A Level Media Studies - horror

1. Audience Research –
Analysing My Survey
Results

2. I asked this so I could get an idea of what sub-
genres of horror people in my target audience
preferred. The option of ‘Supernatural’ had the
most votes, second being ‘Psychological’ or
the option of ‘other’ and from this I can take
that this is the type of horror people prefer to
watch now and so will most likely choose to
do this for my trailer, poster and magazine
cover. These options can also relate to moral
panics as a lot of current issues are surrounding
unstable humans and crime which can be
intertwined with psychological horrors.

3. I asked this because I wanted to know what the
common fears amongst my target audience
were so I can maybe incorporate it into my
trailer etc. A lot of the answers were death or
death related as well as the dark which are both
common conventions used in horror films and
so I will most likely use these in my work.
Clowns and spiders are also seen a few times
which is interesting and are current moral
panics due to people messing about in cities, in
both America and England, scaring people
whilst dressed as clowns. Spiders are also
always a fear people have and are commonly
used in horror to evoke this fear because many
people are afraid of them and this can help to
create a horror atmosphere.

4. The reason I asked this general question
was to see whether my target audience
are actually interested in horror or not.
The result was 42% of the answers being
a ‘few times a month’ and ‘never’ being
15% showing that horror films are still
often watched and relevant, this also lets
me know that my target audience would
be more likely than not be interested in
going to see a new horror film and so my
trailer definitely has to cater to the rest of
the results I receive from them.

5. Asking this question has allowed me to get
an idea of what people from my target
audience think creates a scary atmosphere
and therefore I can include the aspects that
have most votes in my trailer. The option
that had, by far, the most votes was the
music/soundtrack as this can include themes
for certain characters, create suspense and
tension etc. The second most popular was
the storyline, for some obvious reasons as
the plot has to be entertaining or intriguing
otherwise it can be boring and therefore not
scary, this also ties into plot twists, which
was also a popular vote, as this can keep the
audience on edge and wanting to know
more.

6. I asked this to get a sense from my target audience as to
what sort of location or setting they would find scariest
for a horror to guide me in choosing areas to film my
horror trailer. I decided to put asylum as a choice because
they can always be associated with horror and are
occasionally used in horror films but not so much
recently. A lot of the vote went to a domestic setting or
haunted house which is quite commonly used nowadays
in horror films as houses and domestic settings are seen as
a place of safety where people are out of harm’s way but
if this is disrupted it can really scare people.

7. I asked this to get a general idea of what type of horror
films my target audience are most afraid of so I can look
into them and see if their reasons would work in my own
trailer. A lot of the answers were either ‘The Conjuring’
or ‘The Woman in Black’ as well as a couple of other
ghost-like films, which are all supernatural horrors but
can also be seen as psychological to some extent. One
answer is ‘The Purge’ and the answer being it ‘seems the
most realistic’ shows that moral panics, in this case a
corrupt government, can be quite scary because of how
real they can potentially be.

8. This question got quite an array of answers, but the
woman in black has popped up a few times showing
that, again, people find supernatural beings quite scary
because of the element of fear of the unknown coming
into play as well as the fact that in supernatural horrors
you rarely get to properly see the ghost which makes it
more suspenseful and mysterious. A few of the villains
mentioned, such as Freddy Krueger or Pennywise, are
from more psychological horrors. With Krueger, it’s
just an unstable human which can evoke a lot of fear
because they’re seen as just the same as anyone else.

9. Asking this just helped me to understand
whether my target audience like to know
a lot about what they’re going to see or
not know much so the majority of the
film is a surprise. The majority of the
vote went to a lot being left to the
imagination and this is often how current
horror trailers are whereas 10 years
ago+, trailers would give away a lot of
the plot line and so people knew most of
the narrative when they went to see it,
resulting in not that much shock or fear.

10. I decided to ask this because when horror
films first started being made, the villain
was almost always male but more recently
female villains have started to take over, this
could be linked the ‘Monstrous feminine’
theory. I wanted to know which gender
could best portray a villain according to my
target audience to help add to the fear factor
in my trailer. The majority of the vote went
to the option of either which shows that my
target audience find that both portray
villains well and I think this too as long as
there is a strong plot line and the villain is
portrayed well by the particular
actor/actress.