how does/will audience theory apply to last years work?

In this essay im going to be applying audience theory. I’m going to be analysing is jawsplitters trailer from last year using examples from their work to evaluate. One of the main points is what age the audience is, in this trailer the aim was at fifteen year olds this is shown through the fact that there is very little violence and only one scene showing any blood. Audiences consume the horror genre for escape as well as an emotional release. However, these are what is referred to as active audience as the audience interacts and uses the content whereas a passive audience only consumes the content at face value. Gebners theory of cultivation states that repeated instances in the media can distort the consumers sense of reality. The trailer shows this as the blood scene at the end of the trailer was stereotypical, it also implies that we are likely to believe that this type of scene due to its regularity in horror. this signifies a change in the audience as they are no longer concerned about the levels of violence or amount of blood form a wound. This makes the audience a passive one for this trailer in most aspect which is why the lower age audience rating is correct. The uses and gratification theory by Denis McQuail states that media has manipulated uses through the audience. The most relevant one to horror being escapism. In jawsplitters trailer we can use escapism as we watch due to the differences in realities like an unlikely kidnapping and the choice of location is wildly different as the building is abandoned. We can also say that the tension is released from the body by focusing it into the horror. This is less effective in their trailer as they do not have elevated levels of visceral fear implemented into it. This could be solved by the use of less cuts to black and more gore-type action shots. The catharsis theory by Aristotle says we need these types of genres for emotional release. And to purge ourselves of violent thoughts. We cannot do this in this trailer due to the lack of violence, anger or any emotion in the trailer. However due to the other content like the abandoned building setting we can say that this trailer in particular purges us of the need to explore blocked areas.it can also have the emotional release for fear from being hunted. This is shown in the scene where the antagonist appears in the room with her right before she screams – this is then cut off by a cut to black and does not show us what happened but due to the setting implies that the girl died there. Desensitisation is shown in the reaction to the areas of gore shown by the trailer as it shows us the superficial wound to the face the protagonist has. Due to seeing more prominent levels in other horror films this seems less dramatic, however, had it been shown years before more people would have been objecting to it this is due to the evolving of media to show more intimate deaths through the use of weaponry. The theory is shown to be true in the trailer this is however a weakness of it as there is no originality and therefore the use of repetition make it look formulaic