Paranorman
The Poster: A comic-book style teaser for the supernatural animation. Look at the lift Norman has managed to achieve with his hair!
Coolest Detail: The amusingly camp pose adopted by the zombie in the uppermost frame.
Seven Psychopaths
The Poster: A cartoon Sam Rockwell clutches a gun in one hand and a pooch in the other. A pooch that looks rather pleased with itself.
Coolest Detail: The way the dog’s bone-shaped collar also looks a bit like a bow tie. Jaunty.
Only God Forgives
The Poster: Ladies, avert your eyes… Ryan Gosling has been given one hell of a pasting. Yikes!
Coolest Detail: The fact that despite his face, he still looks pretty dapper in his waistcoat. The handsome fiend!
Lincoln
The Poster: A simple headshot of Daniel Day-Lewis’ Lincoln. You could cut the gravitas with a knife.
Coolest Detail: Day-Lewis’ overall look. He’s a ringer!
The Dark Knight Rises #1
The Poster: Our first look at the masked monster known as Bane.
Coolest Detail: The broken bat-cowl. A sign of things to come...
John Dies At The End
The Poster: A pleasingly grisly teaser featuring a nail-studded baseball bat, wrapped in Bible pages. It looks as though it might hurt…
Coolest Detail: The dripping slick of gore on the end of one of the nails. Mmmm.
Project X
The Poster: It’s the wildest high school party you’ve ever seen, to the power of X, dude! Or something.
Coolest Detail: The way in which our fallen hero’s splayed limbs form the X of the title. Pretty cool.
Sinister
The Poster: A suitably macabre image, in which Sinister ’s resident demon makes his presence felt, and shows off one of his more heinous acts into the bargain…
Coolest Detail: The hangman figures are actually quite disturbing for a mainstream poster!
Snow White And The Huntsman
The Poster: The film might have suffered from a dodgy script and a lumbering plotline, but in terms of imagery, it was pretty sharp. Happily, the poster campaign adopted a similar aesthetic.
Coolest Detail: The optical crossover between Queen and raven.
Killer Joe
The Poster: “A totally twisted, deep-fried Texas redneck trailer park murder story” screams this schlocky effort for Killer Joe . What more do you need to know?
Coolest Detail: The blood-spattered piece of fried chicken. You’ll have to watch the film to work out its grisly significance.
Man On A Ledge
The Poster: Sam Worthington battles vertigo with this overhead shot of the titular man on ledge. Don’t look down…
Coolest Detail: The dizzying overhead perspective drops you right into the heart of the film’s action.
The Woman In Black
The Poster: “What did they see?” queries the tagline, above a creepy image of a pair of toddlers. Look closely, and you’ll find out…
Coolest Detail: The woman herself. Seen her? Look closer…
Red Hook Summer
The Poster: Spike Lee returns to Brooklyn with a big bold colour palette, full of vibrant reds, yellows and purples.
Coolest Detail: The smiles of evangelical zeal slapped all over the three leads’ faces are weirdly unsettling.
Battleship
The Poster: An excitement-piquing image of the titular battleship being dwarfed by a mysterious alien craft. Textbook blockbuster teasing…
Coolest Detail: The half-submerged shape of the ship leaves you wondering just how big that thing really is…
Piranha 3DD
The Poster: Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water… the piranhas are back!
Coolest Detail: That gloriously trashy tagline: “Double the action. Double the terror. Double the Ds”.
Ted
The Poster: Marky-Mark and his cuddly chum take a much-needed leak during a night on the tiles. Bloody lads.
Coolest Detail: The presence of a teddybear taking a piss. Obviously.
Wrath Of The Titans
The Poster: Meet Kronos, one of the titular titans, and probably the most eye-catching. What with all the flames, and that…
Coolest Detail: The teeny tiny size of Pegasus by comparison. We’re going to need a bigger boat.
Brave
The Poster: A mystical teaser for Pixar’s latest, showing Princess Merida setting out on her quest.
Coolest Detail: The combination of rolling hills, leaden skies and eerie mist… it could only be Scotland.
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter
The Poster: Everyone’s favourite President sits clutching an axe beneath a full moon, waiting to get him some vampire action.
Coolest Detail: The cowboy-like fashion in which Abe is tipping his stovepipe hat…
The Man With The Iron Fists
The Poster: A helpful illustration of what happens when a man with iron fists punches a man with regular fists. Splat.
Coolest Detail: The butterflies that fan out of the explosion of viscera. When beauty and violence collide.
The Dark Knight Rises #2
The Poster: Destruction is the watchword, as the Bat-symbol is formed by the crumbling skyline of a beleaguered Gotham City.
Coolest Detail: The continuation of the theming of The Dark Knight ’s publicity posters. This time the Bat-symbol isn’t ablaze, but it looks just as ominous…
The Raven
The Poster: A pleasingly schlocky one-sheet for what turned out to be a slightly turgid film. Shame.
Coolest Detail: The blood-spattered raven detailing. Gorily gratifying.
This Is 40
The Poster: Domestic bliss goes under the microscope as Judd Apatow lifts the hood on your average American marriage.
Coolest Detail: Paul Rudd’s willingness to appear in the poster while sat on the toilet. Bold.
Hitchcock
The Poster: A heavily made-up Anthony Hopkins takes centre stage as the master of suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock.
Coolest Detail: The positioning of that kitchen knife as a macabre tie substitute.
Haywire
The Poster: A jagged, monochrome image of kick-ass heroine Gina Carano, accompanied by the ominous tagline, “They left her no choice.”
Coolest Detail: The image of Carano straddling her fallen prey, part sexual, part intimidating.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Poster: It’s everybody back to Middle-earth, as Bilbo Baggins peeps out of his front door at the big wide world beyond…
Coolest Detail: The overriding sense of familiarity, from Bag End’s circular front door, to the rolling hills of the Shire beyond. It’s like coming home.
Frankenweenie
The Poster: Tim Burton channels the classic monster movies of the ‘30s and ‘40s for this tongue-in-cheek teaser. Quite Gothic, would you believe?
Coolest Detail: The histrionic, puntastic tagline: “Science goes astray!”
The Expendables 2
The Poster: A gritty, grubby, grindhouse take on Sly's all-star action hero mash-up.
Coolest Detail: The sheer size of the guns on show. Not that they're compensating for anything...
Rowdy Rathore
The Poster: A watercolour-esque portrait of the titular badass, complete with tache, aviators and a fist full of fireworks. Lovely stuff.
Coolest Detail: “Ashkay Kumar in and as… ROWDY RATHORE”
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Poster: Spidey’s return to the big screen is heralded by this image of a silhouetted Peter Parker, doing whatever a spider can.
Coolest Detail: That unmistakeable shadow, a nice way of flagging up the character without showing the retooled suit.
Troll Hunter
The Poster: Tiny little van. Big old troll. The stage is set for a showdown…
Coolest Detail: The fact that only the troll’s legs are on display. Enough to give a sense of scale, without giving the game away altogether.
The Words
The Poster: Bradley Cooper’s handsome mug, as formed by a selection of, er, words. Very much does what it says on the tin.
Coolest Detail: Probably the words. Just an opinion.
I Am Bruce Lee
The Poster: The titular chop-socky God, shown here about to land a boot into some poor unfortunate’s chest. Bosh.
Coolest Detail: The main image of Lee in full flight. A devastating artist of pain.
Savages
The Poster: Another belting poster starring Taylor Kitsch. If only the actual films could live up to their one-sheets…
Coolest Detail: Benicio Del Toro’s moustache. By a country mile.
The Dictator
The Poster: A portrait of the great General Aladeen, seen here looking positively beatific. What a lovely chap.
Coolest Detail: The total absence of the title. The kind of arrogance Aladeen himself would approve of.
Casa De Mi Padre
The Poster: Will Ferrell gets a heroic makeover as the granite-jawed hero of this Mexican comedy. Arriba!
Coolest Detail: The emblem of a bald eagle clutching a snake. Gnarly.
Prometheus
The Poster: An early teaser for Ridley Scott’s sci-fi return. Far better than the appallingly photoshopped epic of the cast that would follow.
Coolest Detail: The creeping sense of dread that hangs over the whole piece. Just what is the deal with that head, hmm?
Killing Them Softly
The Poster: An exercise in minimalism, with Brad Pitt’s hitman embodied by a pair of sunglasses and a gun…
Coolest Detail: The stars and stripes reflection in the aforementioned specs. It’s a very American story, after all.
The Paperboy
The Poster: A pleasingly retro sheet for Lee Daniels’ follow-up to Precious. Pink has rarely looked cooler.
Coolest Detail: The extreme close-up on John Cusack’s eyes. Creepy.
Dredd
The Poster: Karl Urban’s Dredd stands silhouetted in darkness, accompanied by the supremely badass tagline, “Judgement is coming”.
Coolest Detail: The fact that his helmet is well and truly on. Take that, Sly!
The Master
The Poster: A twist on the Rorschach image of the film’s main poster, this time adapted to include the primary cast members.
Coolest Detail: The fact that Phoenix’s character is not mirrored, suggesting that this is his psyche into which we are peering.
Skyfall
The Poster: Bond goes back to basics with this classic down-the-barrel shot. No frills, but plenty effective.
Coolest Detail: Daniel Craig’s unwavering, unsmiling demeanour. Bond is back, bitches.
The Raid
The Poster: A perfect mood-setter for the chop-socky carnage that’s about to ensue in Gareth Evans’ tower-block free-for-all.
Coolest Detail: The broken glass effect, complete with a judicious amount of splatter.
Moonrise Kingdom
The Poster: Painter Michael Gaskell was hand chosen by Wes Anderson to bring his hyper-realistic style to bear on this gorgeous poster.
Coolest Detail: The warm lighting that transforms the forest from a place of danger into a wonderland of possibility and adventure.
Chronicle
The Poster: Dane DeHaan flicks the bird to the heavens in this teaser ad for the year’s best alternative superhero movie.
Coolest Detail: The mirroring of DeHaan’s hand gesture in the cloud formation above him.
V/H/S
The Poster: An innocent (if towering) VHS collection… hang on a minute, some of those labelled tapes kind of look like a skull! RUN!
Coolest Detail: The way in which the uneven but meaty stacking makes us actually pine for the days of a good old video cassette!
The Avengers
The Poster: A glorious concept-art banner, unveiled at Comic-Con to general hysteria from the geek community. Wonderful stuff.
Coolest Detail: The ghostly face of Odin, hovering in the background. A nice callback to Thor .
Looper
The Poster: A playing card design, in which the titular looper’s present and future selves are shown as two sides of the same coin.
Coolest Detail: The pocket-watch detailing on the first “o” is a lovely touch.
Django Unchained
The Poster: The film’s three leads pull their best badass poses. We’re torn between Waltz and Foxx as to who does it best…
Coolest Detail: Monochrome characters, punctuated by a splatter of red. Simple, but effective.
The Cabin In The Woods
The Poster: The titular cabin, presented as a Rubiks cube of twisty turny oddness.
Coolest Detail: The fact that despite the clever-clever design aesthetic, the cabin in question still looks extremely foreboding.
