There are two ways for audience theories that the media can be consumed. This can be done passively, this is where the audience watches the horror film and has a purpose to watch the horror film, the audience gains something from it. Mary Jones has the theory of desensitisation, this is where us, as film watchers, have become less sensitive to what we watch in horror films because of the constant watching of horror films. This means that film makers/directors attempt to make every film they film even bloodier and gorier than the last one. Although, this puts us at a disadvantage as it creates us to be less sensitive to real things happening in the real world. My summer trailer that I produced with my team members, did not contain any extreme blood or gore, enough to desensitise anyone, or create a big effect on them, this means, to improve we should add gorier, scarier elements to our trailer.

Catharsis is another audience theory, which suggests that watching horror and violence, does not encourage viewers act violent. Watching horror movies allows the viewer to cleanse and purge which eliminates any violent/negative emotions they may be feeling. However, this theory is not applicable to my trailer because of the minimal amount of violence in the trailer. This tells me that our group can improve by adding more violence to our trailer, possibly by adding shots of someone being killed or adding scenes with more blood in it.

The Copy Cat theory says that children and even people who are mentally ill, may be encouraged to imitate what they see on their screens. This means that a child, or disabled individual may attempt to copy the actions of another in a horror film. This theory is also not applicable to my trailer due to the lack of violence in my trailer. However, this could change if we added any weapons like knives or guns as it could encourage them to find something similar and use it in a violent way. 


The hypodermic needle theory discusses on how the media injects their texts into the audience. . It also says that it is forced which means the audience cannot resist this piece of text they're receiving. This theory also cannot be applied as there is not obvious message/text seen in my trailer, meaning there is nothing to 'inject' into my audience.