Questionnaire

In order to develop our research, we carried out a questionnaire to find out who our target audience would be and what they'd expect from a horror film. We asked roughly twenty people a range of questions about films in general and horror films specifically to discover who were most likely to watch horror films, how many people would be willing to go to the cinema to watch a horror and what things would scare people in films. This would help us decide what style of horror we thought would be most effective to base our trailer on and what to include.

These are our results:

How old are you?

Are you male or female?

Would you consider buying a horror film on dvd or blu-ray?

How often do you visit the cinema?



Do you prefer horrors to other genres?

Do you prefer watching films at the cinema than at home?

What is your favourite type of horror film?

Which of these would most likely make you want to see a particular horror film?

Do you prefer high budget films?

The Omen

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Narrative Theories.

Todoro

From analysing horror films, Todorov discovered that a common similarity in the each of the story's structures was that the plot starts with normality and content and is is then disrupted by a significant event or crisis point and is then resolved with an often new order by the end of the film.

Propp

He looked in detail at 100's of folk tales to see if they had anything in common and  realised that there were 8 main character functions in each of the tales:

1. The villain
2. The hero
3. The donor (provides magical objects)
4. The helper (aids the hero)
5. The princess (reward)
6. Her father
7. The dispatcher (sends the hero away)
8. The false hero

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Representation Of Women In Horror Films

In horror films women are stereotypically presented as weak and innocent, and as though they need to be saved, but are nearly always victorious by the end of the film. A lot of the time they are presented as conventionally "beautiful" and sometimes a bit stupid. It is usually a womans role in a horror film to be the final one left at the end of the film, who has been horribly close to also being killed but has found her way out of it or as the victim, who is the killers target for her innocence and weakness.

The women who are presented as victims, and are killed are often shown to be stupid, and dim and a lot of the time are shown through their image and sexualisation.

The women who defeat the antagonist at the end of the film are not seen as dim or stupid. They are still presented as attractive but are also seen to be strong and knowledgeable. Despite this, a lot of the time they do have a moment where it could all go terribly wrong, which fits the stereotype of women being powerless. They manage to overcome this, narrowly usually and are victorious by the end of the film.

 

When the roles are reversed and the woman in the film is the villian or antagonist it makes the film even scarier as it is swapping the stereotypical, traditional views people have of women being innocent and pure. A lot of the time this is done by the female character being possessed which also links in with the idea that woman cannot naturally be evil, they have to be possessed for this to happen. People don't like to think women could be capable of terrible crimes which is why they chose to use a situation where it is not the womans fault she has turned bad. This is unrealistic as it is knowledgeable that women have commited terrible crimes in reality but the media seems to be trying to protect womens idealistic image of being innocent, pure, powerless and weak, when this is certainly not always the case.  

Teaser Trailer vs Main Trailer

Before the release date of a film, two trailers are usually released in order to advertise the film to possible audiences. The one which is released first is known as the teaser trailer and is approximately half of the amount of time of the main trailer. The teaser trailer is normally made and shown to advertise the film a while, a few months maybe, before it is released. The main trailer is released nearer to the release date of the film.

Teaser Trailer
The teaser trailer gives the audience a short snippet of the film to interest them and advertise the film a while before the film is due for release, in order to 'tease' them for as long as possible, creating more interest in the film. It doesn't intend to give the storyline away but often uses devices which make the possible audience question what is happening in order to make them see the film. The idea of a teaser trailer is usually merely to advertise the fact that the film will be coming out rather than to actually give them any clues of the storyline. It then creates hype and anticipation which is then heightened when the main trailer is released. A teaser trailer is therefore often only used for the release of a blockbuster film or a sequel to an exisiting film. Also, sometimes the teaser trailer is put out to an audience before the filming of the film has been completely finished.




Main Trailer
The main trailer is longer than the teaser and is released long after, much closer to the release date of the film. It includes selected shots from the film, particularly the main action parts of the film and the most exciting shots to attract the audience as much as possible. It doesn't give away the plotline but gives a fairly clear indication of what the film will be about and what the main issue or theme is. They are also not in chronological order.

The Return Of The Repressed

The term 'the return of the repressed' is a term derived from the practises of Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. It suggests that an unconscious thought in a persons mind will continually find a way to be recognised, often in fictional forms, until it appears on the outside in behaviour or ideas. He also believed that dreams gave an insight into a persons unconscious desires.

This changed many of the ideas and conventions of horror films as people became more open to distressing ideas of films. It also made film makers give characters far fetched physcopathic desires, and could to some extent help them justify that these thoughts aren't ridiculous and people exprience them in their unconscious mind, until they can't help themselves from doing saddistic, cruel things to fund their desires. It stopped all characters in horror films from being monsters to become real people with disturbing inner thoughts, making horror films seem slightly more realistic, scaring audiences more than ever before.