Horror Trailer Questionnaire

ResultsCreated on Survey Monkey

I asked the public whether they liked watching horror movies. I did this so that it helps me to know how popular this genre of film is and also whether the people who were answering my questionnaire were the relevant people to answer it. For example, if the majority of people said they didn’t like watching horror movies, then my questionnaire would be pointless because then most of the answers will probably have been made up.

I then asked the participants what their favourite sub-genre of horror movie was. I found out that psychological and comedy horror were the most popular, meaning that when it comes to creating our horror movie trailer, we would preferably fit it into one of these categories.

I also created a box saying ‘other, please specify’ where the audience had the choice to write down any type of sub-genre which I did not include. From the results, it seems that a couple of people didn’t really have a preference of a sub-genre of horror and one person also said their favourite is a paranormal horror movie. From these results, it concludes that the most popular are comedy horror and psychological.

The next question I asked the participants, was if they feel more sympathy towards a victim who is of similar age to them. I felt that this was a relevant question to ask because, we want our trailer to be as appealing as possible and if the audience get more scared and drawn into the film if the victim is of similar age, then it is important for us to take that into consideration. The results showed that it was very close between the two responses, yet it does show that overall, generally people do feel more sympathy towards a victim if they are of similar age, yet it is not of vital importance. I also feel that the audience will be able to relate to the victim more if they are of similar age, so maybe it is a little bit important to have them of a similar age to my target audience.

My next question was if the public like it when a horror movie trailer makes them jump. The vast majority of participants said that they like it when a horror movie trailer makes them jump. This emphasises how important the tension and suspense is to make a trailer successful. If the participants state that it is important for them for a trailer to make them jump, then this means that when it comes to making our trailer we will have to add in some jumpy sections and different cuts to make it as appealing for the audience as possible.

In my next question, I aimed to find out how important the use of sound was in a horror movie trailer and whether it had an important impact. The results showed a positive correlation and it was clear to see that the majority of participants found the impact of sound highly important. Therefore this means that when making our trailer we need to ensure that the sound is effective, so that the audience are drawn in.

I then wanted to know what the participants thought would be the most important features of a horror movie trailer. I wanted to know this so that when it comes to making our trailer, I make sure that I include the things which the audience want to see in a trailer and what they find important.

The results show that the participants feel that it is important to include a lot of tension and suspense in the horror movie trailer and it is very clear to see that this is more important than anything else. This means that when it comes to making the trailer, so that the audience are attracted to our trailer, we should include a vast amount of things to create tension and suspense, so that the audience want to watch more.

I then felt that it was important to ask the participants where their favourite place is to have the horror movie set. I felt that this would help me when deciding what location to use for our horror movie trailer. The results show that one of the most favourite places for a trailer to be set is in a house. This could be because of the fact that a house creates realism. Also, the woods were an important location for a horror movie to be set. I will take all of this into account when making our trailer. I also included another ‘other please specify’ section for participants to write their own location if needed.

Finally, I asked the participants what they thought about the inserts that are included in a horror movie trailer. I wanted to know whether the audience were interested and took notice of them when watching the trailer, to give me an idea of how many to include in my trailer and how important they are. I found out from the results that the results were quite mixed and that the majority of people sometimes read the inserts when watching the trailer. This shows that I should definitely include some because the results were mixed and I feel that it is important for them to be there so that the audience have a choice whether to read them or not.