Full evaluation of the Horror genre and why it's so popular.

1. Why Horror Is The Best Genre In Film?
There is a reason why the horror genre is the best for film. Such reasons are firstly, for some
reason it is mysteriously attractive about not actually knowing what happens next. It could
either be a complete plot twist, or it could be exactly what the audience suspects. Either way,
during the entire duration of the film, the audience wonder whatever is going to happen next.
The suspense causes the audience to not only want to think at a deeper level, but also feel
consumed with solving the outcome. When the suspenseful climax finally falls, the emotional
roller coaster takes off. The audience is either completely mind-blown, upset, mad, or in
some cases, happy.
While, watching a horror movie, towards the middle you always do either or both of the
following. Firstly, you either too afraid to possibly think about the outcomes and/or you create
scenarios in your head to try and work out the rest of the plot of the film from every angle
(the anxiety of not knowing is probably eating you alive). The audience is influenced to
attempt to think of the outcomes or plot twists or even create new theories and ways to ignite
a conversation regarding the piece of horror.
Another reason why horror is the best genre as also due to their huge franchise. For
example, the film Scream that released in 1996 had a successful franchise of a total of 4
films ending in 2011. Another reason could be that horror films can cure fears of the
audience by helping them face the fears of antagonists such as clowns, spiders, etc.
Over the past 60+ years, the style and subgenre of horror has changed since the 1920s.
This is as starting from the 1920s till the 30s, what considered to be scary for horror fans
were monsters inspired by gothic painting. The film Nosferatu was the first horror film based

2. on Dracula that released in 1922. This was also popular as during those times, it was known
as a Golden Era in the industry for horror films.
From about the 1950s till the 70s, scientific fiction (sci-fi) creatures have been introduced,
incorporated by directors and producers at the time. However, these type of horror movies
were rather more entertaining than scary due to the different aliens instead of monsters. A
classic example of a sci-fi movie from the 50s which was very popular is ‘Invasion of The
Body Snatcher’ (1956) which was about Aliens that took possession of human bodies.
In the 70s till the 80s, monsters were brought back in the horror genre and became even
more popular than those in the early 20s-30s. This is as television became coloured and so
the audience were able to visualise the props used especially the makeup and effects. This
allowed for the characters to be able to visually show the change from human to monster
with the help of editing as well. Such films are Ancines Woods (1970) and Count Yorga,
Vampire (1970)

3. Towards the 90s from the late 70s, the Slasher sub genre was introduced to Horror. This
was very popular amongst the 80s as at the time special, visual effects were further
developed for gory films as they were able to get animatronics, and foam latex which
allowed the characters face to look distorted up close on screen. Great use of such effects
were used in the popular horror classic film, The Shining which released in 1980. Another
example is Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and The American Werewolf In Paris (1997).
Starting from early 2000s till present, horror film introduced another sub genre of
‘Supernatural’. This is where the Antagonist would usually be revealed towards the end of
the films and were usually based on true events. Nowadays there is less blood and gore
presented in horror films as they are now based around the convention of supernatural,
where there is always a main antagonist. The audience nowadays also tend to enjoy found
footage horror films where are filmed at everyday locations and a closed area.
Horror films have a huge effect and impact on it’s audience. There were either long term
effects on the audience or short term effects. Short term effects meant having an impact on
the audience physically as well as emotionally which usually lasted a short while. On the
other hand, long term effect is when the film itself has a psychological effect on the audience
for a long time, leaving them psychologically disturbed.
Active Spectatorship
Spectatorship is when the audience will accept the horror film itself or not. There are two
types of spectatorship which is Active and Passive. Understanding the message of the
horror film and engaging within the film is known as active spectatorship. This is also as the

4. audience would play with their fears, taking in the message of the film and living their life
around it making the horror genre popular.
Live action role play (L.A.R.P) is another example of active spectatorship. This is as the
audience would re-enact the scenes from their favourite film. LARPing is also used for
games. For example, in Thorpe Park, a popular themed park in Great Britain contains a Saw
Alive horror maze. This allows the actors to wear costumes and play characters from the
film, re-enacting scene trying to scare the audience. This active spectatorship in Thorpe Park
was created after the successful release in 2009 of the Saw films in the 2010. Extreme thrills
was the reviews given to the game.
Doing scary pranks in public is also done by active spectators. This is as they would dress
up as characters from other popular horror films and scare people in public. An example of
this is where people dressed up as Valak the demon nun from the film Conjuring 2, scaring
passers.
An active spectator is also one who takes time out from his/her personal time to do research
on how these horror films were created such as the use of technology, makeup and special
effects.
Passive Spectatorship
Passive spectatorship is when the audience would not interact with the film as they did not
accept whatever took place in the film (murder, gore, blood, etc) and did not understand the
message as a whole. This directly means that, that person will not be participating in LARP
or even watch the behind the scenes. An example of passive spectatorship from a B-list
movie is It’s Alive (1974) which is about a murdering infant child.

5. As the audience like to choose and interpret media text based on their needs, the Uses and
Gratification Theory (1974) plays an important role, created by Blumler and Katz. They
believed in 4 different needs that has to fulfilled when the audience consume the media text.
The very first is diversion where the audience will be escaping reality into horror films where
they will shock themselves due to jumpscares, causing active spectatorship.
The second is personal relationship where the audience will feel the relationship in the film
along with high emotion and interact as substitution for family life. For example, the film
Exorcist portrays a mother and daughters relationship.
Thirdly is personal identity. This is when the audience try to relate the characters they see to
themselves, allowing them to identify themselves within a character in the film.
Lastly there is surveillance. This is when the audience tends to do research on some real life
hauntings or paranormal activities that have been noticed in the past that are now being
shown on screen as part of horror films. An example of surveillance was fulfilled in the film
Conjuring 2 which was based on true events on the enfield hauntings of an english family
back in 1977 to 79.
During the different time of years, the impact for the audience from horror films has been
different amongst the audience. For example, the film Exorcist (1970) which was the scariest

6. movie till today has had a different impact on its audience, some found the film to be great
and entertaining while some were emotionally affected, leaving them scared for life. This film
was a sociological phenomenon as some people would have to leave the cinema as they
couldn’t bare the pain of the girl harming herself due to the demon.
Audience Receptions
Audience reception is when the audience would agree and accept the genre of a film. This is
done as the way the message comes across the audience through reactions. There are
different ways the audience will accept the horror film as the audience will review the horror
films they would watch and then share those reviews with other people. However, horror
films usually get high ratings and review usually of 4-5 stars as the conventions of the films
is usually presented in the similar fashion. Reception theory as developed by Stuart Hall
asserts that media texts are encoded and decoded. The producer encodes
messages and values into their media which are then decoded by the audience.
However, different audience members will decode the media in different ways and
possibly not in the way the producer originally intended.
Another audience reception is the use of popular titles for the films and nowadays, horror
films have popular horror film titles which in a way give the audience an idea about the film.
For example, the film Paranormal activity is about paranormal activity that takes place
amongst a family. Yet B-list films are not taken seriously as they are low budget and the
characters are mostly made up and fictional.
Due to the Blumler and Katz theory, the audience still get scared from horror movies even
though they know some of them are not real. An audience reception is that the audience
would think that major horror films are taken more seriously.
An example of an audience reception is when there is a review on a horror film that has had
a sequel. The first film review was okay, however, the other parts of the film get greater
reviews. For example, Insidious 1 got a review of 3 out of 5 stars yet, describing how there

7. was a “well-crafted scare every minute”. On the other hand, Insidious 2 was rated 4 out of 5
stars rating by the same critiques. Empire online reviewed mentioned the film “not taking the
whole ridiculous thing too seriously, however, there are many strong scares that comes with
inbuilt tension release valves, even when the film is often intentionally funny. So there is a
sensation of films and filmmakers like James Wan”.
Readings
Readings is a way for film producers to find out whether their audience agreed and liked the
film or disliked and disagreed with the film. This is the result of Stuart Hall’s
encoding/decoding theory (1973). This theory is when the producers embed a message into
the films and the audience would watch and give their readings which are preferred,
oppositional and negotiated. This means in other words if the audience loved, hated or they
are neutral about the film. For the audience to choose their readings, it mainly depends on
their upbringing.
Most preferred reading would be found in mainstream horror films as the films would portray
friendships that would go unseen or would portray family relations before friends. An
example of a horror film that portrays family relations for a preferred reading is Conjuring.
This film is concentrated on families rather than teenage relations.
Horror films also tend to use Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory too. Horror films would show sexual
relationships amongst teenagers to attract a young audience and try to relate to the teenage
audience in reality as they tend to experience sexuality. Such film example are, House of
Wax (2005), Cabin In the Woods (2012) and The Purge (2013). These films are most likely
to attract a majority of male teenagers as they would enjoy the visual pleasure over watching
teenage women.

8. However, the use of Male Gaze theory is also portrayed in family horror films. Sometimes,
the sexual scenes are just kissing at most or an attractive half naked women. Yet in the film
the Poltergeist (1982), towards the end, one of the characters DIane Freeling is shown being
held onto the bed by an evil demonic force along with her night dress being pulled up
revealing her legs and knickers.
Intertextuality
Intertextuality are deliberate connections between films. This is when films would usually
make references to other media platforms such as books, other films or even games. This is
done a lot in horror films. One of the reason why this is done is as Directors would either
flatter and or show respect to other directors. This done by creating a scene from a previous
film or even by relating the character to other characters from other films. This will be
recognised by the audience (mostly horror fans) as they recognise previous work in horror
films. An example of intertextuality is used in the film Scream (1996). The killer calls Casey
asking “Who is the Killer in Friday the 13th?” referring to the film Friday the 13th (1980). Also
a character, Billy, uses corn syrup for blood and mentions that it’s from the film Carrie
(1970). He also quotes “We all go a little mad sometimes” and mentions where he quoted it
from as he mentions “Anthony Perkins, Psycho” which was released in 1960.

9. In addition to example of intertextuality, the film Poltergeist (1982) had a few references from
other films and television series such as the Hulk action figure referring back to the DC
Universe television series in 1966. There was also a poster of Sesame Street in Robbie’s
room which referred back to the television series Sesame Street (1969). Another incident is
when Diane calls the pool boy that is stealing food Bluto which is a reference from the film
Animal House (1978)
Role of Social Media
Social Media plays an important role as it has a huge impact on the film industry. This is as it
allows the audience to be able to come across these horror films as information is leaked
and shared amongst millions of people world wide attracting them to different films.
Social media also allows the audience to do further research into films such as what
technologies were used in the making from cameras to props to mise en scene, special
effects, interviews with cast and crew, etc.
Paranormal Activity released in 2009 which was firstly uploaded on social media for the
audience to view and share with others. Since the film was gaining success due to the
audience enjoying it very much, the Producers went town to town showing the film gaining
popularity which had encouraged the producer to release the film worldwide. This was the
second most profitable film based on the investment after the Blair Witch Project. It was a
low budget film which only casted 8 actors.
Pre and Post-viewing Experience
Pre-viewing experience is when the audience get to view bits/clips of a film before it officially
releases in cinema. This is usually done by the release of trailers online or at cinema. This is
mainly because when the audience get to see this, they give out their views and opinions on

10. whether they would want to watch the film or not and why. As they give reviews to trailers
online other people see this information and if it’s positive feedback from different people,
they would watch the film if not, they won’t see it.
Post-viewing experience is when the audience watch the film as a whole, beginning to end.
This way, the audience are able to review the film thoroughly and properly as either the film
was presented better than the trailer showed it to be or worse. The reviews would then be
posted online or on newspapers where the audience will get to know if they should go wait
and watch the film in cinema or just not bother waste time.
An example of pre and post viewing experience, that I had experienced myself was the film
House of The Dead. Based on the arcade game of the same name, House of the Dead is
about zombies. I love zombie movies and so decided to watch the trailer. I found the trailer
interesting as it was action packed and portrayed the story well. However, the movie was
just awful. In typical horror movie fashion, a group of teens arrive at an island in order to
party it up at a rave. How many times have we seen that premise? Unfortunately for them,
the island is overrun by zombies. The movie is beyond bad, with scenes from the game
spliced into the live action scenes of the movie, and deaths that end in video game fashion.
This could have been a great concept, but fell flat. Of course, this movie also features a
mindless plot, terrible acting and pointless nudity.

11. Bibliography
http://whatculture.com/film/10-reasons-why-horror-might-be-the-best-
film-genre
http://20043859.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-relationship-between-
audiences-and.html
https://www.empireonline.com/movies/insidious/review/
https://www.empireonline.com/movies/insidious-chapter-2/review/
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137496478_11