These 'Hunger Games' Posters Are Really Creepy

None of us really needed to be reminded that the next two films in the Hunger Game franchise were going to be the ones in which things got real. After all, things got real enough in the first Hunger Games movie, starting with, you know, the entire damn premise of sending children to kill each other for sport. We knew from our first sneak peek at Mockingjay - Part 1 that the Capitol would be employing propaganda posters in order to sway the public to their side, but the latest Mockingjay posters released by Lionsgate are just plain creepy.

The posters we caught a glimpse of before were WWI-inspired drawings, but these new ones feature "real" citizens in a collection called District Heroes. As if looking at their stony-faced expressions as they, um, proudly represent the best and brightest of their District isn't unsettling enough, one of the posters is of a child holding a bitten apple and covered in dirt as a representation of the mining district. The Lionsgate Capitol website itself reveals that her name is Lily Elsington and she's only 6 years old. Are these propaganda posters supposed to remind us to love the Capitol or are they supposed to make us wish we were in Panem just so we could join the revolution?

In addition to Lily, there are representations of Districts three, four, six, seven, nine, and ten. Fibre Bissette of Distinct three is being honored for repairing a mainframe when she was 9 years old. Elias Haan is holding his own wooden, prosthetic leg in his hands as a representation of the Lumber District. Then there's Triti Lancastor of District nine who has been working in the fields all day, according to the uncomfortable slave allusion in her description.

When you think about it, these posters are basically the best kind of propaganda that you can possibly put out there. They're glossy and shiny with misleadingly positive descriptions and yet they carry an underlying threat and discomfort that is sure to quell any rebellion. If the Capitol brings as much strategy to their fight as they do to their propaganda posters, then Katniss Everdeen had better watch her back. Then again, we all know how this story ends.

Check out the rest of the posters below and try not to shudder.

Image: Lionsgate