Audience Theories- Our film

Uses and Gratifications

This theory is associated with our film as the audience need to follow the storyline closely to understand it. It relates well as people will do different things with the film. This will allow for a variety of responses and interpretations as some people may not follow the storyline accurately and will therefore not been as fearful of what is to come. The audience will watch our film to satisfy their needs particularly for pleasure or entertainment as they will seek a thrill which would escape them from everyday problems. It may also bring about social interaction from the audience as it will be the basis for conversation. People could talk about parts of the film that scared them and between them they may discuss how they reacted to certain characters or events within it.

Two-step flow

This audience theory links closely with the social interaction element of the uses and gratifications theory. Our film therefore relates closely to this as it concerns what people say about the media they see. The text or film in this instance will inject opinion leaders or influential people with ideas who will write certain things about or comment on a film. These are the opinion leaders and members of the public listen to these views and make a decision to watch or not to watch the film based on what they hear of it. Horror is a very popular genre for conversation as people react in different ways to it and if an opinion leader says that the film brought about many reactions from them then people will listen to this and watch it themselves. I feel that this would be relevant for our film as there is lots to talk about it and people will have many different theories based on the events within it.