Questionnaire Summary

This summary is based on a "Target Audience Questionnaire" which was given out to students of Birmingham Metropolitain College. Twenty five students filled out the questionnaire and here below is a short report explaining our findings.

According to the questionnaire, from the people asked they likely visit the cinema 0-5 times a month, with one person attending the cinema 6-8 times a month.

When asked "What attracts you to watch the horror genre?" typical answers were that they enjoyed the feeling of suspense and fear that horror movies created. A number of questionnaires said that people look for a good review of a horror before paying to see it in the cinema. A small minority of participants gave the answer nothing and they only watch horror films with friends. This is understandable as many individuals are to frightend to watch a horror movie on their own. As well as this, two of our questionnaire takers highlighted that will not watch a horror film if the actors in it are not well known or are highly rated which is a shame as many horror films have less known and low budget actors to enhance the realism of fear that the director creates.

When asked "What makes you not want to watch a horror movie?" many replies gathered were that some of the films in this genre are too grusome and gory to watch. One participant elaborated that the 'Saw' series is too much for them to watch as the film mainly uses gore and blood to scare the viewer. As well as this, some answers replied that if the film is rated at a 15 age, then shorly the film cannot be that scary. This is a fair and intresting point which our group totally agree with as we would be put off if a horror film wasn't rated an 18. On the other hand, these 15 rated films give younger horror genre fans a chance to watch a scary movie.

When asked "What typical conventions to you exspect to see in a horror film?" a great deal of answers resulted in people saying things like, blood, ghosts, spirits, violence and killing to name a few. Nevertheless, one intelligent individual replied with, "A blonde american teen girl." From this reply, we can tell that this person is a keen horror genre fan and understands that american horror films play on this 'teenage blonde girl' which is typical and main convention is american made horror films.

When asked, "What is your favourite film in this genre?", there were range of answers from 'Final Destination' as it was gory and 'Chucky' as it is both funny and scary. However, the most popular reply to this question was 'Halloween' as according to one participant..."Everything about it was scary."

According to the questionnaire, films such as Saw and Final Destination were not very popular films to watch. Some people said that Saw is overated and is way too much for the stomach to handle due to the amount of goriness displayed in the film. As well as this, films including Final Destination and The Grudge (American Remake) were not scary at all and even made the audience laugh due to poor attempts to make the viewers scared.

When asked, "Who is your favourite actor/actress in a horror movie?" the majority voted for Kurt Russell as his role in 'The Thing' impressed a lot of people. As well as this, a great deal of people enjoyed Jack Nicolsons acting abilities in 'The Shining'.

Based on where people watch horror films, they mainly like to watch horror films in the cinema or on dvd. One person, said that he liked watching them online as it was free. However, cinema was the most popular as the all the effects are much better on a big screen with great sound.

To conclude, the majority of people who took the questionnaire like to watch 18 rated horror movies as they are the most gorey and scary to watch.