Exit Polls

To broaden my understanding of how popular the thriller genre was, and with what age group, I researched two exit polls from the BFI website for two recent thriller movies. Exit polls are used to collect opinions of respondents.

The first I researched was The Keeper of Lost Causes, directed by Mikkel Nørgaard (A mystery/thriller film). This study found that 49% of their respondents were under 45, and 51% were over 45. This is a fairly even divide. The most common way that the respondents discovered the film was through online ads, which 20% confirmed. This was closely followed by trailers before a film at 18%. This proves that advertising is most effective when conducted online or by other media technologies, rather than traditional magazine advertisements.

The reason behind people seeing the film was because they were a big fan of foreign films, with a staggering 49% giving this response. The next highest was 39% of respondents saying they enjoyed the genre.

The second exit poll I analysed was for A Dangerous Method, directed by David Cronenburg (A drama/thriller film). This study found that 46% of their respondents were under 35, and 54% were over 35. This is, again, a fairly even divide. Interestingly, the most common way that this film was discovered was through magazine/newspaper reviews. I believe that this is because this exit poll was conducted in 2012, and The Keeper of Lost Causes was conducted in 2014, meaning that in just two years our reliance on and use of technology has increased dramatically.

44% of respondents said that they watched the film because it's based on the work of Freud and Jung. After some quick research, I discovered that these are both theorists. Freud believed that behaviour is driven by fears and desires locked in the unconscious mind. Jung believed in 'archetypes'- a representation at an unconscious level of everything we understand by a certain person; for example, a 'mother'.

List of Movies Containing Stalkers

I found a list of films containing stalkers, compiled on IMDb. Considering this one of the main aspects of my music video, I will most probably watch a few of them and write a review on them. The Hitcher and Notes on a Scandal both look interesting.

Tertiary Research - Horror vs Thriller

Recently, I found this interesting article about the difference between the Horror genre and the Thriller genre. It was only then that I realised I didn't know what a Thriller genre was. After reading it I started to consider the fact that maybe my music video is more of a Thriller than a Horror. As the article points out my idea uses a realistic plausible situation, one victim, and is more about the chase than the bloodshed.

Primary Research - Splatter vs Psychological Horror Podcast

Tertiary Research - The Horror Genre

I looked around on the internet and came across this case study, which proved useful to me as it is all about how the horror genre has developed, and why audiences love it so.

History

The horror genre started in literature, with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). However, from the 1930s to the 1970s horror films and novels were extremely unpopular due to them often being cheaply made. This changed in the 1960s with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho- a movie to actually get a review and one of the first horror films to be taken seriously. A little later two other horror films were released that were also accepted by mainstream audiences. These were Jaws (Directed by Steven Spielberg, 1975), and The Exorcist (Directed by William Friedkin, 1973).

As well as film, horror literature has also proved to be a big hit. Novelists such as Clive Barker, Peter Straub, and Stephen King are among the most popular horror writers of today.

Codes & Conventions
The codes and conventions of horror are used in two ways. Firstly, as a way for an audience to recognise the genre. This is often what spurs the audience to buy the book/watch the film in the first place.

Secondly, for media producers to know what their audience is looking for, and to then supply them with that and make their piece a hit. An example of this is the Star-Wars/Space genre, which was quickly used by producers to combine with the horror genre and revive it.

Some examples of codes and conventions in horror are:

• A secluded location - The woods, a summer camp, a house in the middle of nowhere- a place where the characters have no one around to help them.
• Characters who forget about threat - If there is a curse or threat, the characters often seem to conveniently forget about it.
• Power cuts - At the height of tension the power goes out! No lights, no phones, no internet.
• Victim hides in front of a window or door - A very common and easy scare. The victim cowers against a door or window, only to have the killer break through and grab them a moment later.
• A stormy night - Very effective in terms of setting an atmosphere. This technique has been used since the days of Victorian horror.

Representation
Early horror films were a male-dominated genre. Women played the part of the victim and/or the object of desire. Many critics believe the horror genre is extremely misogynistic because even today there are still many horror films that follow this stereotype. As well as this, it is often found that sexually active "bad girls" are the ones to get murdered, while the pure "good girls" are the ones who are spared or rescued.

There has been some progress, however. Films such as Alien feature female leads, but it's interesting to note that these characters are masculinised- one of the most common lines a female lead says to a male is to "Man up".