Observation of Sample Audience Whilst Watching "The Ring" (2002)

I gathered some of my friends who are around the age range of 17 - 18, which is within my focus group of anyone over the age of 12, to be my sample audience whilst they watch a horror film of the same sub - genre as mine so I can observe their reactions whilst watching certain scenes and the later question them. After a very very long time we decided to go for "The Ring" (2002).

Before the film started every body wanted the lights switched off and the door closed to enhance the atmosphere for us while we watch the film. This showed that they watch horror films for entertainment and to be scared as everything is scarier in the dark. They also got cosy with blankets and stuck to one sofa all together because even know they like watching horror films and the feeling of terror, they felt safer with each other around.

At the beginning of the film when the dark haired girl, Beckie, was telling the story about the 'forbidden' tape, the camera kept getting closer and closer to her face. This automatically made my sample audience think that something would pop out of nowhere or that a loud sound effect would play. This caused them to cover their ears and half of their eyes to prepare for the sudden outburst. However nothing happened so they became calm.

Later on when the girl was looking for her friend, my sample audience again felt as if something bad was about to happen  and so when she got closer to turning the door knob, they constantly yelled "Don't go in there!" "What are you doing?!" When she finally got into the room and realised the T.V was on, she started to scream which made my sample audience jump and some of them gasped from shock.

When the little boy, Aidan, walked into Katie's room and saw the moving image reflecting on the switched off T.V, my sample audience exchanged bewildered looks with each other as they knew that this is the same thing that Katie experienced.

Further on in the film when Rachel sat down with the tape, deciding whether to put it in or not, my sample audience reacted the same way as they did when Katie was entering the room near the beginning of the film.

When the sample audience found out the story of Samara's past, they showed signs of sympathy through words like "Aww" and "Oh no" etc. This showed that they were starting to feel sorry for her as they did not know the reason behind evilness.