Movie posters have a tough job. They need to convey a film’s most striking or marketable element—be that a tone, a character, or a hint of plot—with only a single well-chosen image.
A recently posted gallery on imgur proves that job would be a lot easier if the posters had a few more frames in which to get that message across. The gallery aggregates posters, created by several artists, from popular movies—including Drive, The Hunger Games, and Looper—enhanced with simple animations that add a surprising amount of power to the already iconic imagery.
Some of the images simply extend and enliven the moment pictured in the original poster, as in this one for Skyfall. Others work more subtly. Take this Alien poster, which loops just a few frames to create a palpable sense of Ellen Ripley’s isolation and fear. Or this one, for Kill Bill, which amps up the pivotal moment before one of the movie’s trademark explosions of violence.
The gallery contains posters in a wide variety of styles, stretching from Hitchcock to recent releases. Part one can be viewed here, with the second part here.