The document discusses research conducted to determine the target audience and elements that make an effective horror film. A questionnaire was completed by 30 friends and family members aged 16-40. It found that psychological horror films like The Exorcist were generally seen as the scariest. Respondents also indicated they found psychological and slasher subgenres the most fearful. Most said they would not want to spend 24 hours with a spider. Finally, the research suggests the antagonist should be an older male human to appear the most frightening.

1. Our targetaudience ispeople from16years oldto people about35 yearsold.Our primaryaudience
ismaleshoweverwe thinkthatfemaleswouldalsowatchthe filmasa secondaryaudience
Therefore Ichose the people who filledoutmyquestionnaire sothattheywere withinourtarget
audience:
15 of myfriendsansweredmyquestionnaire whoare 16-18 year olds
15 of myfamilyansweredmyquestionnaire andtheyrangedinage from20-40 years old.
Category/choice Amount of people chosenthiscategory
Question 1: Out of all the horror movies you’ve watched which has been
the scariest? (open question)
The Exorcist 12
The Blair WitchProject 6
Poltergeist 5
Incidious 3
The Shining 2
The Visit 2
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
ScariestHorror Movies
The Exorcist The Blair Witch Project Poltergeist Incidious The Shining The Visit

2. 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 realismis the scariest part.
Question 2: Which sub-genre evokes the most fear in you? (multiple choice
question)
Slasher 10
Supernatural 3
Gothic 4
Psychological 13
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.
Sub-genres thatevoke the most fear
Slasher Supernatural Gothic Psychological

3. Question 3: Which of these would you least want to spend 24hrs in a room
with? (multiple choice question)
0
4
13
0
13

4. 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 0
Hitler 30
Snake 0
Old Woman 0
Spider 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
Chart Title
baby hitler snake old woman spider

5. 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
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.
Chart Title
I enjoy watching horror films and going on roller-coasters
I enjoy going on roller-coasters but not watching horror films
I enjoy watching horror films but not going on roller-coasters
I don’t enjoywatchinghorror films or goingon roller-coasters

6. 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.
21
0
2
7
Chart Title
Tom Emilia Leonie Alec