Semiotic

Denotations and Connotations
In the Stranger Things poster we can see that with the way the style the poster is done almost as if it were painted represents a 80s theme because it takes inspiration from posters such as Bladerunner and star wars a new hope poster, as well as the poster being placed vertically almost identically like bladerunner, it shows that the writers are taking heavy themes from late 70s and 80s films.

The facial expression of Eleven in this poster shows that she is serious which in turn will make the atmosphere of the poster come across as quite scary and demonic with her hand being extended forward with her palm open showing that she has powers that no regular kid should have.

The 3 protagonists: Dustin, Lucas and Mike, are shown in a sort of spotlight as their bike's light shines brightly across the poster. This represents that these protagonists are quite intelligent and maybe slightly nerdy. The bikes they ride as well are reminiscent of E.T. In it's famous scene where the bike fly's and becomes a silhouette, which shows that the writers intend on making references to old shows to capture the sense of nostalgia and retro-ness.

Expressions of the characters are mostly shown in worry and concern and even fear, representing that the antagonist in this show is something not to be trifled with and is terrifying the characters that come into contact with it/them. Although we can also tell that their might be two antagonists in this Netflix show, by the fact that all the characters are looking at nothing which could mean that one of the antagonists isn't human and maybe have a supernatural presence about it that could explain it not being there on the poster, because it is invisible. However, the other possible antagonist is much more noticeable with him/her/it walking ominously towards our protagonist almost as if it is stalking them waiting for a chance to strike, and the fact that it is in a sort of hasmat suit shows that it could be with the government and he is trying to get the protagonists to be quiet about their discovery which would also represent corruption within the government because they would be willing to 'silence' kids to keep their information safe.