Paul Wells Research

→ Main horror audience

•  Teenagers
• Young adults

→ Effects of horror on audiences

→ Small focus groups study - 12 members

4 age groups:  →16-25   » 1975-1984

                    → 26-40  » 1960-1974

                    → 41-55  » 1945-1959

                    → 56-80  » 1920-1944

This study teaches us about the relationship to being frightened with changes with age and how it relates to a broader factor affecting emotional repsones. We also learn audiences between 1970's and 1990's are more anesthetist to explicit special effects, whereas 'monster' films of the 20s and 30s reported very strong personal responses to images and iconography of horror when cinema was new and unknown. Young audiences are aware of artificially and are becoming harder to shock, which films play into this knowingness of horror conventions and leaves us a question to answer is this part of the fun? 

In order to see which age group enjoys horror the most and which is easily frightened, I decided to conduct my own horror questionnaire.

 

Moral Panics

A moral panic essentially a 'crusade' against behavior or precieved negative developments in society. Cohen (1972): Argues that a moral panic is when the media exaggerates through the media such as newspapers to an event to refer to its social uses, morality today is not as strong as it once was.It has caused changes in the law including the 1894 video recordings act that gave the BBFC power to classify videos.

Newspapers which run moral panics: 

→DAILY MAIL

→DAILY EXPRESS

→NEWS OF THE WORLD

→THE SUN

→THE MIRROR

Norm

• Enjoyment 
• Anxious
• Jumpy
• Fear
• Nervous
• Alarm
• Alert

Extreme

• Panic Attacks
• Hysteria - Screaming / Crying
• Fainting
• Heart Attacks

Older People / Women of a Fragile Constitution

Responsibility to protect them ?  

→ Audience

→ BBFC  - 18/15