Questionnaire Analysis; Primary Research

1)      From my secondary research I had already discovered that the most common age range for horror films was between roughly ages 14 to 20. Since I already knew this, I gave the majority of my questionnaires to a very similar sampling. However, I did want some diversity so included a larger range of ages.   

2)      I wanted to get a fair result in terms of gender, however as my secondary research showed that ¾ of horror film fans were female, so I gave my questionnaire to 12 women and 8 men, as I thought 15 was a little too many. 



3)      As my largest age group was 16-18, 100% of this age group asked were students (7/20). My second largest age group was 13-15 year olds, who were also students studying at school. 2 people were unemployed (one 25-30 year old and one 30+). 4 people were University students (aged between 19 and 25), one person employed as a receptionist (30+) and one as a journalist (25-30).

4)    This shows that the most popular sub-genre of horror is psychological. "Psychological horror is a sub-genre of horror fiction that relies on characters fear, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music and emotional instablility to build tension and further the plot." No-one prefered surreal horror.

  5) I then asked where people tend to watch these films, and the most popular choice was a DVD (rented). This gained 40% of the votes. 10% downloaded them digitally via sites such as iTunes or Amazon. The second largest proportion was viewing at the cinema, which gained 25%. Perhaps this would mean a front cover of a film magazine would be better than a website as one of my other projects as more people tend to go to the cinema than watch the films by websites.

6) I asked how often they watched horror films; the majority said that they watched them around once a month - less than once a week. This gives me an idea of my target audience as they are not die hard horror fans – i.e. they do not watch horror films too often, therefore they are probably heavily influenced by things like the trailer to make them watch the film.

7) When I asked if film trailers influence the viewer the go and see the film, 85% of participants said yes, 10% said sometimes and 5% said no. This shows that the majority of people are heavily influenced by the trailer, so the trailer is very important in selling the film.

8) I then asked what the participants liked about horror films; I left this as an open question so I could get a more honest opinion and a wider variety of answers. I then looked at the answers and grouped them into similar groups to avoid having nearly 20 different variations of one answer. The three main answers were:

- They enjoy the sensation of being scared

- They are clever

- They have a good plot line

9) I then asked the subjects what influenced them to see a film, and the majority (50%) said it was the trailer, then close behind was the storyline.

10) Are there any horror films you have been influenced to see just from the trailer? If so, which one(s) and why? These were some of the comments included:

- ‘Pan’s Labyrinth, the trailer told the story but didn’t give everything away so it left me wanting more, so I went to see that at the cinema.’

- ‘I remember seeing the trailer for the Orphanage, thinking I’d hate it because it’s in Spanish but the trailer was action packed, there were a few bits in it that really scared me, so I got it when it came out on DVD, very scary.’

- ‘I found the Drag Me to Hell trailer quite scary, had some really shocking moments in, saw the film and it was terrible! Shows what a good trailer can do!’

- ‘When I was younger I saw a trailer for ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and I remember it giving me nightmares! It was the close up of Antony Hopkins that really spooked me – needless to say I didn’t see the film for many years!!’

- ‘I always find the Saw trailers quite influential, they have scary voiceovers and give you a little information on the film but not too much so it gives it all away. Have seen them on DVD.’

- Blair Witch Project – I saw that after I saw the trailer, I think I was interested because it said it was a true story and the acting looked quite realistic so I believed it.’

- The trailer for Insidious made me want to see the film. Very action packed and full of suspense – keeps you hanging on.’

- The new paranormal activity (3) trailer really frightened me. I wanted to see it due to the fact I’ve seen the first two but the trailer influenced me more so, especially when it goes dark and silent – had heart palpitations!!!’