Patterns of production and consumption are one of the foundation stones of media studies in the 1990s. Taking the audience as its starting point, this collection of essays focuses on aspects of audience response, interaction and manipulation in a diverse range of films, from high culture literary adaptations (The Scarlet Letter, Pride and Prejudice and Schindler's List) to comic book adaptations (Tank Girl, Judge Dredd) and genre horror movies such as The Shining and Nightmare on Elm St.. A concluding essay explores the differences and the similarities between adaptations of high and low cultural forms in a mass film media.