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50 Terrifying Retro Horror Movie Posters

I really love looking at old poster designs, and movie posters offer some of the most unique, creative designs! This Halloween, I’ve compiled 50 excellent retro horror movie poster designs to help inspire you.

Almost all of the movie concepts here made me laugh out loud, but I’m sure that you can appreciate the designs, even if you don’t want to go and see ‘Killer Klowns From Outer Space’! ;) .

I’ve also noticed a few techniques employed in creating these posters, which I’ll list here, but may integrate into an upcoming tutorial!

Strong Lighting/Shadows – This technique is used in almost all retro movie posters, particularly for horror movies. Shadows are very intense, with a very high contrast between the highlights and shadows. The illustrations are often bold and high contrast.

Slanted or Irregular Text – Slanting text often implies something being abnormal, interesting or ‘off’ in some way. This is perfect for capturing the atmosphere of horror films. Similarly irregular text can be used for similar effect.

Busy Compositions – Horror movie posters can sometimes be simple and effective. However, particularly more retro horror movie posters often combine multiple elements, headlines and taglines to create a very ‘full’, complex feeling. This fits with the uneasy nature of the films, and almost overwhelms viewers.



About the Author:

Tom is the founder of PSDFAN. He loves writing tutorials, learning more about design and interacting with the community. On a more interesting note he can also play guitar hero drunk with his teeth.

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8 Comments:

  1. Guilherme says:

    Cool man! So many classics!

  2. Aarti says:

    Awesome….quite an effort

  3. Brilliant collection! I really enjoyed this post man. They should turn this into t-shirts :) Thanks for posting.

  4. Tom says:

    Thanks guys!

    BebopDesigner: There are actually many t-shirts available online for retro movie posters.

  5. sazo says:

    wow…nice collection..btw..can u share with me where do you get this retro movie posters for free..thx..great post…:)

  6. Vim says:

    This is a great collection, i love these retro movie posters, I’m a big fan of horror movies however I’ve never seen a lot of these, i guess it was way before my time, but what ever happened to nightmare on elm street or exorcist posters on this blog?

  7. [...] 50 Terrifying Retro Horror Movie Posters « PSDFan These posters are so old, its scary! LoL (tags: retro inspiration resources design inspiracao carteles cinema diseño) [...]

  8. Carlos says:

    Awesome selection ! I was wondering if any of you knows the names of the artists behind these amazing posters ?? or where can I find them ??

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