To grasp a better understanding of our audience, we started by creating a digital survey on Google Forms.
The overall aim of the survey was to analyse the attitude towards horror films, as well as see any correlations or patterns due to age and gender.
The survey was anonymous. We had a total of 28 participants, where 1 was 15 and under, 24 were aged 16 to 25, and 3 were aged 36 to 55. This showed that most of the views resulting from our survey would be from a young age group, however, 15-24+ is the primary target audience for our slasher opening.
An important factor of our survey was gender, the majority of the participants, being 17 out of 28, were females. This was followed with 10 of the participants being males, and 1 person choosing not to specify their gender.
Below is our video summarising the survey findings using the green screen:
We started by gaining an understanding of the audience's viewing habits:
An interesting finding was that the 2 participants who selected 1 (not at all) were female while the 2 responders who selected 10 (very much) were male.
Does this mean that horror is unappealable to women?
It is also interesting to note that no contenders in the age group of 36 to 55 showed much interest in the genre, their answers being 1, 2 and 4.
To further understand if female audiences are in fact less attracted to horror films, we looked at a study based on a questionnaire given to audience members leaving the theatre after viewing Halloween II (1981). The survey covered:
(a) the audience's desire to experience the satisfying resolutions usually provided in these films
(b) the audience's desire to see the destruction often found in these films
(c) the sensation-seeking personality traits of audience members for these films
It found that, on average,
- younger individuals tend to be more attracted to this scary genre
- men are more likely to be fans of horror than women
- women versus men may like different aspects of a horror experience
Where, women may enjoy a horror movie more when it offers a happy ending (e.g., the evil entity ends up destroyed), whereas men may enjoy a horror movie more when it is loaded with intensely terrifying acts
So which sub-genres of horror do women enjoy more?
An overwhelming majority voted for psychological horror as their favourite sub-genre. Out of which 13 of the responses were female.
The genre of slasher, which we chose to be the genre of our film opening, had an underwhelming reaction: Only 1 male participant chose this as their favourite genre.
Out of the 4 participants who placed the slasher genre as their least favourite, 3 of them were female.
This is interesting as it seems many women aren't attracted to slasher films as a genre, but when they are specifically targeted towards women they are successful at the box office, (e.g. Jennifer's Body and Pearl)
The most popular aspects of horror chosen was plot twists with 8/8 responses being female. Gore, an important aspect of slasher films was chosen by 6 participants, 4 male and 2 female.
In this part of the survey, we wanted to see audience reactions to:
- the protagonist's appearance and gender
- how it directs the participants interest in watching the film
- how clear genre identifiers change the viewer's perception of the film
We asked the participants if they would find this film appealing to watch and showed them the following posters:
Despite these protagonists being female (UGT), a majority of women answered with no in response to:
 |
| note: both films received the same response % |
Halloween Ends (11/17) answered with no
A Quiet Place (10/17) answered with no
The majority of men and women answered with yes, which we believe to be due to it's cult following and high regard as a film.
In response to Resident Evil Afterlife,
The majority of women (12/17) answered with no despite the protagonist being female (UGT), but was split at 50% either way with men, perhaps due to the poster's catering for the male gaze (Mulvey). 
The majority of women (14/17) answered with yes, which we believe to be due to it's target female audience as well as it's cult following. However, unlike Resident Evil Afterlife, even though both posters cater towards the male gaze, only 3/10 men responded positively.
As we were inspired by it, and our primary target audience is females aged 15-24+, this was a reassuring find for us.
In response to Scary Movie,
The majority of women (12/17) answered with yes, which was interesting as only 3 women responded positively to the comedy horror sub-genre.
In response to Shaun Of The Dead,
The majority of women (14/17) answered with no, which we believe to be due to the film's primarily male target audience.
We then continued our survey by asking the following statements, and allowing the participant to select; yes, no, or to some extent.
Only one woman and one man responded with yes, and the rest of the women were split equally between no and to some extent.
The majority of women answered with yes or to some extent (11/17), which was reflected by the majority of the male responders, of which 8/10 responded positively.
Of the respondents, the majority of women (11/17) said no, while the majority of men (7/10) said yes, showing us that our opening still has a possible secondary target audience of men.
The majority of both men and women agreed that the horror genre can have negative effects.
Only one man and one woman responded with no, while more men (6/10) responded with yes than women (5/17). However most women, (11/17) responded with to some extent.
It is interesting to note that all participants that had selected gore as their favourite horror aspect replied with yes.
In conclusion, most of our findings confirm our initial thoughts and reasonings behind the contents of the survey. However, our most interesting discoveries were
- the negative reaction male participants had towards films we believed they would positively answer to such as Jennifer's Body and Resident Evil: Afterlife, which cater to the male gaze (Mulvey)
- the unpopularity of the slasher genre, especially within our intended target audience of 15-24+
- the popularity of the psychological horror genre in women aged 15-24+, which we had predicted to be most popular within an older demographic
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