Audience Theories: Horror Genre

Films need to have a purpose and have a reasoning behind it for the purpose of the audience, whether that be in a positive or negative way. It could be for entertainment purposes, my film will fulfil my audience’s needs as it will create a sense of thrill and excitement, it will cause an escape from reality for the audience as the thrill will lead them into this world full of twists and turns which leads to excitement and joy. It will also create an emotional release of excitement as well as fear.

It could also provide social interaction, my film will find a basis for conversation and a social interaction due to the mystery that we will create within our opening sequence. This will make my audience talk about the tile sequence which will enable one to connect with family and friends over the shared topic of interest, this will make our opening sequence discussed and therefore, popular. This is an example of the two-step-flow theory.

By thinking about the effects of the hypodermic syringe theory, we want to create a title sequence that will convince our audience that the storyline is real. By using characters that would be in everyday life, this creates more realism within the sequence, this will inject the idea that the supernatural occurrences can happen, this will bring in more of an interest for the audience which will further initiate the sense of excitement that it is able to bring to them. It is argued that horror films can negatively affect viewers, however, I believe that it isn’t solely based on the genre, it is down to the individual and how they view situations.