I decided to create a questionnaire for our target audience to find out what attracts people to horror films. We could then use this information to create an opening that would best appeal to people who have a lot of experience and knowledge of horror films.
I gave my questionnaire to 10 different people, all aged 16 or 17 as I feel this is the audience horror films are more than often created for. Out of the 10 people surveyed, only 3 of them said that they didn’t watch horror films. The reasons for this were that they were too scary, the blood and gore and the element of not knowing what is going to happen.
I then looked at the 7 questionnaires I had filled out from people who do watch horror films and it became apparent that the main reason for people watching horror films was for the thrill of it or to scare themselves. I also asked everyone who they were watched horror films with and the pie chart to the right shows the results. The majority of people questioned said that they watched horror films with friends which means that it’s a social thing to do. A few people also said that they watched them with their family which tells us that often even though aimed at teenagers and young adults, the films appeal to a wide range of people. Only one person said that they watched them alone. I presume this is because of the fear element and not many people enjoy watching them alone. Similarly, I included the question 'where do you watch horror films?'. The answers showed that 3 people only watch them at home and only 1 person watches them at the cinema but 3 people watch them at both the cinema and at home. Again this suggests to me that horror films are quite a social thing as 57% of the people questioned watch horror films at the cinema.
I then wanted to look at what people didn't like about horror films so I asked the question 'what do you dislike about horror films?' For this question there was a variety of answers. 3 people said there was too much gore, two people commented on how there is never much of a storyline and that all horror films are similar, one person said that horror films have a lot of bad acting in and one person said that there is nothing that they dislike about this particular genre. The 3 people who said that they didn't watch horror films all answered this questions with the same answer - they're too scary.
Finally I wanted to know more about the commercial side of horror films. I asked each person how many horror films they own on DVD and all of the answers were in between 4 and 12. I also asked who their favourite horror actors/actresses are although everyone but 2 people said that they didn't have one. The two answers that I got were Emma Roberts and David Arquette. Lastly I asked what their favourite horror film was. The two most popular horror films between the people questioned were The Ring and Scream, each with 29%. The other films mentioned were The Exorcist, Saw and Amityville Horror (the pie chart to the right shows these results).
From studying the answers to the questionnaire I am now more clear about what my horror film opening should include. It's evident that I should try and stay away from involving too much blood as this is something that puts people off, however I should include something that gives the audience a thrill or makes them scared. I also want to make my movie opening something that can be talked about between people as it is evident that horror films are a social thing.
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