I don’t envy poster designers. Aside from all the contractual obligations you have to meet (Actor X must feature prominently, the title must be a specific size, etc.), it’s not easy to try and do something that hasn’t been done before. You have to walk the line between selling the movie to the broadest possible audience while also being specific enough that your poster won’t blend in with the others at the multiplex. Some of the time, a poster designer will just throw a bunch of floating heads on a one-sheet and call it a day, but other times some real creativity shines through and you get something you wouldn’t mind hanging on your wall at home.
With that in mind, I’ve compiled the fifteen best posters of 2018. To qualify for the list, the film itself had to come out in 2018. While we’ve already seen some pretty good posters for 2019 movies, that will have to wait until next year. Additionally, for a poster to qualify, it had to be released by the studio rather than an independent art boutique (if Mondo were allowed to compete, they would just dominate the list). So without further ado, let’s look at these lovely posters!
15.) Black Panther
I admire this poster because it shows Marvel has definitely figured out how to put its gigantic casts on one sheet and still have it look good. Think back to that atrocious final poster for Avengers: Age of Ultron and looks how far they’ve come with the nice symmetry they’re using on posters for Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, and Black Panther. The reason Black Panther beats out Infinity War is that while Infinity War communicates the quantity of characters, Black Panther conveys royalty without being staid or stodgy, which is what you want in a story about a king.
14.) Predator
The movie is bad, but this poster is good. While the Predator franchise has its ups and downs (mostly downs), the Predator itself is an iconic design, and you can’t really go wrong embracing that design by making it almost entirely out of skulls and spinal columns. I’ll go ahead and say it: not enough movie posters have spinal columns.
13.) Vice
Dick Cheney is a figure in American politics you don’t really think about. You probably didn’t even think about him all that much while he was Vice President. But that’s the point of this poster, which takes Cheney’s easily identifiable silhouette and makes it jump towards you with a great combination of yellow, black, and white.
12.) Incredibles 2
The Incredibles built an incredibly devoted fanbase over the last 14 years, so there wasn’t a need to re-sell or re-introduce the family. Instead, they could just use the iconic logo and wardrobe to convey the movie’s plot about superhero life smashing up against the domestic realm as Mr. Incredible has to be Mr. Mom. It’s a fun tease that recognizes the pre-existing power of the brand to convey the story of the sequel.
11.) The Commuter
Yep, I’m a sucker for Saul Bass-inspired artwork. Most of The Commuter posters were good, but this one was the best, highlighting not just the train setting, but how it’s a psychological thriller of sorts where the hero must use his wits to deduce who does not belong on the train. Slapping Liam Neeson’s face up on the poster is easier, but this poster is better than that (no offense to Mr. Neeson’s face).
10.) Eighth Grade
What I love about this poster is where they’ve chosen to place the focus. On first glance, it would look like another teenager obsessed with her phone, but look closer and you can see the focus is on her, not the technology. They’re not weighted equally, which is one of the points director Bo Burnham is making with his debut feature. He didn’t make a movie about the perils of technology as much as he made a coming-of-age movie and a teenager trying to find her way in the world with technology as a crutch. The poster for Eighth Grade speaks to what the movie is about and does so without any gimmicks.
9.) Suspiria
It was tough to pick among the Suspiria posters because they were all so good. But this one uses that Saul Bass technique again for something eye-catching and disturbing in its own way. The red hints at the massive bloodshed to come, but the heads also nod towards both the dancers and the teachers at the academy and how they’re all intertwined. Maybe this is a poster more for once you’ve seen the film rather than before, but it’s still an effective one sheet.
8.) The Old Man and the Gun
I love how this poster conveys the grace and subtlety of the movie by not even showing Robert Redford’s face (which isn’t really necessary when someone has been a movie star for the majority of their life) and instead almost feels like part of a curtain call for its lead performer. David Lowery’s movie is all about simplicity, and this poster gets to the heart of that.
7.) Halloween
Usually, giant heads on posters are fairly unimpressive, but I’ll make an exception when those two heads belong to the two figures at the heart of a conflict that’s been in cinema for 40 years. The battle between Michael and Laurie is epic, and it’s very cool that Jamie Lee Curtis, who hasn’t been the main face on a poster in a while gets to shine here. They could have just gone with Michael Myers, but this poster acknowledges that this is Laurie’s story as much as it’s about Michael slaughtering people.
6.) The Favourite
I would not expect a typical poster for this movie and Fox Searchlight did not disappoint. If you want to quickly convey to people that this isn’t your average period drama, this is the way to do it, and it’s the kind of poster that makes people stop and consider the kind of film they wouldn’t typically see. That’s on top of conveying that both Stone and Weisz’ characters are jockeying for position with Colman’s Queen Anne.
5.) I Think We’re Alone Now
While this poster didn’t do much for the film’s box office, sometimes wild, electric poster art just deserves to be celebrated. Even if you don’t know that this movie is about Peter Dinklage’s character making his way through a post-apocalypse (and the bodies littering the bottom of the poster should clue you in), the craziness of the art grabs for your attention, and I can’t help but admire the aggressiveness of this poster.
4.) BlacKkKlansman
What a fantastic image. The title alone is enough to spark a person’s curiosity, but the film instantly goes on your radar when you see a black man in a Klansman hood. The image is both cheeky and shocking, hinting at both the power of Spike Lee’s movie while also acknowledging there’s something delightfully absurd about this particular story.
3.) Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
There’s something to be said for simply playing with perspective. On the surface, there’s nothing particularly remarkable about this poster. It’s Spider-Man falling and they flipped the image. But when you make that simple flip, it becomes about a character defying gravity and ascending. That’s what Miles Morales’ story is in this movie, and once you’ve made that simple flip, this poster becomes more than just a matter of perspective.
2.) Tully
This poster alone will make you rethink having kids. It’s basically a poster for a horror movie but done with stickers. The look of desperation and exhaustion on Theron’s face is palatable, and it shows that Tully isn’t your usual movie about how motherhood is hard. Rather, motherhood is its own special kind of nightmare, and it needs a special kind of poster to convey that.
1.) Overlord
Sometimes not having A-list movie stars is a boon to a film because it forces creativity where you can’t simply slap some actors up on a poster and hope for the best. The poster for Overlord is fairly ingenious, taking drops of blood and transforming them into soldiers parachuting in. It’s such a simple idea but one that I’ve never seen before on a movie poster, and one that instantly conveys this is a war film mixed with supernatural horror. I’ve loved this poster from the moment I saw it, and I think it’s the best poster of 2018.
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