Audience Research

1. Genre: Horror

2.  I think that those who watch horror films are
usually aged between 13 and late 20’s. The
duration of this age range is mainly spent on
discovering yourself and developing thoughts
and feelings. Many young people look for a
thrill in their lives and watching horror films
help to offer this.

3.  As men are stereotypically thrill seekers I
think that men are the target audience in
terms of gender for horror films.
 As violence is a convention of horror films
and men are stereotypically linked to
violence more so than women, men will be
more likely to want to watch horror films
due to the violence that takes place.

4.  To support my opinion on the age and gender
audience of the genre horror I decided to
research genres of films and who their target
audience was most likely to be on age and
gender. I came across research conducted by
Nick Redfern from the Journal of Audience &
Reception Studies whereby he was researching
the ‘Correspondence analysis of genre
preferences in UK film audiences’.
 His research analysed how audiences consume
films and attitudes to the impact of film based
on a series of qualitative ‘paired depth’
interviews and an online survey of 2036 UK
adults aged between 15 and 74.
http://www.participations.org/Volume%209/Issue%202/4%20Redfern.pdf

5. This table shows that Males aged 15 – 24
were the second were the second highest
in terms of which gender and age watch
the genre horror.
This helped me to come to the conclusion
that our target audience for our film would
be mainly males and in that age category.
1st
2nd

6.  I think that horror films are targeted towards
the working class because of the level of
violence that comes at a cheap price.
 The middle class might seek to watch a
horror film if it was partnered with a sub-
genre such as action or romance due to the
fact that the middle class may want to seek
a higher level of satisfaction.

7.  I think that those interested in blood and
extreme violence would consider the genre
horror as one of their favourites in terms of
films.
 Those that like the sense of mystery,
supernatural and illusion will often have an
interest in the genre horror as these are
often conventions of horror films.

8.  I think young people, especially teenagers
would see horror films as a social event to go
to at the cinema. This is down to the fact
that you can have the feeling of fear when
watching these films, something that
teenagers try to hide so often as they want
to portray themselves as being much older
then they are.

9.  To conclude, those that watch horror films
are usually 13 – mid-20 year old men who
want to seek a cheap thrill who would most
likely go with their friends.

10.  It will play with the audience's primal fears,
nightmares, revulsions and terror of the
unknown.
 It will include the thrill of violence, blood
and also a supernatural being.