Supernatural Season 1 DVD Cover Analysis

The front cover of the Supernatural DVD has a lot going on and instantly catches your gaze, and immediately stands out. The two main protagonists, brothers Sam and Dean Winchester are amongst the many things on it. The character more at the front of the image is Dean; he is fully facing the audience, giving it a direct mode of address, he is also holding a pistol. This, in contrast with his normal clothing- ripped jeans, a collared leather jacket and a t shirt, all dark, gives off the impression that he is dark. This is in contrast to the lighting that is there, you can see the headlights from their car, which is an important part of the television show and an iconic symbol for it because it is so recognizable and a rare car. Because Dean is stood in front of his brother, it shows that he is the older and almost protector of the people, and his brother also, representing him as a strong masculine figure.

The lighting gives them an almost holy look, their job is to find leads of anything odd going on around America, and then go after them, hunting demons and other types of evil. The lighting emphasizes that even though they are clad in black, they are out saving and helping people even if they are indeed killing things. Even if you do not know about the show, the name ‘Supernatural’ is in a large, masculine font- long, slim letters, showing the masculinity of these men. Behind them in the top half of the image is a sky, with dark clouds and lightening, this could be  foreshadowing of the problems they face and the deep emotional problems they have to deal with.

The other man in the image is Sam. He is exhibited to be very different to his brother in this scene.  He is stood slightly behind him holding a knife- again emphasizing that they are dangerous and need weapons, on the flip side it shows a bit about their lives, they need weapons so are obviously in danger a lot of the time. Sam is not giving a direct mode of address as his brother is- he is looking at the camera but his body is facing away. This gives him an air of mystery about him- you wonder what is maybe distracting him and what he has to do with the other things in the image. 

To their left, under the car is a massive bag of rock salt. This is also a very iconic thing to the show, and a very important supernatural symbol.
On the back of the cover, there is eight images from the show and then a chunk of text which is the blurb, and then the technical details. All of the images show important scenes- and so the exciting scenes, this makes it look appealing to the audience and make them want to watch it. On quite a few of them, the background colours are mainly red. This has connotations of danger, blood (which some of the characters are covered in) and this is emphasized by the background colour of the back cover. 

In the blurb, the text is separated into two main parts- the bottom half is plain white writing, all of the text the same size and font. The top paragraph is in yellow font, and certain words are bold and bigger than the rest, such as "Sam, Dean Winchester, Hunted, Spirits, Spooks, Terrorize, Living." This gives an even bigger inclination to appeal to the Syfy/supernatural fans by making the words bigger it shows how important certain things are to the show.

The supernatural genre has been a big influence in making the cover- there is a lot of typical conventions of the genre on the cover. This includes the weapons the main protagonists are holding- the pistol and then curved knife. Then there is the iconic massive bag of rock salt.