Paul Well's research into Horror Audience (2000)

• Well conducted a small focus group study involving 12 members of each of the following age groups, which consisted of 16-25,26-40,41-55 and 56-80. He asked them what the earliest horror film they had seen was and what the most recent. Age group: 56-80 (1920-1944) years had seen 'Nosferatu' (earliest film) and with 'Death of the night'(being their latest film). In the case of 26-40 (1945-1959) years age group saw 'House of wax‘ as part of (their earliest film), and 'Halloween' being their (latest film). Furthermore he found that within the 26-40 (1960-1974) years age group, 'Night of the living dead' was (earliest film they had seen, whilst 'Silence of the lamb' fell into the (latest film category. Lastly within the 16-25 (1975-1984) admitted 'The exorcist' was an earliest film they had seen, in contrast 'Jurassic park' was the latest film. 

What conclusions did I draw from this study? 

• The relationship to begin frightened changes with age and relates to broader factors affecting emotional responses. In addition I gathered that audiences between 1970s and 1990s are more anaesthetised whereas 'monster' films of 1920s and 1930s reported very strong personal response to images and iconography of horror (when cinema was new and unknown). In contrast young audiences are aware of artificiality and are becoming harder to shock.
•  What are the limitations? It's only a small study and does not have a full proof (not representative of all due to it's small sample size). Supernatural no longer scare people anymore, rather events that have occurred or occurring have more impact on contemporary audience e.g. 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'