Audience Research –

Analysing My Survey Results

I asked this so I could get an idea of what sub-genres of horror people in my target audience preferred. The option of ‘Supernatural’ had the most votes, second being ‘Psychological’ or the option of ‘other’ and from this I can take that this is the type of horror people prefer to watch now and so will most likely choose to do this for my trailer, poster and magazine cover. These options can also relate to moral panics as a lot of current issues are surrounding unstable humans and crime which can be intertwined with psychological horrors.

I asked this because I wanted to know what the common fears amongst my target audience were so I can maybe incorporate it into my trailer etc. A lot of the answers were death or death related as well as the dark which are both common conventions used in horror films and so I will most likely use these in my work. Clowns and spiders are also seen a few times which is interesting and are current moral panics due to people messing about in cities, in both America and England, scaring people whilst dressed as clowns. Spiders are also always a fear people have and are commonly used in horror to evoke this fear because many people are afraid of them and this can help to create a horror atmosphere.

The reason I asked this general question was to see whether my target audience are actually interested in horror or not. The result was 42% of the answers being a ‘few times a month’ and ‘never’ being 15% showing that horror films are still often watched and relevant, this also lets me know that my target audience would be more likely than not be interested in going to see a new horror film and so my trailer definitely has to cater to the rest of the results I receive from them.

Asking this question has allowed me to get an idea of what people from my target audience think creates a scary atmosphere and therefore I can include the aspects that have most votes in my trailer. The option that had, by far, the most votes was the music/soundtrack as this can include themes for certain characters, create suspense and tension etc. The second most popular was the storyline, for some obvious reasons as the plot has to be entertaining or intriguing otherwise it can be boring and therefore not scary, this also ties into plot twists, which was also a popular vote, as this can keep the audience on edge and wanting to know more.

I asked this to get a sense from my target audience as to what sort of location or setting they would find scariest for a horror to guide me in choosing areas to film my horror trailer. I decided to put asylum as a choice because they can always be associated with horror and are occasionally used in horror films but not so much recently. A lot of the vote went to a domestic setting or haunted house which is quite commonly used nowadays in horror films as houses and domestic settings are seen as a place of safety where people are out of harm’s way but if this is disrupted it can really scare people.

I asked this to get a general idea of what type of horror films my target audience are most afraid of so I can look into them and see if their reasons would work in my own trailer. A lot of the answers were either ‘The Conjuring’ or ‘The Woman in Black’ as well as a couple of other ghost-like films, which are all supernatural horrors but can also be seen as psychological to some extent. One answer is ‘The Purge’ and the answer being it ‘seems the most realistic’ shows that moral panics, in this case a corrupt government, can be quite scary because of how real they can potentially be.

This question got quite an array of answers, but the woman in black has popped up a few times showing that, again, people find supernatural beings quite scary because of the element of fear of the unknown coming into play as well as the fact that in supernatural horrors you rarely get to properly see the ghost which makes it more suspenseful and mysterious. A few of the villains mentioned, such as Freddy Krueger or Pennywise, are from more psychological horrors. With Krueger, it’s just an unstable human which can evoke a lot of fear because they’re seen as just the same as anyone else.

Asking this just helped me to understand whether my target audience like to know a lot about what they’re going to see or not know much so the majority of the film is a surprise. The majority of the vote went to a lot being left to the imagination and this is often how current horror trailers are whereas 10 years ago+, trailers would give away a lot of the plot line and so people knew most of the narrative when they went to see it, resulting in not that much shock or fear.

I decided to ask this because when horror films first started being made, the villain was almost always male but more recently female villains have started to take over, this could be linked the ‘Monstrous feminine’ theory. I wanted to know which gender could best portray a villain according to my target audience to help add to the fear factor in my trailer. The majority of the vote went to the option of either which shows that my target audience find that both portray villains well and I think this too as long as there is a strong plot line and the villain is portrayed well by the particular actor/actress.