Create a Vintage Horror Movie Poster for Halloween

Last week I did a post for GraphicRiver call “The Scariest Movie Posters of All Time.” They were really just a showcase of cheesy old horror movie posters. Because I am such a fan of that style, I thought I would show you how to create poster with a similar style. Its really easy to do and produces an awesome finished product. I was inspired by one of the posters I saw on the list. Can you guess which one?

Step 1

Create a new document with the following settings: 8×10 and 72dpi and add your background color to white.

Step 2

Create a red box (#d72323) with a yellow stroke that is 7px wide.

Step 3

Find a nice picture with a lot of action to use for your background silhouette. I used this picture of a witch from ShutterStock.

Cut out the background as you see fit and add to the inside of your red box.

Step 4

Adjust the brightness and contrast to the witch layer. Use the following settings:

Step 5

Add a black color overlay to the image as well.

Step 6

Use a Gaussian Blur and add a slight blur to your image.

Step 7

Find a nice picture with a lot of action to use for your background silhouette. I used this picture of a surprised bride from ShutterStock.

Step 8

Resize your image to fit the design. You will also want to cut out the background as you see fit.

Step 9

Once you have the picture resized, tilt the image just a little bit and get rid of any portion of the image that isn’t inside the red box.

Step 10

Destaurate the the image so that you have a nice back and white version of the photo.

Step 11

Adjust the brightness and contrast to the following settings:

Step 12

A a yellow color overlay that matches the border color of your red box.

Step 13

Create a black box and rotate it slightly. This is where our movie title will go.

Step 14

Add your movie title into the black box. You will need to rotate it slightly to fit the same angle of your box from the previous step. I used a premium font called Calgary Script.

You will also wan to create some additional content for your movie poster.

Step 15

To finish of the poster and give it that vintage touch, we are going to add an image of some old, folded paper. I used this image of folded paper from ShutterStock.

Add the image as your top layer. Set the layer blend mode to multiply.

The reduce the fill of the paper layer to about 50%