Reading Horror Films

The producer of the film will encode the film with a message and their preferred effect, and the audience will decode the film - they decide how they read the film. They can decide how much it will affect them too.

In light of the idea of polysemy - in which media texts are open to multiple readings -  the cultural theorist Stuart Hall outlined different ways in which an audience may respond to a film.

Possible readings that an audience may have include:

• Preferred/dominant - this is when the audience uncritically accept the preferred (or intended) meaning of the film. In other words, they like the film. 
• Oppositional - this is when the audience reject the message that is portrayed in the film. They dislike the film.
• Negotiated - this is when the audience partly accepts and partly rejects the film.
• Aberrant - this is when the audience do not understand the film and completely misinterpret it.

Many horror films can be easily misinterpreted - this is because they are deliberately made to be ambiguous, to create tension, adding to the fear factor. Also, often horror films can receive oppositional readings because they are viewed as controversial.