codes and conventions of a thriller DVD cover

there are many things a DVD cover for a thriller needs to attract an audience, in order to find out what we would need for our DVD cover for Shauden Fraude I have decided to analyse the cover of a thriller that if you don't know and never heard of, you must be living under a rock:- Jaws



1. the cover has big bold text which grabs your attention
2. the text is red which sybolises blood and henceforth death
3. the shark is really big and takes up most of the cover, and this is just it's head which makes the shark look enormous
4. the woman at the top is small compared to the shark's head, this makes the shark look bigger still
5. the water surrounding the shark is very dark which suggests it's really deep, this creates mystery as the shark is coming from the deep sea and makes you wonder if there is anything else down there
6. the fact that the shark is coming from the deep and looks so monstrous makes it seem as if it came from hell
7. the shark is pointing directly at the woman swimming above
8. the woman's arm is making a triangular shape similar to the shark's dorsal fin
9. the gaps in the 'W' in 'JAWS' look like sharp teeth, two are directly above the woman's body and the single gap at the bottom appears to have stabbed directly through her body
10. the woman is blonde, it is steriotypical for blonde women to be the victims or damsel in distress
11. the woman is surrounded by the red text, this makes it look like she is bleeding
12. the cover depicts a woman being attacked by a shark, this foreshadows the first scene in 'jaws' which is of a woman who gets killed by the shark while swimming