Theories and theorists

William Friedkin (the director of The Exorcist) once said that, "there are really only three reasons for making movies: to scare people; to make them laugh; or to turn them on. And that means there are only three genres of movie. I actually think that as far as horror movies are concerned, they are the sump from which all great cinemas come."

Audience Theory -

Many theorists say, due to its psychological nature, the repetition of watching horror can have a critical and important impact on the person and the way in which they react to it. The reason why the horror genre, generally have higher age classifications as they believe the, older the audience the more mature the audience would be. So when it comes to horror, the film industry want a more mature audience, so that when they watch the film they will know it is just a film and not try to replicate it. Whereas if a young child watches it, they may get too scared by it or even believe it's true and try to replicate it. This is the same with any media text of the horror genre. This happened with the Jamie Bulger story in 1993, where two 10 year old boys killed a toddler, after watching a horror film.

Michel Serres’ theory of the parasite, which looks at social relations as well as communications. He looked at how supernatural forces in J- horror films often uses a medium (e.g. water, television static) to invade the human world.

The different ways to classify people.

British social grading scale -
This is done through class and income of a person. There is A,B,C1,C2,D,E. A is the top of the 'table' and means you are earning the most - so football players, singers, celebrates, and then it goes down.

Lifestyle -
The way people live their lives - the music they listen to, the clothes they wear, the people they hang around with and the things that influence them. The things that people do and the way they act will all relate back to what you are trying to create - so for instance I am trying to create a trailer, so the things that people enjoy will have to be incorporated and also I will have to target my film at the correct type of people, with enough free time in their lifestyle and enough money to go to the cinema or buy the DVD.

British Board of Film Classification (BBFC.) -
This is the classification a media text is given. Whether it is U,PG,12a, 15, 18.
The main products which include this are; films and games.
The media effects debate -
The impact on the audience.

The sub categories -

The hypodermic syringe model -
This is when the media 'inject' you with their product whether it be news or magazines, so consequently you react and behave in  a certain way. The effect on the population will be poor. This will eventually lead to moral panic.


Cultivation model -
Repeated exposure leads to desensitisation. This then leads to the Two Step Flow Theory.

Two Step Flow Theory-
When the audience are much more than being engaged.

Genre Theory-

Genre theorists ask the fundamental question: are genres “out there” in the world, or are they artificially constructed after the fact?  Genres can be identified by their themes, the way the film is put together; the narrative; the actors and the mise en scene. The narrative is the one in which makes it easier to tell what genre it is, as it explains everything about the film. In the case of horror,  however, psychological fears are often more important.