Questionnaire Analysis

Eleanor Wemysseleanorwemyss.wordpress.com

Mirrors- It scared me silly

I spit on your grave- I like the fact that she went for revenge for what they did and they deserved what they got.

Saw

Sweeney Todd- Johnny Depp’s acting is brilliant

The Woman in Black- I love the adaptation

Orphan- The main protagonist is superb

Unborn- Never finished watching it

The Conjuring- Brings back good memories of hanging with my friends

The Shining- It’s a classic

The Shining- The characters

Would you Rather- Terrifying

Predator- It’s a classic

Insidious 2- The storyline

Silence of the Lambs

Spiderman 3

Silent Hill

Nightmare on Elm Street

Psycho- Thrill seeking and very old

Shaun of the Dead

The Omen- It's a timeless classic that hits upon

themes of good vs. evil taught to everyone as

children.

28 Days Later

The Wicker Man

Woman in Black

The Shining

Saw- Much violence

Corpse Party-Very gore

Poltergeist- because of the unknown

Tale of Two Sisters

The Babadook- Smart, sad and creepy

The Woman in Black-2The Shining-3

Saw-2These films were chosen

multiple times due to their classical venture, scare

factor, adaptation from book to movie, narrative and gore.

This is helpful to my own work as I can now see what my target audience believes

makes a good horror and can use it in my trailer.

Q1.

Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.-Edgar Allan Poe

Q2.

Alfred Hitchcock Tim Burton Martin Scorsese Quentin Tarantino

Stanley Kubrick0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Knowing the favourite director of my target audience is helpful as I can use their auteurship style to create my trailer. The two favourite directors were Tim Burton and Stanley Kubrick. Tim Burton is well known for dark, macabre horror with a gothic twist where as Stanley Kubrick is known for his attention to detail, music and realism. Both are noteworthy directors and combined with my previous question I can see my audience likes classical horrors with a classical style.

I never really got nightmares from movies. In fact, I recall my father saying when I was three years old that I would be scared, but I never was. I was much

more terrified by my own family and real life, you know? –Tim Burton

Q3.Supernatural/Possession

Clowns; 3

Ghosts; 3

Dolls; 2

Spiders; 10

Sharks; 2

Crea-tures; 8

Animals

People; 5

Being Alone; 4

Life Wor-ries (No

money, loss of love

etc.); 6

Life and Humans Actions Ways of Dying

War; 3

Death; 4

Drowning; 3

Bodily Harm; 5

Illness; 3

Dark; 5

Heights; 4

As with any horror film there will always be aspects that scare

someone. This question proved that as the range of answers was very large and everyone has answered

for all three suggesting that people are scared of several things at once.

I'm a fan of horrors. I love the ones that make you jump. My girlfriend

hates it. I've been dating her for one-and-a-half years and I'm crazy about

her, but she's terrified of horror films. Not the cute 'Will you hold me?' way,

but she's weeping. With 'House of Wax,' we'll be sleeping and I'll go to the bathroom and she's sitting up waiting for me. –Jared Padalecki

Q4.

Enclosed spaces

Woods

Coffin

Graveyard

Schools

Dark

Outside

Cemetery

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Frequency

Plac

e

Most found being outside or in the dark as the scariest places to be alone in. This is most likely due to human fear of the unknown. The more detailed responses of an actual place like a garage is more of a personal choice for the person rather than an overwhelming terror of them.

I used to look at horror movies as being really real and it would totally freak me out and give me nightmares. Now I watch and think, 'whoa how'd they do that?’ –Evan Peters

Q5.

Yes81%

No19%

If you found an old box in a cupboard you've never been into, would you open it and why?

Most would open the box making the victim in most horror films normal as they always seem to open the door/chest.

Most do it out of curiosity rather than

thinking of the consequences.

Horror movies are the best date movies. There's no wondering , 'When do I put my arm around her?‘ –Eli Roth

Q6.jigsaw 6Jack Torrence 3Freddy Crugar 2 6

3

2

Non surprisingly the antagonist of horrors is usually the favourite as they are the key character within

them. The only answer I received of a protagonist was Van Helsing, the rest being the evil killers. This shows to me that the dark characters are more memorable

than the victims so in my own piece I will try to smash conventions and create a memorable and likable

protagonist.

All of us have our individual curses, something that we are uncomfortable with and something that we have to deal with, like me making horror films, perhaps. –Wes Craven

Q7.

Blood & Gore

Thrill/Adrenaline Rush

The Chase

The Resolution

The Setting

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

The favourite aspect of a horror film is the thrill and the gore. This is most likely due to the reason horrors are watched, to create a sense of verisimilitude and a safe danger for the audience to be in. The setting and the ending are also key parts to make or break a horror or indeed any film. As horrors are focussed on scaring an audience they have to make an emotional connection to the spectator so the setting is important as the spectator reviews their own experiences in said place. They become an active audience within the viewing.

I need to make the characters that I play in movies more accessible to audiences, more real. As an actor, you're always passive; you're not making that many choices, so when something allows you to open up a bit, you want to explore your newfound freedom. –Shu Qi

Home College Friend's house Cinema TV0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Q8.Many people view horrors from the comfort of their own home as they feel safe there and can control their viewing platform, such as changing the volume or even turning it off. Friend’s houses and the cinema are a more social way of viewing media text but are perhaps lesser than home as it means travelling and money. Knowing where my audience views the text is important as having need for surround sound and large visuals viewings is harder to achieve at a house than if they were to go to the cinema. This means my piece will most likely be more subtle in terms of horror as it is to achieve a scare through security of the home than the outside world of the cinema.

Everybody has something that chews them up and, for me, that thing was always loneliness. The cinema has the power to make you not feel lonely, even when you are. –Tom Hanks

Q9.

Twitter

Facebook

Youtube

TV

Cinema

Posters

Busstop

People

Research

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

This social-networking thing takes you to crazy places. -Bill Gates

Social networking is an incredible way of reaching mass audiences, particularly my target audience as they are the most likely to use Web 2.0 than older people. The TV and cinema are still great ways of advertising new films as they are where people expect to find adverts for movies. Facebook and YouTube also work well as they are such a large multi-media platforms that marketing can reach a broader range of people more than ever before. Word of mouth is still a useful tool as watching films is a social event and is what many many people talk about daily.

Q10.

Children Singing; 15

Distorted Voices; 12

Slow Tempo; 4 Classical Music; 5

Children’s slow singing of lullabies has become a horror favourite as we have all grown up with the songs and viewed them as happy and jovial but having a creepy child sing is key to a good horror soundtrack. Distorted voices was a close second as not being able to understand what an antagonist is plotting can be terrifying for the victim. I plan to use a nursery sounding song but distort is as my main musical score as it changes the way the audience listens to the song whenever they hear maybe a young family member sing it.

I can't even watch horror movies - I have to turn the music down! –Jaime Murray