Wells' research & Cohen's moral panics

1. WELLS' RESEARCH &
COHEN'S MORAL
PANICS

2. PAUL WELLS
• Paul Wells conducted research into horror audiences (research from 2000).
• He took groups of 12 people in the age groups of, 16-25, 26-40, 41-55 and 56-80.
• He asked all the groups of people what was the first horror film they watches, and what
was the latest horror film they watched.
• From this research he found connections between fright and age.
• Viewers from between the 1970 and 1990s were more numb to explicit special effects
• He also found that younger viewers were able to spot no believable effects and
subsequently becoming harder to scare/shock.
• Although this theory is believable there are limitations to it, for example the small
amount of evidence (there was not enough people in study).

3. Age Group Earliest Film Latest Film Conclusion
56-80 years
(1920-1944)
In this age rage it was found that the
group enjoyed horror more when
they were younger and they found
things like darkness and rats scary,
as a results of the scares of WW1 in
which they faced. They also disliked
paranormal horror.
41-55 years
(1945-1959)
They found films like ‘The Exorcist’
(1973) too scary as result of the
violence. This group realised that
they were beginning to dislike horror
films.
26-40
(1960-1974)
This group still enjoyed horror but
were realising that the plots were
becoming predictable. They also
commented on the growing number
of females in main roles. In addition
they preferred US made horror films
to British horror.
16-25
(1975-1984)
This group loved the blood and gore
in horror, they also liked to see
inventive marketing (i.e. using the
internet). This group still enjoyed
horror.

4. MORAL PANIC• Stanley Cohen stated in his book ‘Folk Devils and Moral Panics’ (1972) that a group or
person, condition, episode emerges to become a distinct threat to societal principles
and security,.
• He also suggests that the media has a big impact in enforcing moral panic, by (for
example) presenting a topic on the news constantly.
• The media increases the fear in people by over exaggerating the extent of the topic.
• Some examples of moral panic is the resent fear over the youth spending to much time
on their phone making their social skill drop.
28 Days Later (2002)
Inspired by moral panic over
infection and spreading of
germs
Unfriended (2014)
Inspired by the rising fear of
social media’s effect on the
youth

5. CONCLUSION
• From Wells' Research & Cohen's Moral Panics I have discovered that horror as a
genre is becoming harder to create as people are becoming more aware off artificial
effects.
• I have also found that playing on peoples fears (‘Moral Panic’) can work well in horror
as fear is more personal when the viewer can connect to it.
• In my horror film I would like to implement these ideas by looking at social issues and
adding elements of them in my film.