Our target audience is people from 16 years old to people about 35 years old. Our primary audience is males however we think that females would also watch the film as a secondary audience

Therefore I chose the people who filled out my questionnaire so that they were within our target audience:

15 of my friends answered my questionnaire who are 16-18 year olds

15 of my family answered my questionnaire and they ranged in age from 20-40 years old.

Category/choice Amount of people chosen this category

Question 1: Out of all the horror movies you’ve watched which has been the scariest? (open question)

The Exorcist 12The Blair Witch Project 6Poltergeist 5Incidious 3The Shining 2The Visit 2

Scariest Horror Movies

The Exorcist The Blair Witch Project PoltergeistIncidious The Shining The Visit

What I learnt:

People found ‘The Exorcist’ and ‘The Blair Witch Project’ the scariest movies ever in general. I picked out that ‘The Exorcist’ may be scarier because of the use of a child/teenage girl being used as the victim. This makes the film more of a psychological horror because it fits DJ Skals theory that people are more frightened by things that they can relate to. ‘The Blair Witch Project’ has psychological horror elements because the director chose to show the fear of the main characters which obviously scared audiences more than using any amount

of vampires, ghouls, serial killers or werewolves on screen. Additionally, at the start of the film, the audience were told that they are witnessing actual footage that was discovered in a forest in the US. This may also apply to DJ Skals theory that realism is the scariest part.

Question 2: Which sub-genre evokes the most fear in you? (multiple choice question)

Slasher 10Supernatural 3Gothic 4Psychological 13

Sub-genres that evoke the most fear

Slasher Supernatural Gothic Psychological

What I learnt:

People found psychological and slasher more fearful in general. I think that it would be good if we could create a psychological horror with elements of a slasher movie in (eg. gory deaths). I think that psychological horror and slasher horror are related in a way because of peoples fear of painful deaths in a slasher may be psychological.

Question 3: Which of these would you least want to spend 24hrs in a room with? (multiple choice question)

0

4

13

0

13

Chart Title

baby hitler snake old woman spider

What I learnt:

I learnt that the theory by Christof Koch is correct. As his research showed that the right amygydala, the part of the brain associated with fear, responds to pictures of animals more than it does to images of people, landmarks or objects. This may suggest that our main antagonist should be a vampire or an animal like thing. However I feel that the inhuman villain would just cause immediate fear rather than create suspense and uneasiness. This is because I think that it is worse when the antagonist is knowingly causing harm/inflicting death on someone, whereas an animal is not realistically plotting or wanting to harm a human. I decided to test this theory out.

Question 4: Which, out of the last options, would you most like to remove from history? (multiple choice question)

Baby 0Hitler 30Snake 0Old Woman 0Spider 0

What I learnt:

People can control animals which may lessen their fear, however they can’t control human actions which may increase their fear. Also people have more power over animals, babies and elderly however influential villains like Hitler have the power to control people. This psychological worry and fear, I think, is the strongest and the scariest of them all. That is

why I think our antagonist should be a human and preferably male because they are stereotypically the strongest of the sexes.

Question 5: Which of these describe you the best? (multiple choice)

I enjoy watching horror films and going on roller-coasters

18

I enjoy going on roller-coasters but not watching horror films

2

I enjoy watching horror films but not going on roller-coasters

5

I don’t enjoy watching horror films or going on roller-coasters

5

Chart Title

I enjoy watching horror films and going on roller-coastersI enjoy going on roller-coasters but not watching horror filmsI enjoy watching horror films but not going on roller-coastersI don’t enjoy watching horror films or going on roller-coasters

What I learnt:

I found that this data supports the theory created by Marvin Zuckerman in 1979. Zuckerman said that ‘people who scored high in the Sensation Seeking Scale often reported a greater interest in exciting things like bungee jumping, roller coasters and horror films.’ This theory suggest that horror movies appeal to people because of the ‘sensation’ and fear that they make a person feel. This means that we need to make sure that we include elements of our horror films which make people start to produce adrenaline.

21

0

2

7

Question 6: Who do you think looks the most frightening (eg. who would you least like to meet in a dark alley?) (multiple choice)

What I learnt:

I learnt that Tom may appear the ‘scariest’ looking to our target audience. Therefore I think that we should use him to be our antagonist. I think that it may be because of his older looking facial features and his beard. This may make him seem older and more powerful. Additionally I think that his gender may influence how scary he looks because men are stereotypically stronger and violent than females.

Chart Title

Tom Emilia Leonie Alec