Audience Research

Jasmine Ewens

Qualitative Research (Female)

Watches horror Always / Quite Often Popular Genres for Females

Reasons why Females watch Horror Age of Females who watch Horror

Qualitative Research (Male)

Watches horror Always / Quite Often Popular Genres for Males

Reasons why Males watch Horror Age of Males who watch Horror

It is clear from my research (a survey given to a sample group of 10 people) that the main target audience for horror films is females aged 16-18. The most popular sub-genres within this group are psychological and supernatural horrors. The attraction of these films is predominately that they evoke curiousity in the viewer. On the other hand, the sub-genre that the main male audience favoured was zombie themed horror. The largest male audience was aged 16-18, and they liked horror as it is relevant to modern day worries- which is compliant with Tudor’s theory of audience pleasures within horror, which suggests that pleasure is active, and audiences ‘recognise in texts features of the everyday world of social experience’. Other popular reasons for watching horror included the fact that they can help people to express repressed feelings, which complies with psychoanalytical theories of horror and audience pleasures, which state that horror appeals to ‘the beast within’ each of us.

Evaluation