Target Audience - Horror Genre

"For a Horror Film to be successful today, it needs to appeal to everyone."

- Jim Braden, a representative for Dimension Films

The film industry is constantly striving for new ways to make their horror films appeal to different audiences, Horror films in the 50s became household names when releases of Creature from the Black Lagoon and House of Wax became instant classic; featuring eye boggling special effects for its time when cinema would be a huge experience for movie goers.

70s cult classics like The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre proved that the Horror was here to stay and was not just a passing phase from earlier releases.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was an early approach to the slasher film, falling into the grindhouse sub-genre of the gritty 70s films. This led to the kick start of the slasher craze of the 80s introducing world known villains from films such as: Halloween and Friday the 13th. The Film industry also brought book adaptations to the big screen with the release of Steven King's The Shining.

In the 90s the horror genre began to produce the horror films for the next generation with Wes Cravens Scream which featured the right mix of gore and comedy to achieve what most 80s slasher sequals didn't. The clever decision to incorparate comedy resulted in huge franchise success, appealing to a wider audience and later sporned 2 sequals.

Modern movie enthusiasts are demanding more from the horror genre; Studios are finding it a constant struggle to obtain the perfect horror film. The audience want aspecs of old films they loved, combined with new and fresh ideas which can be seen through the critism studios have been given due to their greedy rehashed remakes of the 00s.

Now the studios are producing their films to appeal to a much wider range of audience, teenagers. Many films have had footage cut in order to achieve the a lower rating, causing anger among most horror fanatics; they want to see the gore. The novalty of the typical slasher convention of hacking up attractive stars has worn off and now film studios are finding every resource in order to appease the fans.

The industry are finding new ways of bringing the horror franchise back from bring hit video games to the big screen in releases such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill and most successfully with handheld horrors like: (the hugely virally campainged) The Blair Witch Project, [Rec]/Quarantine and Paranormal Activity. These films gave the viewer an experience in which they believed the footage was real.

The Horror Genre will always remain popular as it allows the audience to expericed surreal, taboo situations within a safe enviromnent, allowing our repressions tobe confined within the film.

Most Companies sell their films through sex. This can be seen through last years release of Teenage Horror The Unborn, in which the movie poster featured a picture of the leading actress' bum; Yet given the low budget and no-name cast, the film went on to profit $50. This is a classic example of how the film industry will use a poster which is irrelevant to the actual film, to manipulate it's audience through trailers and posters in order to sell tickets; in most cases through sex.

Most horror films are aimed typically at 15-30, dominantly viewed by males. yet with the increase of Horror-Rom-Coms like Jennifers Body which widely appeals to both genders, women are becoming more involved with the genre as they can relate to certain characters within the story. Men watch Horrors for the over used gore, nudity and violence, not something that would attract most women. However more women prefer the thriller genre which adds a good storyline and drama, something in which most low budget horror films lack.

Are aim in producing are film was to add a combination from both genres to appeal to a wider range of people. We wanted to include themes of psychological horror, drama, and thriller that would attract audieces from different cinematic tastes. Exploring each theme within our film whereby the viewer would be able to make connections with themselves to the characters.

As our group is combined from 1 boy, 2 girls, the film was more so influenced towards a film that women would enjoy yet at the same time would satisfy the male viewer. when coming to planning we didn't want to use the typical horror conventions; we wanted to take the simple formula and add our own twist in order to make the film unique to us. The idea of using the over-used stalk and slashing of young women was not the idea we were trying to put across in our opening. We did'nt want the women in our film being noticed as an object but as a character in who the audience could assosiate with. Our Film deals with some pretty disturbing ideas therefore our target audience would be aimed at 18-35 of both genders.