INSTITUTION Tyler School of Art and Architecture

INSTRUCTOR Sean McCabe

FALL 2022

Tasked with creating an illustrative poster for a horror movie of our choice, I decided to tackle a movie that was recently released, rather than a staple favorite among fans of horror.

In theaters, the entire audience was held completely captive by Mia Goth’s performance in the last scene of this campy, bloody slasher film. The main character, Pearl, is surprised by her husband’s unexpected return from war, witnessing the aftermath of her gruesome murder spree and the complete unraveling of her sanity seen throughout the film. As the end credits roll and the shutter slowly closes, Pearl stares directly at her husband behind the camera, plastering on an erratic, pained smile.

This scene serves as a culmination of Pearl’s true character, showing both her flaws and her vulnerability, and I wanted to capture the multitude of these disturbing facial expressions, including the raw emotion and bloody implications behind them. I played with a few different methods of merging and puzzling these expressions together, before landing on a surreal montage of a select few portraits, as if showcasing her multiple personalities.

Pearl is set in the year 1918, with many of the film’s aesthetic design choices paying homage to classic Hollywood films and tropes. It was important to me that the poster made similar stylistic references, so I researched art deco and period-appropriate typography, color palettes, and composition while working on the final design.