50 Greatest 2012 Movie Posters

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.

George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.

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