Hypodermic needle theory

Hypodermic Needle Model" Suggests that the media injects its messages straight into the passive audience (Croteau, Hoynes 1997). This theory implies that the media show the appropriate messages to an audience who is then influenced by them and therefore think in the way the media wants them too. It is thought that the media can be dangerous as the public is powerless to escape due to mass media and lots of media material being “injected” into them, and so people are end up thinking what they are told to think. The expression “sitting ducks” is used to describe the affects of the mass media on the public as people are passive to the massages given by the media and therefore the media can shape the thoughts and views of the public to the direction they want This theory is why most horror films are rated at 18 because it is much easier to influence young children and films like saw, human centipede etc you can argue that such films use the Hypodermic needle theory, but because there are mostly viewed by adults it is more difficult to influence them.

Uses and gratification theory
The theory places more focus on the consumer, or audience, instead of the actual message itself by asking “what people do with media” rather than “what media does to people” (Katz, 1959). This theory allows a variety of response and interpretations from the viewers. It argues that the viewer has a conscious decision on what messages they take from the media and how they respond to it. it is argues that modern audiences use media to satisfy a need, there are 4 uses and gratifications which goes as follows; Diversion or entertainment, is they can get away from problems happening in their lives, personal relationships, to live emotion that they should have experienced in real life, personal identity, be able to connect with characters and reflect on their own life and surveillance, for information such as weather, business etc.This theory however seems to be allowing the Media to be able to produce whatever they want but can justify it by saying that it doesn’t matter what they produce because people can choose what messages they wish to take from the media, therefore the media is not responsible for what people do take from their messages. Also this theory bases itself more on an individual not on a large scale so the difficult to collect information as most of the information that will be collected will depend on memory and not data, making it immeasurable and complicated.This is an appropriate theory for my film trailer because the audience that the film is trying to to attract is 18 and over, and at this age the audience is more likely to make there own interpretation of the film, as they know how the media works and are aware of how the media tries to manipulate people.

Final girl theory

The final girl theory suggest in horror films a girl always survives, this theory came from Carol j. clover. Usually the final girl has had some connection with the killer from the beginning and has a unisex same. Using a unisex name gives the impression that the girl loses her girlishness and become the more masculine. In horror films the final girl is usually the most resourceful and quick thinkers and usually make a transformation from a girly girl to a person willing to kill to survive. by using the final girl theory male viewers are more likely to empathise with a woman and want her to succeed and are forced to identify with the victim, whereas if it was a man who was left, I think male viewer will be more competitive and will feel as if the man should be able to defeat a villain easily. Feminists will argue that horror films have an element of sexism as a woman almost always being terrorised or brutally murdered in horror. Horror films give the impression that the woman is being punished and is blamed for the villains rage. I will be using an element of this in my horror films as a girl is blamed for the deaths of the other victims but she is not the last person so we have tried to subvert from the typical final girl theory in films. Our trailer doesn't follow the final girl theory as the last person standing is a male, which is something which is occurring more and more in 21st century.

The male gaze theory
Horror films are said to be actually made for the entrainment of men. There is evidence of this statement when you watch horror films, as there is always a terrified woman in a horror film, many film people say that it is not what the woman represents it is what the heroine provokes in the villain. Laura Mulvey came up with the term male gaze and she argues that in horror films the audience view the film from a heterosexual male point of view, and woman are objectified in horror films for the pleasure of the male viewer. This theory however is less obverse in film now, for example in Eden lake there is a terrified woman but also the woman is also very brave and tactically and does everything she could have done to get out of the situation, which doesn't show the woman as a damsel in distress but more of a heroine.