Audience Research

Who watches thrillers?

One of the main thriller sub genres is psychological. These types of films are often quite hard to understand, and have a lot of dialogue and storyline than action and excitement, meaning that most people aged 12-18, who go to the cinema often would probably not enjoy these films. Many modern thrillers feature violence or other things such as explicit language, which means they have an age restriction of 15 or 18. This automatically cuts a significant amount of potential viewers for these films, because it is illegal for people under the required age to see them. Also, most types of thrillers tend to appeal more to men than women, while sometimes it can be the other way around, although this is not as true for thrillers as for some genres (such as action/sci-fi for men, and romance/drama for women). 


from: http://thriller11group26.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/thriller-audiences.html

Why do people watch thrillers?

People watch thrillers to be entertained or to pass time, this can relate to escapism which means that you get so into the film that you forget yourself, problems, feeling the emotions expressed within the story. Thrillers are not supposed to be relaxing films; they create a lot of tension which is why people escape while watching them. The psychological part of a thriller film helps to start conversation between others because people like to discuss about working out the ending of a film before their friends. Another reason why people might watch thrillers is sometimes to find models of behavior. This is because in thrillers there is a clear difference between good and evil, sometimes people would want to know or find a way to act heroic and to also identify with that specific character. In addition people may see similarities between themselves and a certain character.

From: http://britasthrillerhannah.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/uses-and-gratifications-theory.html

People's opinion

I have asked several people to read my narrative and I asked them a few questions:
Do you like the narrative?
Does it build suspense?
Would you want to watch the rest of it?
Does the title "Afraid" suit the narrative?

 The general response was that they liked the narrative because it suits the thriller theme well. Someone said that it was creepy and that it adds a lot of suspense, they also said that it makes the viewer wanting to know more about what is going on, because it seems a bit confusing. Most people liked the title 'Afraid' because it reflects how characters in the film might feel about this mysterious murderer killing children and families near their area.