Horror Film Research Questionnaire.

I decided to use http://www.surveymonkey.com/ as I wanted to find out what my potential audience would find frightening and how far I could go with my horror trailer (with reference to their fears). An example that I thought about was The Human Centipede. Many critics believed that this film contained too many scenes that were too horrific for cinema release and so, was released straight to DVD.

I also took inspiration from Paul Wells’ research. Wells’ conducted a study looking at the relationship between audiences and the horror genre. From this, we drew out the conclusion that the relationship to being frightened changes with age. Younger audiences are aware of artificiality and are becoming harder to shock.


Here is the structure for my questionnaire:

1. What's your greatest fear and how did you come about being afraid of this particular fear?

2. What components in horror scare you the most?

Darkness Fear of the unknown (nature) Entrapment Monsters Supernatural

Other (please specify)

3. What's your favourite location for horror to be set?

A domestic setting A haunted house Forests Isolated parts of town Underwater

Other (please specify)

4. What do you like to see in horror movie trailers? (Music, setting, voice-overs etc).

5. Do you want to be frightened when you watch a horror movie trailer?

Yes No

*

6. How would you describe your horror viewing habits?

Always Occasional Rare Never

7. Are you attracted to blood and gore?

Yes No To some extent

*

8. What's the most recent horror film you've seen and what did you enjoy about it?

9. What gender are you?

Male Female

10. How old are you?

0-15 years old 16-25 years old 26-40 years old 40+ years old

I gave my potential audiences a week and a half to fill out my survey on surveymonkey. As the week went past, 19 people had filled out my questionnaire.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9S8TTZD