Matthew Therrien: Meet The Creative Mind Behind Some of Horror's Most Iconic Movie Artwork
There are few things in popular culture more iconic than the movie poster. Movie posters have become more than just a way to advertise the titular film, but a form of art all their own. Think of some of your favorite horror movie posters and chances are some of them aren’t even for your favorite films. Whether it’s Stephen Frankfurt’s chilling poster for Rosemary’s Baby or Drew Struzan’s classic for John Carpenter’s The Thing, the posters for these movies have become as integral in popular culture as the films themselves.
The 90’s saw a glut of photoshopped movie star face posters, and for a while it looked like the art of the movie poster had lost out to the marketing departments. Boy has that changed!
The horror movie poster is back and it’s back with a vengeance. The last two decades have seen the rise of the more painterly quality of the classic posters and the decline of the photoshop floating heads - though occasionally terrible photoshop posters have their own merits!
There are many great artists leading the charge, and in today’s episode SYG host Kevin Lane is joined by the virtuosic Matthew Therrien.
From his stunning new takes on classic films like Halloween and Friday the 13th, to his beloved poster for Psycho Goreman, Matthew doesn’t stop. He’s a tireless creating machine, and when you look at the quality of the work he’s doing, it’s hard to imagine when he has time to do things like sleep or eat or watch movies. Once you get to know Matthew and find that he’s also a devoted family man and a caring friend, well how can you not be cheering for this guy? One of the genre’s most talented artists also happens to be one it’s loveliest people.
Matthew and Kevin talk about his influences, his technique and how to decide what to distill about a movie when creating a poster. You may recognize Matthew’s work from other segments on the show and Matthew himself, as he has had other guest appearances on SYG. This interview was how Matthew and Kevin got to know each other, and since then they have become friends and collaborators. We hope you enjoy getting to know him as well as we have.
Well no doubt you’re already surrounded by some of your favorite horror posters, so let’s get into the art of getting spines to tingle and gooses to bump using a paintbrush with Matthew Therrien.
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