious voyeur with no eyes but who sees all? Or at least sees as much as we’re being allowed to see? Because of the cropping and the use of color burning in some places and desaturation in others, there are no concrete clues about the gender or race of this person. Only that they are aged. And currently our only guide into this dark and lonely world.

The remaining elements of this design are equally controlled and sparse. At the top is one name, Kate Hudson, in a white serif font and sporting a classy bit of kerning between the letters (I love when kerning is used for good). Then, below the eye comes the movie title, written in a sans serif this time, with some mottled coloring and wear to give it a little panache. The designer gives us a gorgeous bit of bonus detail here by turning the “E” in “Key” into part of a keyhole, complete with a mysterious glow coming through the bottom. Very clever. Very subtle. Very nice.

The designer of this poster has conveyed just enough about this movie to pique my interest while holding back enough to make me want more. These are definitely mad PhotoShop and creativity skillz at work.

Time for a change-up here at the lair. Seems that I