Niche Horror Magazines: LittleWhiteLies and Splatterpunk

I decided to explore horror movie magazines, and the quirkiness of some compared to others. 

Firstly, I looked at Little White Lies.

I found Little White Lies a really interesting magazine to look at because it was quite unconventional when you compared it to the majority of other horror magazines. Magazines like Scream and Fangoria used actual photographs of actors or directors within the horror genre. Although the conventions are similar, looking at the layout aspect- such as the central image being the largest focal point- the whole look of the magazine is different. 

The illustrative look what Little White Lies looks at, is very unconventional. I really like this idea and find it works really well for the magazine. 

Little White Lies does not specify in just horror films. The covers I decided to look at were specifically horror film orientated. I really liked the muted colours that LWL (Little White Lies) used within their covers. This also quite unconventional for the genre, due to horror using striking colours to emphasise fear. 

It was also quite unconventional to have the masthead within a puff, in addition to having the barcode with it too. 

It doesn't necessarily detract from the central image, or make it difficult to find out what the magazine is called. I think this is because of all of the lacking text that would normally be on a magazine. I quite like this idea, but I don't know how well it would work for my target audience. I think they may find it boring. 

I really like the double page spread because it's coloured, but once again, its very unconventional.
I don't know if this would work within a horror magazine, because they're muted colours and don't look gorey enough- especially pink.

I decided to look at Splatterpunk as well as LWL because it was similar, because of the illustrative look.

I really dislike how 'violent' looking Splatterpunk is, but I feel it suits the horror genre quite well. 

I feel, as a member of the public, I would avoid this type of magazine because of the texture that's been drawn, and used upon the characters, because it makes me feel uncomfortable. It reminds me of Freud's The Uncanny, because of the realism, yet you know something is wrong. 

The two magazines looked at above are both definitely niche magazines. They are not the typical horror genre magazine. 

What are the differences in niche and typical magazines?

A niche magazine consists of more unconventional ways of looking at horror. For examples, Little White Lies and Splatterpunk are niche due to the illustrated tendencies that throughout the covers of the magazines. They also tend to have little to no anchoring text upon their front covers. With LWL, they have none, and with Splatterpunk they might give away the names of the celebrities of the horror world featured within said issue. 

The more conventional look of a magazine, even in horror, has a lot more text, informing the reader of what kind of articles lay within the magazines. I feel these are more useful and I would be more inclined to pick up a magazine for whoever the articles within are about, rather than just an illustrated cover.