Audience Theory.

My film 'Betrayal' is a horror film and adheres to several codes and conventions of the horror genre. For example; we have an antagonist and a protagonist. The protagonist is seen as vulnerable due to the mise - en- scene that we have used. The girls that are shown in the film are seen wearing the usual teenage clothing which will allow the audience to relate to the characters and allow it to link into mundane realism more clearly. Our antagonists are shown wearing masks to hide their identity which links into the conventions of a horror film because they would usually have a hidden identity so that it comes across more creepy towards the audience. We have set our film in a campsite that is empty. This makes the setting look very abandoned and secluded making passive audiences not want to be in that sort of place alone or with a group of friends as the trailer shows a group of friends and they still get harmed.


According to the hypodermic needle theory, a media text injects its messages straight into a passive audience. This means that the audience is seen as passive mass who will immediately accept the presented version of texts.Therefore, from watching the film 'Betrayal' the passive audience will be lead to believe that as the characters are all friends, that your group of friends will be hard to trust and likely to be only pretending to be your friend. It would also lead them to believe that if you were to go camping in a deserted place in the evening that you would be likely to be harmed as it is seen as unsafe through our trailer. The passive audience will also be lead to believe that girls are vulnerable because all of the protagonists who get harmed are female. You are unable to see what sex the antagonists are because they have a hidden identity from the masks that they're wearing.


Horror films are rated '18' because those messages are deemed too frightening for a younger audience. As a result my film 'Betrayal' is also rated '18' because it is a horror genre and has lots of frightening moments of which could scare a passive audience drastically. For example, the clip where the girl is dragged along the floor backwards screaming and digging her fingers into the ground to try and stop herself from being taken. A passive audience might see this as real life and will therefore be effected by it.