This document provides research on the target audience for a horror film project. It analyzes several existing horror properties and fan communities to identify common traits that would appeal to the target audience. These include preferences for practical effects over CGI, creative kills, developed characters, and original story ideas. The document also summarizes interviews with potential viewers to understand what genres and pacing they prefer. This audience research will help shape key elements of the horror film project to maximize its appeal.

1. Research
Ben Brown

2. Audience Research

3. Target
Audience
Profile
• Who this projects for: This project is for
people 18 year olds and older because of
it’s dark themes, blood, violence,
fighting, action, death,
claustrophobia, going insane and people
becoming paranoid. This movie would be
for middle/working class people, the
audience I’d expect would be male or
teens because this is psychological horror
not comedy and romance. People who
like or are obsessed with horror will
enjoy my movie. There are also universal
themes such as fear, loneliness and
isolation which will resonate with a
broad audience.

4. Audience
Research
• Dead Meat: James Anthony Janisse and his
‘community’ of horror movie fans span across
various social media accounts from YouTube to
Wiki to Facebook, this fandom is massive. Janisse
swears constantly and always tries to worm
around the YouTube restrictions to show gore, he
wants all ages to be able to watch his videos
without them being restricted, my project will
also appeal to a broad age range. Dead Meat fits
my target audience because they’re all obviously
fans of horror, they mostly like old horror movies
but also like originality (movies with new ideas),
my movie will be an original idea so Dead Meat
will play a role in my target audience. A key point
of the Dead Meat community is how the viewers
always want practical effects in horror movies,
they want make up and props of gore and fake
red blood instead of computer animated blood
and guts because it looks extremely fake, even
though my movie won’t have a massive make up
budget, I’ll still make it have practical effects as
much as I can which will make Dead Meat fit my
audience.

5. Audience
Research
• Creepy Pasta: The Creepy Pasta fandom is a
custom Wikipedia were everyone can create their
own page of a scary story, this fandom has
become a major part of the internet thanks to
them they even created a lot of 21st century
urban legends. All of these creative people,
nerds, geeks and control freaks who exist in this
fandom are fans of horror and the massive
‘community’ all have their own likes and dislikes
of scary stories, all of them being creative fans of
horror fits my audience of a scary story and all of
these subgroups of common people within the
fandom that have their own likes and dislikes
(they all have different personalities) fit with my
middleclass and horror obsessed psychographic.
Anyone can make a scary story on the Creepy
Pasta fandom as long as they stick to the policies.
This is a excellent resource of audience research
on my project a suspense horror film as Creepy
Pasta is a large community of horror fans who
record their likes and dislikes and I can use this to
determine best way to write and shoot my
film.

6. Audience
Research
• Upgrade: One of the best movies of all
time (in my opinion) is the 2018 sci-fi
horror revenge story upgrade, It follows
the story pf a man called Grey who kills his
wife's murderers with the help of an A.I.
called Stem. The movie originally had a
budget of 3 million dollars, but it made
seventeen million back with it, even
surpassing its budget in the opening week
at the box office. This box office boom was
thanks to both the critics and audience
giving it high-scores on review sites. This
audience were mostly teens and males
who liked the suspenseful atmosphere of a
man alone, horror, gory kills and SCI-FI
settings. My project is a perfect fit for what
the audience is looking for because it has a
lonely man, horror and gory kills.

7. Audience
Research
• You: The carbon copy rip off of Dexter You
(the word) was originally a book series
which got turned into a 3 part Netflix
series about a man called Joe Goldberg
who kills his girlfriends after destroying
their lives. Originally people thought that
this would be a series that they've seen
billions of times before, but because of its
modern setting and uniqueness people
adored it, it even got its own fanbase and
wiki (people were even inspired to stalk
women and kill them). All sorts of people
watched this but they were all middle
class, they liked the psychopath main
character, the stalking story and gory kills,
my project is a good fit for this audience
because it has a psychopath stalker
protagonist and gory kills.

8. Audience
Research
• Dexter: Dexter is a series originally based a book,
it got made into a popular tv series that gave it
it’s name, two ugly video games, wierd toys and a
short lived comic book series (joking aside) the
franchise is about a forensics officer called Dexter
Morgan who kills criminals for fun. Dexter isn’t
really horror but it does have scary moments and
an unsettling atmosphere like psychological
horror dreams that are only in the show to pad
for time or all of Dexter’s scary inner
monologing. All of this became very popular
which sparked many seasons and other stuff
previously, so many fans of a sort of horror
franchise that has a lot of gory kills (when the
creators decided to put more of a budget into
their make up) make a good fit for my audience.
Even though there’s sex scenes and very gory
moments, everything is rated 15 which allows
teens to watch the show, it’s thanks to them that
the stranger merchandise got made (they were
the only ones that bought the game and toys),
young audiences who like the gore fit my target
audience for their age.

9. Market Research
Existing Products

10. Existing
Product
• The Belko Experiment;
• Studio/Location: Belko was made by BlumHouse and was filmed in
Bogota, Columbia, I couldn’t find where the sets were made and
filmed, but they seemed to use a real building. Belko’s
studio/location is like my project because I’m not going to build
sets but film in a real location, my home.
• Composition: Everything is filmed like your standard movie: close
ups, wide shots, etc, but the movie does have a lot of moving
shots, establishing shots and birds eye view shots which are all
used to show the layout of the building were the mass genocide
will take place. My movie will be like that by having a lot of wide
shots, establishing shots and birds eye view shots to show the
setting of Edward Stanton's home.
• Mise en scene: The Mise en scene of the movie is this; the acting
of the characters who are employees doing anything to save their
lives, costumes of office workers, grey lighting in all the shots to
make a depressing atmosphere, White and Blue which makes up
the building of a happy welcoming atmosphere with a darker
meaning and props that make gory kills in this good horror/thriller
movie. My movie will be similar because; the acting of the central
character Edward Stanton is set in the confined environment of his
own home and lighting will be key to set the various moods of the
film.
• Audience Appeal: The cover of the movie alone looks interesting
with it’s grey colours and office worker surrounded by blood, the
simple plot of people stuck in a building and killing each other and
all the mise en scene and composition add to the plot to make it
appeal to the audience. My projects similar appeal for audiences
who like horror will be a simple plot of a paranoia man violently
lashing out at people he thinks are intruders.

11. Research
Analysis
• What common features do the researched products have? All
six of my products have the most common thing of any
fanbase, franchise or anything in fiction – they’ve all been
going on for a long time; Dead Meat has been going on for
four years, Dexter had been around since the early 2000s for
7 years and then got continued 8 years later and the Belko
Experiment was released in 2016 and is still popular today –
all of this shows that horror goes on for along time. All of my
products use practical effects because the fans hate CGI, it
takes away the fun of make up from the nostalgic days of
horror and the CGI doesn't look realistic so the creators give
the fans what they want, and this common feature also ties
into my target audience. The last points that make all the
products similar are the creative ideas they have, they all
contain a creative death and (obviously) the supernatural,
horror seems to be the most imaginative part of
the story.
• What aspects of the research will you include within your own
work? There are two major aspects of the research I will
include in my work: gory kills and inside claustrophobia. All
the products have people dying in horrible ways and I’ll put
that in my product by having people that are murdered in
gruesome fashion.

12. Questionnaire Analysis
Question 1: What do you think about horror movies?
Question 2: What’s your favourite type of horror movie?
Question 3: What’s your opinion on practical effects I horror?
Question 4: What type of pace do you like in horror?
Question 5: What type of kills do you like in horror?

13. Audience research: Hanna Stockill
• Observation: Hannah isn’t a fan of horror movies, however, she is one for
originality in horror and she doesn’t care about kills or the use of CGI over practical
effects. Hannah prefers developed characters than dumb and forgettable licentious
victims who get hacked to pieces (with anyone not white dying first) and only the
virgin girl survives.
• What this says about my audience: This says that some people in my audience
aren’t fans of horror and the clichés they bring (like sexism and racism with gory
kills). My audience also wants developed characters with the plot being focused on
the supernatural instead of crazy killers.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: Seeing as classic is originality, this
audience will like the new original idea I’m making, it’ll also have developed a
compelling character instead of a one-dimensional husk. My story won’t have
supernatural themes but it will have a use of both CGI and practical effects just like
how this audience wants, a mixture of both.

14. Audience research: Brody Gibson
• Observation: Brody is a big fan of the slasher sub genre (which explains the
initials of Rad As F***), he doesn’t care if practical effects or CGI are used for
kills he only cares if they’re convincing. Brody likes it when there’s a quick pace
in horror movies but wants it slowed down to have effective jump-scares, he
also likes kills when they’re creative (e.g.: kill someone with garden shears
instead of a common kitchen knife).
• What this says about my audience: A lot of my audience are big fans of slashers
and they’re not picky about how the kills in horror are made. They want horror
movies to have suspense but go fast and they want people to die in creative
ways.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to this
audience by having creative kills with convincing make up or CGI. Because of
how short it is, my product will be fast paced for the audience but will still
succeed in the scary side of it.

15. Audience research: Lily Howes
• Observation: Lily likes horror movies believing them to be mildly hardcore
and prefers the psychological horror (horror that doesn't make sense), just
like James A. Janisse she likes practical effects and hates CGI used in kills.
Lily likes medium pace otherwise the story is hard to follow and she likes
kills that are painful and hard to watch.
• What this says about my audience: Some of my audience want morbid
content to watch with settings and plots that mess with your head. They
want the old ways of how horror movies are made with practical effects and
paces that aren’t too long or to slow.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: Even though short, my
product will move at a medium pace for its time limit of only a few minutes.
I will use practical effects for the brutal kills which will please this side of the
audience are their love of twisted fiction.

16. Audience research: Ethan Colman
• Observation: Ethan likes horror entertainment believing it to be one of the best genres
in fiction, he’s more interested in the world and story the horror movies create instead
of them being scary. Ethan prefers CGI to practical effects and prefers a slow pace for a
big build up, he likes the effect of a kill instead of how it’s made (he doesn't want the
very little developed characters you like in horror to be killed off).
• What this says about my audience: My audience wants a lot of world building in my
story with the horror side of it not being the major part. They want more use of CGI but
some monster designs will work with practical effects, and they don’t want developed
characters being killed off.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: Even though my product is going
through changes, the audience will like the world build I’m putting into it with the best
CGI I can use. I will make a character that audiences relate to and care for.

17. Bibliography

18. Bibliography
• Dexter (2006) Directed by Michael Cuesta. [Series]: Miami,
Showtime.
• Hall, A (2010). Creepy Pasta fandom. Available at:
Creepypasta Wiki | Fandom. [Accessed 28.3.22]
• Janisse, J (2017). Dead Meat. Available at: Dead Meat –
YouTube. [Accessed 28.3.22]
• The Belko Experiment (2016) Directed by Greg Mclean.
[Film]: Bogotá, Blum House.
• Upgrade (2018) Directed by Leigh Whannell. [Film]:
Melbourne, Blum House.
• You (2018) Directed by Lee Krieger. [Film]: New York,
Netflix.