10 all time iconic geek movie posters

Movies come and go, and every year thousands of promo posters are hung in cinema foyers, only to be taken back down a few days later, never to be seen again.

Every now and again, meanwhile, a poster comes along that perfectly captures the themes and tone of the film it seeks to promote, and through a combination of colour, composition and typography, becomes regarded as a work of art that matches or even surpasses the quality of the movie itself.

Here then, is a selection of ten all time classic geek movie posters...

Metropolis (1927)

Reflecting the stunning, expressionistic artistry of Fritz Lang's movie, the poster for the seminal Metropolis has come to be regarded as one of the most important pieces of artwork in cinema history.

This variation depicts as the Maschinenmensch, the instantly recognisable robot created in the film by the mad scientist Rotwang. In reality, the automaton was designed by Walter Schulze-Mittendorff, and was sculpted out of wood filler before being sprayed with bronze and silver paint. Thus was created one of cinema's earliest and most memorable robots, and its svelte design would go on to influence C3PO in Star Wars, the clanking law enforcer in RoboCop, and countless others.

Now keenly collected, an original print of the several types of Metropolis poster sold at auction for a staggering £397,762 back in 2005. A startling sum, but an indication of just how highly regarded the film and its promotional materials have become in recent years.

Frankenstein (1931)

James Whale's 1931 visualisation of Frankenstein's monster has long since passed into movie lore, and it's Boris Karloff's heavy-browed make-up and neck bolt that is most commonly associated with Mary Shelley's tragic creature.

Whale's classic film was accompanied by a clutch of similarly memorable posters, including the one you see before you here, which depicts an expressionistically wrought Karloff in full monster make-up, complete with neck bolts and built-up shoes.

Godzilla (1954 )

A landmark monster movie gets a brilliantly graphic poster, and the original Japanese theatrical artwork for 1954‘s Godzilla (or Gojira, as the colossal atomic lizard is known in his native country) is arguably the best in the long running Toho series of films.

While hardly the most subtle poster ever conceived, it's the perfect summation of the chaos and destruction visited upon Tokyo in the movie. And the title, which screams down the side of the poster in vast red kanji, sounds like the primeval shriek of Godzilla himself.

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956)

The rising fear and paranoia of Don Siegel's seminal sci-fi classic is captured beautifully in its theatrical poster, which depicts a panic-stricken Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter fleeing an apparently benign gathering of ordinary men and women.

Still an effective and frightening movie even 50 years on, Invasion's poster, which neatly crystallises the film's themes of identity and control in a piece of artwork that is surprisingly understated for its era, is superbly realised.

Jaws (1975)

Roger Kastel's poster for Spielberg's Jaws isn't exactly complex or subtle, but it sells the film with deadly efficiency. As is the case with so many movie posters, Kastel's artwork plays a few liberties with the scene from the film it depicts. It's presumably modelled on Jaws' opening sequence, which took place under cover of darkness.

Like the film itself, Kastel's poster has been parodied, referenced and ripped off dozens of times, but the original remains a direct, immediately recognisable classic.

Alien (1979)

You could nitpick, I suppose, and say that the egg at the centre of this poster for Alien is nothing like the leathery embryo in the film itself (it actually looks more like a snake or crocodile egg), but the artwork is a coolly designed hint at the horrors that lurk at the heart of Ridley Scott's classic movie.

And besides, a straight recreation of the actual alien egg that explodes in John Hurt's face would possibly have confused rather than intrigued its potential audience. Giger's design looked more like a fleshy vase than a recognisable egg, and a still image of it would probably have left its late 70s target market scratching its head in befuddlement.

The poster's minimal, classy design expertly reflects the prowling economy of Scott's direction, as well as reflecting the typography and eerie tone of R/Greenberg Associates' striking opening title sequence. And among the empty space and blackness of Alien's poster, there are subtle hints at the film's content for the eagle eyed, with a single light source picking out a grotesque texture that is unmistakably Giger's.

Escape From New York (1981)

John Carpenter's dystopian sci-fi boasts a standout performance from Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken, not to mention a stunning, timeless poster design. Its striking central device - the head of the Statue of Liberty lying in the streets of Manhattan - was an idea repeated many times on the cover of pulp sci-fi magazines in the 40s and 50s, and it's an image that lies at the heart of Planet Of The Apes' unforgettable climax.

Yet, while Escape From New York's poster isn't particularly original, its quality of draughtsmanship places it in the major league of poster design. The title's red typography leaps out from the verdigris and blue tones of the scene above, and the mixture of street level violence and the melancholy stare of the statue's disembodied head perfectly encapsulates the gritty tone of Carpenter's movie.

The magnetic power of Escape's poster is such that it inspired J.J. Abrams to come up with the iconoclastic sequence in 2008's Cloverfield, where its marauding creature smashes off the head of the Statue of Liberty, sending it cartwheeling down a Manhattan street.

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

The late John Alvin was responsible for some of cinema's most recognisable promotional artwork, including Cobra, Darkman, The Lion King and The Lost Boys.

One of Alvin's greatest designs is arguably his poster for E.T. Its sci-fi recreation of Michelangelo's The Creation Of Adam probably didn't win the artist many friends in the Vatican, but it riffs playfully on the vaguely biblical undercurrent in the film. Like a latter-day Jesus of Nazareth, Spielberg's E.T. is a benevolent being descended from the heavens, who can perform extraordinary miracles, apparently dies and is later restored to life.

It's also a cleverly composed recreation of one of the film's memorable but less obvious scenes. The image of Elliott silhouetted against the moon is arguably E.T.'s most iconic moment, but Alvin rightly went for a more suggestive route, creating a poster that perfectly complements the film's mystery and childlike sense of wonder.

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Like much of Tim Burton's work, the artist Edward Gorey is a clear influence, but this poster for the 1993 classic Nightmare Before Christmas is nevertheless a beautifully composed, highly distinctive piece of artwork.

Perfectly evoking the movie's anarchic, playful sense of fun, it depicts rangy protagonist Jack standing on a curly promontory in front of a glowering full moon. Recreating one of the film's most memorable musical moments, it captures the atmosphere of Burton's stop-motion animation perfectly.

Identity (2003)

The most recent entry on this list, this highly original poster design for James Mangold's thriller, Identity, is one of the most engaging pieces of promotional art we've seen in years, encapsulating the themes of paranoia, murder and suspicion that mark out the original movie in a single, graphic symbol.

The poster for Identity was designed by Los Angeles agency, Bemis Balkind, a studio responsible for a remarkable number of classic posters over the past few decades, including a highly distinctive artwork for The Haunting, Adaptation, and most recently the brilliantly conceived poster for the diabolical horror thriller, Devil.

You can find all of these for sale as high quality movie poster prints at www.movieposterstore.co.uk.