Horror movies are designed to create a negative emotional response by the viewers by playing on their primal fears. For example, in my summer trailer, when my main character has a vision that her and her friends died this may cause the audience to be fearful.
In addition to this, there are two main types of audience responses to horror. One of them is Mass Audience in which audiences respond passively and will act out by what they see in media texts and they cannot resist the power of the media. For example, if someone watches a film or plays a game which includes extreme violence, they will copy what they see. This also links with the copycat theory. Moreover, media texts control their audience when they respond passively.
The second type of response is, Active Audience, in which audiences question media content, therefore, the media cannot restrict or control this type of audience. For example, with my summer trailer some people may question why certain things have taken place.
The Hypodermic Needle theory suggests that the media injects the audience with certain beliefs, images and values. For example, if the sub-text of a horror movie was that single parent households / family types have a negative impact on children, especially if the head of the household was female, then this may alter some peoples beliefs and encourage them into believing this. This also links in with the Mass Audience theory. With my summer trailer, this theory applied, as the sub-text of my trailer was that peer pressure and rebellion can have severe consequences, and this could possibly have an impact on my audiences beliefs. Therefore, this significant when creating my final trailer.
The Uses and Gratifications theory states that "people use the media to their advantage to meet their individual needs". An example of this is that some people may use horror movies as a way of fulfilling their intellectual pleasures of figuring out what the movie is about. They could also use it fulfil their emotional pleasures such as fear. This is also links with Catharsis' theory that people consume the media to rid of their negative emotions such as fear or anger.
In conclusion, i believe that it is beneficial that these theories are applied when creating a horror movie as everyone responds differently to elements of horror, and for some people, these elements are satisfying, therefore, is significant that i apply some of these theories when creating my horror movie,
No comments:
Post a Comment