The Uses and Gratification Theory

'The Uses and gratifications theory is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs'.  The theory explained that the audience have four basic needs:

•  Escapism
•  Personal relationships
•  Personality identity
•  Surveillance

When looking into horror films I found that this theory is relevant for possibly explaining why people enjoy the horror genre.

When thinking about Escapism we can relate this to people being able to escape into a world of a horror film. Being able to escape into the world of a horror film for a short period of time and knowing that is just a film often gives the viewer a buzz/adrenaline rush. The viewer is able to briefly forget their own problems in the real world and think about the problems of the characters in the film.

When looking into Personal relationships I can relate this to people bonding whilst watching a horror film. It's very common for friends to watch horror films together at sleepovers etc. Horror films allow friends/family to share the brief traumatic experiences in the film and to speak about the film together.

You can relate Personal Identity to people being able to identify with the characters or idolise specific characters in the film. This point covers pretty much all genres. People can relate and be inspired by characters characteristics. In some ways this could be bad as people may be inspired by negative things such as murder etc. however it is possible to have a positive effect on people such as if they are inspired by a characters bravery.

Surveillance relates to an audience being happy or finding pleasure knowing that what they are watching is only just a film and isn't real. Even though the person may be scared they would still feel safe knowing that they are not the ones who are actually in danger.This could link to my first point about escapism.