Follow Up - Horror Movies in Today’s Cinema
I just found out that Entertainment Weekly posted an article a few weeks ago that directly relates to my article last week about Horror Films.
The truth is - we can blame women! 
No, I'm kidding - but Entertainment Weekly has discovered some very interesting statistics about the demographic that goes to horror films - An average of sixty percent of horror moviegoers are women now. Examples, quoted from their article:
And we're not just talking about psychological spookfests like 2002's The Ring (60 percent female), 2004's The Grudge (65 percent female), and 2005's The Exorcism of Emily Rose (51 percent female).
Statistics are apparently showing that men, after a certain age, outgrow going to horror movies, but women above the age of 35 are still going, even to the slasher and 'torture porn' films. Even FEARnet, the new horror-video-on-demand channel, has noticed that Saw and films in that genre are drawing more female customers than male!
E.W. has many theories about why that might be, including the thrills of riding emotional highs, but the two they seem to spend focusing on are that it brings an empowerment message to women - that maybe they can survive facing their demons, as the survivor of the movie does. The other side is, women like to cuddle and to have close physical contact, and a scary movie lets them get closer to their boyfriend, especially during the first few dates when they're more in control over where they go. The full article is worth a read and has commentary from Diablo Cody and Wes Craven.
So - perhaps I just don't get it because I'm not their target market? I certainly wasn't the target market for Jennifer's Body, which was a teen girl growing into adulthood story - and maybe that's the problem, they're marketing the horror films to the wrong audience?
Who knows. I still have to wonder if there's something a little sick in people's minds if they enjoy watching people get tortured on a big screen, and trust me, I won't be seeing Saw VIII.
--Chris B.
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