Rabbit Hole poster

Looking back over the year in posters, does it seem to you there’s been a nice spike of imagination at upper end of the quality scale? First-class posters for Inception, 127 Hours, The American, True Grit, and even Inside Job have striking designs that stick in our minds. It should be no surprise that some of the best films of the year are lavished with some of the best creative marketing campaigns — and yet, here I am, being surprised. Because we still see plenty of bland and traditional posters that almost seem to be saying: “Don’t worry. I’m safe. I’m conventional.” So it’s been a real pleasure this season to find designers who’ve been given the freedom to create visually stimulating artwork like this. (The promo posters for Black Swan are so outstanding they deserve special mention, cupped here inside a parenthetical hug.)

[UPDATE: Kicking myself for forgetting to mention Let Me In and these three Grand-Guignol posters.]

Full-sized Rabbit Hole poster after the cut. I never believed that you can’t judge a book by its cover; I do it all the time. It sometimes proves useful to judge a movie based in part on its posters too. What are some of your favorites this year?