Best Movie Posters of 2012

Great movie posters, like great trailers, blur the line between advertising and art. Some skillfully lay out the attractive components of an upcoming movie. Others aim for abstraction, looking to capture the essence of a film. And then there are the one-sheets that work simply as stand-alone aesthetic triumphs.

All of these varieties are represented on the list below, my choices for the ten best movie posters of 2012. In a year of lazy Photoshop monstrosities and splashy star-powered mosaics, these were the 27'' x 41'' triumphs most deserving of your bare wall space. Click on each thumbnail to get a full look at the image.

10. Blue Like Jazz (Review)



More romantic than the film it's advertising—a rightfully forgotten crisis-of-faith indie—this gorgeous design puts the eponymous color to good use.

9. Bachelorette (Review)



Brilliantly blocked and framed, this playful freeze-frame hints at the naughtiness audiences expect, while supplying each member of its girls-night-out ensemble an expressive action pose. FYI: I have not seen the movie.

8. V/H/S (Review)



There's actually a whole gallery of posters for Magnet Releasing's horror anthology—including five nifty, comic-book-style alternates—but I prefer the ingenious simplicity of the main one.

7. Frankenweenie (Review)



Disney commissioned a whopping 20 variations to sell Tim Burton's stop-motion Frankenstein homage. This is the best of the bunch: It boasts a dramatic, pleasingly symmetrical design that evokes the Universal Horror canon as well as—if not better than—the movie itself.

6. Man on a Ledge (Review)



You practically get vertigo staring at this horizontal marvel of perspective, which forgoes vanity shots of the cast in favor of a dynamic expression of the film's premise.

5. The Imposter (Review)



It's a simple concept, perfectly executed—and one that teases the fascinating identity masquerade the movie takes as its subject.

4. The Man with the Iron Fists (Review)



Violent, colorful and surreal, this hand-drawn beaut—one of several retro posters created for the RZA directorial debut—looks like an instant classic. Why do I feel as though it will outlive any memory of the actual movie?

3. The Master (Review)



Given the multiple interpretations The Master has inspired, this Rorschach-themed design seems apropos. Mostly, however, it's just strikingly strange—again, like the movie.

2. The Cabin in the Woods (Review)



Even more so than the movie's Rubik's Cube–evoking main poster, Cabin's Escher-inspired alternate captures the genre-bending nature of the film without telling us anything about its twisty plot. The retro color scheme and layout also mirror the filmmakers' affection for '70s Fangoria fare.

1. Holy Motors (Review)



Eye-grabbing and iconic, this poster is simplicity done right—though I won't deny a certain resemblance to the ad for Uncle Boonmee.