Target audience research

An audience is key for a films success and tailoring your film to a specific audience will therefore attract the majority of that target audience, as well as people who are outside of the target audience as Films are open and available for all types of people.

Specifically, in the horror genre, the usual age and target audience that the film would try and appeal to is between 18 and 25. As they are in the developing stages of their lives, they'll try and get a thrill out of life at any opportunity without being guided to it, horror movies can give the younger audience a thrill and will excite them more than an older audience. Males are more likely to like the horror genre, this is due to the stereotypical thrill seeker which is portrayed by a male. Horror films also tend to contain a lot of violence, which is also more appealing to a male as its associated with violence and being tough, which appeals to the more primitive side of  a male.

Another reason it appeals to the age range 18 to 25 is that they'll tend to bring their mates along and want to have a good time, therefore more tickets will be sold if they're in a big group, meaning the film will make more box office money.

However, different films will appeal to different audiences. As well as drawing in people to make money on their film, the purpose is also to scare people, as it the primary objective of a horror film, so different films will draw in certain types of people to get the maximum scare factor about their film, which will mean the film will get a lot of buzz and hype, meaning more people will want to see it.

For example, the film the blair with project would appeal to a younger audience as they're more open to the legend of the witch where as a older audience would not buy the story as much as the younger audience, also with the characters being the same age and acting how any teenager/young adult would act, it would appeal to a younger audience more.

Rosemary's baby would scare people in a couple or people with children more as it talks about a unborn baby being the spawn of the devil, which would definitely frighten this group of people, Insidious also does this as the boy is in a coma whilst being possessed by a demon and the the parents struggle to bring him back to the real world.

Cabin fever would scare people who think about going on cabin holidays or who have been on cabin holidays, as the people come into contact with a flesh eating virus and throughout the film they see the effects of it and all eventually die. The real theme of a virus adds to the scare factor as the threat/danger is an established thing that exists and the audience would know about before watching the film.

So the main motives for the movie is to draw as many people in as well as scare them. With regards to my film, I would appeal to the same age range as the usual target age stated above, and would try and apply a real life situation to the story as to unease any viewer and make them scared anytime they hear something related to the film, therefore achieving the maximum scare factor possible.

http://2015dangasmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/vox-pops-and-results.html

Use this Hyperlink to see the post regarding the results of the Vox Pops.