Task 4 (1)

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Why Horror Is The Best Film Genre
A horror film is a movie that seeks to elicit a physiological reaction, through the use
of fear and shocking the audience. Horror films often aim to evoke viewers'
nightmares, fears, and terror of the unknown. Plots within the horror genre often
involve the intrusion of an evil force or event in the everyday world, including ghosts,
extraterrestrials, vampires, werewolves,
demons, satanism, evil clowns, gore, monsters,
zombies, cannibalism, psychopaths, serial killers
and more. The trends and conventions of horror
films have evolved over the years in order to
cater to a new audience. Although it has been
scrutinized previously as being grotesque, it has
provided audiences with iconic protagonists over
the years, from Sidney Prescott to Ellen Ripley
and I believe that no other genre has had as much of an impact on audiences. Not
only do horror films have the ability to have an emotional impact (short term) on
audiences, but also a psychological (long term) impact. Everything in a horror film
from the visuals, sound and even silence is utilized to create the biggest impact.
When horror films first came about in the 1920s, monsters were
the main antagonists. Some notable examples include
Frankenstein (1910), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), The
Phantom of the Opera (1925), The Cat and the Canary (1927),
The Unknown (1927), and The Man Who Laughs (1928).
Universal Studios entered a Golden Age of monster movies in the
'30s, with the release of a string of hit horror movies. In the
1930s/40s, Universal Pictures began a successful Gothic horror
film series. Tod Browning's Dracula (1931) was quickly followed
by James Whale's Frankenstein (1931), which both featured
monstrous mute antagonists. Universal's horror cycle continued into the 1940s with
B movies including The Wolf Man (1941).
From the 1950s to 1960s, with advances in technology, the tone
of horror films shifted from the Gothic towards contemporary
concerns, with elements of sci-fi, and two sub genres emerged:
the Doomsday film and the Demonic film. They featured humanity
overcoming threats such as alien invasions and deadly mutations
to people, for instance in Godzilla (1954). Various cultural forces
also shaped horror movies in the '50s, with The Cold War and
fears of invasion, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), was
released.

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Due to the financial successes of low-budget gore films, and the success of
Rosemary's Baby (1969), this led to the
release of more films with occult themes
during the 1970s. The Exorcist (1973), was a
commercial success and was followed by
several horror films in which there is a demon
entity/a form of supernatural evil, that would
impregnate women or possess children.
Another popular horror movie was The Omen
(1976), where a man realizes that his five-
year-old adopted son is the Antichrist. Due to
them being invincible to most humans, demons became villains in many horror films
with a postmodern style and a dystopian worldview.
This was followed by a cycle of slasher films in
the late 70s to 80s. This sub genre became
increasingly violent, and often featured a serial
killer. The most popular slashers were
Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), A
Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and Child’s
Play (1988). The early 90s brought critical
acclaim for the horror genre, with "The Silence
of the Lambs" claiming major Academy Awards
in 1992. This prompted studios into funding
large-scale horror-themed projects, such as Interview With the Vampire, Bram
Stoker's Dracula and Wolf. In 1996, Scream's (1996) success reignited the slasher
sub genre, generating similar films, such as I Know What You Did Last Summer
(1997) and Urban Legend (1998). At the end of the decade, Blade (1998)
foreshadowed the comic book adaptations, and Asian horror movies like Ringu and
Audition influenced the genre even more.
The 2000s began with a string of horror remakes of both American
(Friday the 13th, Halloween, Dawn of the Dead) and foreign films (
The Ring, The Grudge). Also, the "torture porn" genre emerged,
with most notably Saw and Hostel. The 2010s had a range of
horror films, from more remakes such as A Nightmare on Elm
Street (2010), The Crazies (2010), I Spit on Your Grave (2010), to
a return to the slasher genre with You're Next (2011) and The
Cabin in the Woods (2012). Zombies were also a prominent sub
genre in the 2000s, with 28 Days Later (2002) and Dawn of the
Dead (2004).
Thus, horror is the best genre as over the decade the genre has managed to evolve
and reinvent itself to have a further impact of their audience both physically and

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psychologically. In the moment watching the films, audiences would have a physical
reaction by possibly jumping and getting scared, whilst later psychologically
audiences would think about the film and it would play of their mind. Although it is
personal opinion which film is the scariest, a few of the most popular scariest films
ever include The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974),
The Exorcist (1973) and The Shining (1980). By
constantly reinventing its style, the genre remains fresh
and is able to scare the new audiences. Due to there
being so many different sub genres, there's something
for everyone to enjoy, therefore appealing to a very large
audience, as even if they do not like the conventional
gore and slashing, they may prefer the comedies and
psychological genres.
Active spectatorship suggests each viewer is different and many audiences will
question the film and react to it in different ways to others, not just blindly accepting
the messages like a passive spectator would. No other genre has as much active
spectatorship as a horror film. The audience may react, specifically to a horror film
by jumping, crying or laughing, or even talking to themselves as if they were that
character in the movie, and any other emotions that express their fear or lack of.
Once they’ve watched the film, the audience may carry on being an active audience
member by discussing the film with other people. Due to there being so many
different sub genres of horror, each one can make audiences respond differently.
For instance, a film from the torture porn sub genre may cause an audience to look
away due to it being too gruesome, whilst a psychological horror may not cause an
immediate physical reaction, but an emotional one later on. However, passive
spectatorship is where audiences are inactive, and don’t have a reaction to the film
either emotionally or psychological. It can be argued that some filmmakers try to turn
the audience into passive spectators by filling their films with very obvious,
unambiguous preferred readings. Others wish to encourage active spectatorship by
making their films more open to individual interpretation and making it easier for
people to read the film differently and respond to it in different ways. The later is
more common for horror movie audiences and filmmakers, as both want a reaction
to happen, specifically filmmakers of horror want a reaction from their audiences as
this results in more attention, regardless if it’s good or bad, and in turn more people
are likely to watch, thus the film will make more money.
Another reason why active spectatorship is
common for horror is because of a passionate fan
base. For instance, there are many die hard horror
fans, who watch every movie and discuss it with
other horror fans in different communities. Some
horror fans participate in LARPing, which is live

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action role playing, where participants physically act out their characters' actions.
The players pursue their characters' goals within a fictional setting represented by
the real world, while interacting with one another. One example, is SAW Alive, which
is a live action horror maze at Thorpe Park. People go through horror scenes and
come face-to-face with Billy, as seen in the movie. Another major LARPing event is
Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights, which is a yearly event that have real
actors portraying characters from well known movies such as The Shining, SAW,
Insidious, Sinister, Happy Death Day and The Purge, and terrorising fans. In The
Purge section, participants attempt to survive the
night, immersed in the film property's depraved
world where all crime is declared legal in the
government's annually sanctioned 12-hour
cleansing of society. In the Happy Death Day
event, participants encounter the deja vu
scenario, forced to relive the last day of your lives
over and over again, trying to escape a
mysterious masked killer. Then, in Sinister,
encounter an ancient pagan deity who is
determined to trap you for all eternity in the sordid
shadow world of the dead. Other ways for horror
fans to LARP are during comic-con conventions,
which take place globally every year, giving fans
the chances to dress up as their favourite
characters, interact with other fans and even
meet some of the actors who have played iconic
protagonists before. Not only are horror movies
LARPed, so are TV shows, including The Walking Dead and American Horror Story,
which fully immerse the participant into the world. Ghost Stories is a play that
revolves around Dr Goodman, a Professor of Parapsychology (Andy Nyman)
delivering a lecture on ghost stories. The script incorporates jump scares that are
similar to the scenes in popular horror films, including Don't Look Now, Halloween,
Rosemary's Baby and Le Serpent. It is designed to scare fans of horror, by putting
them into a real life scenario that could be seen in a film. A film adaptation debuted
in 2017, starring Nyman, who reprised his role as Professor Phillip Goodman, Paul
Whitehouse as the night watchman, Alex Lawther as the student and Martin
Freeman as the businessman.
Another way audiences become an active spectator of the film is by watching the
extras on the DVD of the movie, which can feature how it was filmed, and other trivia
facts that audiences may find interesting. By audiences watching these, it shows that
they have become invested in the film to care enough to want to know extra details
about it. Again, horror fans are often more interested in these features rather than
ones in say a comedy or drama film, as work is put in by the filmmaker to ensure that
audiences will be scared either physically or psychologically. As technology

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improves, and the style of horror evolves, a new
technique is achieved by the filmmaker,
audiences would be particularly intrigued to
discover how this was done.
The Uses and Gratifications theory (1974), was
developed by Blumler and Katz, and suggests that
media users play an active role in choosing and
using the media. They believed that the user
seeks out the media source that best fulfils their needs. The uses and gratifications
theory assumes the audience chooses what it wants to watch for one of four different
reasons.
The main reason why people watch horror films is likely for entertainment, where
viewers watch the films for enjoyment. This also ties in with another reason, which is
diversion. Diversion, lets viewers escape their real lives and imagine themselves in
those situations. A horror film will take their mind off of their everyday life and
immerse them in a new scenario, which they probably haven’t experiences before.
Personal Identity is where viewers can recognise a person or product, role models
that reflect similar values to themselves and mimic or copy some of their
characteristics. For instance, during the watching of a horror film, the viewer may
begin to identify with a character, thus liking the film more. For example, in the film I
Know What You Did Last Summer, there are four teenagers, which teenage viewers
may be able to relate to and in turn, root for them. Personal identity is a form of
active spectatorship, as the audience actively interacts with a part of the film - the
characters.
Integration and social interaction is the ability for media products to produce a topic
of conversation between people, and for the viewer to experience the different
relationships shown on the film. Most, if not all horror films have an embedded
message for the audience, such as family or friendships, and the audience can apply
this to their own life. For example, the screenwriters of The Conjuring 2 wanted
audiences to realise that evil exists in the form of demons, but no matter how
terrifying they can get, God will always triumph over them. Another part of the social
interaction point is personal relationships, where audiences will substitute a real
relationship for one on screen. For instance, audience may feel connected to a
character/characters if they have not experienced that before.
Surveillance is another reason why audiences may want to watch a horror film, this
is where you watch something to find out what's happening in other places around
the world. For instance, a British person may watch a horror film set in America to
see what it’s like in an American neighbourhood and vice versa. One example is

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Scream, set in the fictional town of Woodsboro, California, where the audience can
see what it’s like in an American high school and the surrounding area.
One of the most groundbreaking horror films was The Exorcist (1973), considered by
many to be the scariest film of all time. Beating even Avatar when it comes to
adjusted domestic grosses, the film garnered $232 million in the US, which is over
$900 million by today’s standards. It was one of the most controversial horror movies
ever made. People were so scared when the movie hit cinemas, that many were
passing out during screenings and
leaving early because they were unable
to endure the horror. Many audiences
had never seen children possessed,
blood and gore on a cinema screen,
which made it a new experience. The
use of special effects along with alleged subliminal imagery created controversy, but
overall was done for dramatic effect—to create, achieve, and sustain a dreamlike
state. Thus, this all shows the psychological impact of the film, as it is still regarded
as one of the scariest films and watched today by a modern audience. Recently, an
extremely rare film reel surfaced documenting how cinemas, audiences and the
media handled the release of The Exorcist in America in 1974. It showed viewers
leaving cinemas in shock, astonished at what
they just saw. Some start crying and just can’t
articulate how they’re feeling. A women even
faints on camera trying to walk out of a
screening. One man says, “It didn’t scare me, I
just— I don’t know what happened, I just fainted.
It was frightening.”This was all a form of active
spectatorship, as most if not all audiences to the
film specifically in the 70s, had a reaction to it.

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Lauren Rosenfeld
A B-movie is a film which is produced quickly and cheaply, of
inferior quality and is often considered to have little artistic value.
Most of the popular B-movies are horror. One recent popular B-
movie is Piranha 3D (2010), which is a horror comedy film that
serves as a loose remake of the horror film Piranha (1978). The
plot centres of when an underground tremor releases hundreds
of prehistoric, carnivorous fish into Lake Victoria, a popular
waterside resort. Local cop Julie Forester must join forces with
group of unlikely strangers to destroy the piranhas before
everyone dies. Piranha 3D received generally positive reviews. It
is certified "fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes with an approval rating of
73% and an average score of 5.5/10 based on 78,217 on IMDB. Due to it being a B-
movie, audiences were more likely passive viewers, meaning that they may not have
interacted with the film as much as say The Exorcist. However, much of the
audience still could have actively spectated it by laughing at the nudity and gore,
particularly as it is a comedy-horror.
Another popular B-movie was Paranormal Activity (2007), it was
a found footage supernatural horror film. Originally developed as
an independent feature and given film festival screenings in
2007, the film was acquired by Paramount Pictures and modified,
particularly with a new ending. It was given a limited U.S. release
on September 25, 2009, and then a nationwide release on
October 16, 2009. It had a budget of $15,000 and made $193.4
million at the box office, making it the most profitable film ever
made, based on return on investment. A parallel sequel and
prequel Paranormal Activity 2, was released on October 22,
2010. The success of the first two films spawned additional films in the series: the
prequel Paranormal Activity 3,, and sequel to the second installment, Paranormal
Activity 4,, a spin-off titled Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones released on
January 3, 2014 and the final installment Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension.
Most of the B movie production houses founded during the exploitation era (60s/70s)
collapsed or were subsumed by larger companies as the field's financial situation
changed in the early 1980s. Even a cheap, efficiently made genre picture intended
for theatrical release began to cost millions of dollars, as the major movie studios
steadily moved into the production of expensive genre movies, raising audience
expectations for spectacular action sequences and realistic special effects. Thus, B-
movies have been on the decline due to them not having as much of a physical or
psychological effect on audiences as a large budget film would. Despite these films
not having as much of an impact, they still manage to conjure a reaction from
audiences, which is active spectatorship, and can influence the genre by showing
that a low budget film can still conjure money at the box office. I believe that no other

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genre can create such a reaction regardless if it a B-movie or a box office hit, and
this is yet another reason why horror is the best genre.
Audience reception is how well an audience reacts to a genre, and their opinions of
specific films in it. Horror has the most dedicated fan base, who have watched every
single film and will continue to do so, as well as watching behind the scenes and
extras to discover everything about a particular film. There are also LARPers who
want to experience characters emotions and situations. There is no other film genre
community who are as passionate about a genre as horror, and as previously stated
audiences wish to escape their own life (uses and gratifications), in order to
experience something completely different, as seen in horror films. Also, there is
likely not a huge fan base of people who have watched every comedy or adventure
film, as after a while the films become very similar to each other, there are cliche
moments and the genre gets boring, unlike horror. Audience reception for horror is
quite groundbreaking, as many films nowadays have good reactions, seen through
the reviews, whilst in previous years, horror films were not very well rated, and critics
were skeptical of them. A reason for skepticism was because many horror films used
to be just about gore and shock factor, however, today there is a plot and solo
background films are created to explore the antagonists past. For example,
Annabelle is a 2014 American supernatural horror film, and was a box office
success, grossing over $257 million against its $6.5 million production budget. Due
to the success, a prequel, Annabelle: Creation, was released on August 11, 2017.
One horror film that got a lot of reception from audiences, and still does today is
Poltergeist (1982). It is known as the cursed film, as several things happened on set.
It began with the most famous scenes featuring JoBeth Williams's character, Diane,
falling into the family's pool, filled with skeletons. The skeletons were real, because it
was too expensive to make fake skeletons out of rubber. Poltergeist was released in
June 1982, and in November, 22-year-old Dominique Dunne, who played Dana (the
family's older daughter), was murdered. She was strangled in her own driveway by
her abusive ex-boyfriend and was removed from life support five days later. Julian
Beck, who starred as Kane in Poltergeist II: The Other Side, died of stomach cancer
at age 60. He was diagnosed before he accepted the role, and he passed away in
September 1985, months before the film even came out in theaters. In June 1987,
Will Sampson, the actor who performed the exorcism, died of malnutrition and
postoperative kidney failure at age 53. While their deaths may not seem so unusual,
some fans still believe they're connected to the curse. Heather O'Rourke (aka Carol
Anne, who said the famous line, "They're heeere") was incredibly young when she
died of cardiac arrest and septic shock caused by a misdiagnosed intestinal issue.
She died in February 1988 at 12, several months before the release of Poltergeist III,
the final chapter in the original series. Richard Lawson was aboard USAir Flight 405
when it crashed into Flushing Bay in March 1992. A total of 27 people (out of the 51
on board) were killed. Lawson survived, but the event is yet another reason people
claim the movie is cursed. Lou Perryman played the small role of Pugsley in the

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original film. He was 67 years old when a recently released ex-convict killed him in
his own home with an ax.
Although there are many fans of horror, many now despise the genre. Some believe
that it is no longer scary, as they are filled with cliches, such as jump scares, which
many believe is the cheapest horror movie technique and mismarketing, where the
trailers are notoriously misrepresentative of the the films they are supposed to be
previewing. Others have a disliking of the genre due to it being unrealistic, and many
characters making decisions that get them killed. One main reason for audiences
hating horror films are the sequels, specifically how studios ruin a franchise by
bringing out more films in order to make more money. The Ring is a 2002 American
supernatural horror film directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Naomi Watts. The
film received mostly positive reviews. Many critics praised direction, screenplay, and
reliance on dread and visuals over gore, and grossed over $249 million worldwide on
a $48 million production budget, making it one of the highest-grossing horror
remakes. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 72% based on 201 reviews,
with a rating average of 7.1/10 from 283,319 votes. However, Rings is a 2017
American supernatural psychological horror film directed by F. Javier Gutiérrez. The
film is a direct sequel to The Ring (2002) and ignoring the events of The Ring Two
(2005). The film has a 7% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 4.5/10 from
29,388 votes on IMDB, with one reviewer stating that it "opts for lazy jump scares
and a convoluted origins story no one asked for or needed". Despite this, it grossed
$83 million worldwide against its $25 million budget. Thus, these are the bad
reactions to horror films.
As horror as now been around for around a decade,
audiences have seen a fair range of horror films. Many
horror films nowadays have less of a psychological impact,
than in previous years for instance with The Exorcist. In 1975
psychiatrist James Bozzuto wrote an article for the Journal of
Nervous and Mental Disease entitled ‘Cinematic Neurosis
Following The Exorcist’ that reported four cases of previously
untroubled people who seemed to develop psychiatric
difficulties after watching the film. Nowadays, more horror is
aimed at having a physical in the moment reaction from
audiences, such as by jumping or laughing. Although, there
are a few exceptions such as the most recent critically
acclaimed horrors Get Out (2017) and A Quiet Place (2018), which both received
rave reviews in having psychological impacts on audiences, and having active
audiences in that many people are still talking about them and the aforementioned
having won several awards. One possible reason why audiences have stopped
having such psychological reactions is because modern audiences have become
desensitised to seeing blood, gore, nudity etc. In the early years of horror films,
these subjects were more of a taboo to audiences, however with new emerging

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technologies in the new century, it became easily accessible for audiences to see
these things, and in turn the media industries began featuring these more and more.
Thus, horror filmmakers have needed to change their styles to cause more of a
psychological impact.
Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding Theory (1973) suggests that audience derive their
own meaning from media texts. These meanings can be dominant, negotiated or
oppositional. The theory suggests audiences actively read media texts and don’t just
accept them passively. They interpret the media text according to their own cultural
background, knowledge, opinions and experiences. Hall suggested that media texts
are read in three main ways. A dominant or preferred reading
of the text is the way that its creators want an audience to
understand and respond to it. An oppositional reading of the
text is when an audience completely rejects the message. A
negotiated reading is when the audience interprets the text in
their own unique way, which might not be the way its
producer intended. B-movies are mainly produced for
entertaining audiences, rather than stating a message, which
is why the encoding/decoding theory doesn’t always apply.
The preferred reading is the most important way of reading a
text when it comes to the horror genre, specifically for the
filmmaker. They will create the text, in order to have the most
impact on the audience. If the audience don't find it scary, then it defeats the whole
purpose of it being a horror film and it will be less likely to be a success, this links in
with audience expectation.
Receiving a negotiated reading isn't ideal in terms of horror, however it is still a
success in terms of scaring the audience. Negotiated may mean that the film made
them jump, but didn’t have a lasting impact.
In terms of horror, an oppositional reading would have meant the audience wouldn't
have found the film scary and would've been disappointed due to the film being
categorised as a horror even though it isn't scary.
An example is Mother! (2017), which is an American
psychological horror film. The message of the film divided
audiences, and many took different readings of it. The plot
follows a young woman whose seemingly tranquil life with her
husband at their country home is disrupted by the arrival of a
mysterious couple. The movie is an allegory for the creation of
the world according to Genesis in the bible. It features God (the
Creator or poet played by Javier Bardem), Mother Earth
(Jennifer Lawrence), Adam and Eve (Harris and Pfeiffer), Cain
and Abel. The movie was so controversial that Paramount even

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had to defend its decision to release the movie The dominant reading of the film
according to director Darren Aronofsky is one of an environmental message, “I think
[the planet’s] being undone by humanity. I don’t blame one gender over the other
gender. I think it is about how people are insatiable, how there’s this endless
consumption.”Regardless, audiences came away from the film with different
interpretations, for instance, artistic creation, the fear of parenthood, the traps of
marriage, the fearful of miasma of celebrity culture. These mentioned could be
audiences negotiated or oppositional readings, as they are different from the
dominant reading.
Laura Mulvey’s The male gaze theory is the way in which the
visual arts and literature depict the world and women from a
masculine point of view, presenting women as objects of
male pleasure. According to this theory, women largely
appear on screen for men's erotic pleasure men. Although
many films from different genres use male gaze nowadays, it
is most popular in the horror genre, and particularly in slasher
films. For example, in Scream the female protagonist Sidney
is shown in her underwear/very few clothes with her sexually
frustrated boyfriend who is still fully clothed. Another example
is Jennifer’s Body (2009), where there is more male gaze
with the two main female characters kissing. Lastly, there is
Friday The 13th (2009), with a graphic sex scene, again
showing full nudity of the woman but not of the man. This
shows that as the years have gone on the male gaze still
occurs, and appears to have gotten even more graphic, again
due to audiences becoming desensitised and providing a bit
of titillation for the audience. Despite this, female gaze has
also become more common in modern horror movies. For instance, in 28 Days Later
(2002), there is full frontal nudity of the main male character played by Cillian
Murphy. Other films with male nudity include Alien:Covenant (2017), The Human
Centipede (2009) and Teeth (2007).
The term intertextuality refers to the process of creating
references to any kind of media text via another media text.
Intertextuality is commonly used within horror films, particularly
more modern horror films, as many audiences would have seen
the old horror films and would understand the references made.
Also, die hard fans would eagerly look out for these subtle
easter eggs to discuss with other people. Intertextuality can also
be a form of flattery to other directors and filmmakers of the
genre, once the audience recognises this, they can connect with
the film more. Intertextuality adds a sense of verisimilitude for
the audience, and makes it more believable for them, which can make the film more

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scary. For example, by referencing other media texts, it helps the audience to see
the film as existing in the real world and not as much through a screen. One
example, is The Blair Witch Project (1999), where all the characters were given the
same name as the actors, which made it more realistic for both the actors and the
audience. This can help the audience to relate to the characters, as they feel like real
people, and in turn get more scared once realising that they are normal people and
the events could occur to them .
There are many intertextual references in
the Scary Movie franchise, which parodied
many other horror films. One aspect of the
film that will clearly be recognised by the
audience is the character from scream
“ghostface”. Like all intertextual texts, Scary
Movie uses the original element but slight
changes are necessary, as the 2 movies are
of different genres, one is a mystery horror,
and the other is a comedy/parody, so it is
slightly changed. Scary Movie also uses the typical plot
which appears in many other movies, it consists of one
mystery serial killer with a list of victims. This scenario
is seen in films such as The Bone Collector, Jack the
Ripper and Scream. However, there can also be more
subtle intertextual references, such as between
Halloween (John Carpenter), Psycho (Alfred
Hitchcock) and Scream (Wes Craven). The link is the
name ‘Loomis’, In Psycho there’s Sam Loomis, in
Halloween Michael Myers’ doctor is called Dr. Samuel Loomis
and in Scream Sidney’s boyfriend is called Billy Loomis. Also, In
Scream, directed by Wes Craven there’s a scene with a janitor
of the school who’s called ‘Fred’, he dresses in a red and green
jumper- the iconic look of Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on
Elm Street, also directed by Wes Craven who plays the janitor.
Although, only the most passionate fans would have noticed
these references, which would have made them feel closer as a
community. Many horror films use intertextuality to pay homage
to other horror filmmakers/directors, as many horror filmmakers are fans of the genre
themselves. Thus, they would rather use these references than compete with each
other.
However, other films do not have any intertextual references, such as Winchester
(2018), which is set in 1906. One reason for this is because if it featured modern
references it would have taken away from the verisimilitude, and audiences would

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have not been familiar with media texts from the 1900s. Therefore, in this instance,
intertextuality would not have been good to use.
Social networking plays a large role on the popularity and reception of films today.
Due to it taking up such a prominent part of all of our lives, filmmakers now majorly
promote their films using it, as it is a cheap and effective way to reach a large
amount of people and a target audience. All platforms, but more specifically
Facebook and Twitter, are now used for film communities to talk about upcoming
and previous films, making it easier than ever for both the filmmaker and actors to
discuss their films and interact with the target audience. Due to dedicated fan bases,
and hype surrounding film releases nowadays, there is a high possibility that new
news on a film such as a poster, teaser, or trailer will help the film to go viral and
‘trend’. Once this happens there is a high chance that news of the film reaches a
global audience.
The marketing for Paranormal Activity relied on building
audience expectation to ensure it would be an
immediate success. The film was rallying viewers to
demand to see the film, by going to the website and
clicking a button. The cities with the most votes would
have an exclusive midnight viewing and, if the demand
hit the one million mark, it would be released
nationwide. The campaign was clever as it got cities
competing against each other to spread the word and
build the hype. The franchise experienced so much
success that it spawned a further four films and two spin-offs, and the clever
marketing techniques continued.
By the fifth film, the marketing centred on a YouTuber called Sarah and her dad
Jacob. Through a series of videos released on the account, increasingly creepy
things began to happen. Characters from previous instalments are referred to and
the audience starts seeing tell-tale signs
that Jacob and his daughter are in
demonic danger. This campaign wasn’t
exclusive to just YouTube. More accounts
were set up across Instagram, Facebook,
Twitter and Tumblr to tell a story
throughout different platforms. As the
premiere date for the film’s release came
closer, so did the paranormal activity
Jacob was documenting and the user
engagement. This shows that a low budget film through creative marketing
techniques can garner a social media following for a whole franchise and gain
millions of dollars in revenue.

14. Units 25,26
Task 4
Lauren Rosenfeld
Recently, there has been a rise in horror films surrounding the topic of social media.
This may be due to the rise in popularity of social media, specifically for teenagers,
and teenage centered horror films. One possible message filmmakers are trying to
get across to teenagers are the dangers of social media. Thus, by showing these
audience can relate to what they are seeing, and it may feel more like real life,
causing audiences to evaluate the role they play on social media platforms.
The Den, is a 2013 horror film about a young
woman whose life begins to spiral out of
control after witnessing a grisly murder online,
while studying the habits of web cam chat
users from the apparent safety of her own
home. This spurred on 2015 horror film
Unfriended about a high school clique, whose
Skype group call is haunted by their deceased
classmate. Real laptop programmes and
websites are accessed (Google/YouTube),
which adds to the realism, and ultimately feels more like real life for the teenage
audience who are the predominant users of these websites.
Pre and post viewing experiences are the thoughts and views from an audience
before and after they have watched a film. Most likely, pre viewing experience is
based on trailers and reviews of both critics and the general public, to get a
consensus of where people stand and to build your own idea. Whilst a post viewing
experience is decided once the person has watched the film, and they form an idea
by themselves, particularly as everyone's movie taste is different.
One example where i had a good pre viewing experience was It
Follows (2015). I watched the theatrical trailer, which seemed to
have a unique/tense story, which I tend to like in a horror film, as
well as looking at a few reviews, and seeing that it had a rating of
97% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, my post viewing experience
was bad. I found it boring, and as someone who likes horror
movies to be scary, this was not. Also, the plot was ridiculous (an
STD curse) and never explained, which made it more laughable
than anything else.
My pre viewing experience for It (2017), was very good. The trailer
looked entertaining and scary, also audiences and critics alike
seemed to like it with it receiving 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. I’d
also seen a few films with some of the actors in them before and
enjoyed those. Therefore, my post viewing experience was also a

15. Units 25,26
Task 4
Lauren Rosenfeld
good one, i believe it had a compelling antagonist with quite a few scary moments,
which added to an enjoyable experience. Also, the characters were quite relatable
and likeable.