The document summarizes audience research conducted with college students aged 15-24 to inform the development of a horror film. Students preferred films that combined slasher and psychological elements. They wanted to see characters aged 16-18, which is their own age group. Based on the research, the film will feature a male killer who is intimidating but reserved, and will take place in a woodland setting with the antagonist wielding a hacksaw.

1. Audience Research
We asked students around college a few
questions to find out more about our target
audiences’ needs in a horror film. All of
which are aged between 15-24, as we know
this is the most common age group that
watches horror films.

2. What type of horror film do you enjoy
most?
7
6
5
4
3
2
1 Amount of students
0
From the answers the students gave for this question I formed a better idea of
the storyline for our film. Instead of focusing purely on a slasher or
psychological kind of horror, I suggested we include a killer for the ‘slashing’
but give this antagonist a background or childhood issue for the psychological
side of things.

3. What age characters would you most
like to see in a horror film?
14-16yrs
16-18yrs
18-20yrs
20+
None of the students that answered our question answered that they would like
to see characters aged 14-16yrs in a horror film. The majority of them said that
they would like to see characters aged 16-18yrs, which is mainly their own age
group. Closely followed by 18-20yrs. Because of this, the four teenage
characters in our trailer are aged 17, 18 and 19.

4. What should the killer ‘be’?
16
14
12
10
8 Yes
6 No
4
2
0
Male Intimidating Attractive Outspoken
From this I found that our killer should definitely be male (probably
stereotypically), intimidating but maybe more reserved not outspoken or confident.

5. We decided against asking about setting or types of weapon
because these things had already been thought about and
confirmed. We were to use a woodland setting and the
antagonist’s symbolic weapon would be a hacksaw.