"Audience Theory"

The Cultivation / Culmination Theory

This theory disagrees with the 'hypodermic needle' model, it states that it is not  possible for one media text to influence an audience. However, watching years and years of thing life violence, will make you less sensitive to the subject. This process is called desensitization.

I believe that this theory relates to my genre in the way that desensitization effects the audience. When you look back at the history of horror, the most commonly used settings, plots and characters have changed dramatically. 
When horror movies were first produced, the main type of 'bad guy' was something like a vampire or a werewolf featured in a castle. This was the 'gothic horror' generation. This then progressed to characters such as cannibals, movies such as texas chainsaw massacre and the hills have eyes were popular. It also has to be noted that the character choice has also changed, in the past i think that Laura Mulveys theory was of greater accuracy, attractive women being slaughtered was an extremely popular trope, especially in the 1970's slasher movies. 
I feel as though the audience of these movies have been 'desensitized' to horror that cannot relate to the real world. This is why horror has taken such a realistic turn. People will no longer find castles or vampires scary as they have become bored and lack fear. Nowadays, Films are most often set in real homes, and feature 'real' families, because this is what can actually relate to the audiences life. Attractive women being slaughtered by werewolves are a thing of the past.

(If a person was to see dracula now, they would view it as more of a comedy!)