The document discusses representing social groups in horror films. It notes that teenagers and families are often represented. Specifically, the opening sequence represents a group of teenagers in a stereotypical manner through their clothing, dialogue, and reaction to entering a dark new world. However, the document also acknowledges some issues with relying on crude stereotypes, such as always killing off minority characters first or overly sexualizing and portraying women as weak. The document concludes that it will aim to represent teenagers in an expected horror genre way while avoiding offensive stereotypes that could raise more criticism.

1. Production Evaluation 2
How does your opening sequence represent particular
social groups?

2. How does your opening sequence represent
particular social groups?
• There are many different types of social group to consider in any film genre. Horror tends to have a strong focus on either
one middle aged family or a group of teenagers. This means that I can cast my characters around this, hence why I have
chosen a group of teenagers. This social group has been represented in a very stereotypical manner by wearing hoodies,
jeans and trainers. This illustrates that they are normal teenagers and thus the audience can relate to them.
• I have represented them in the stereotypical manner through the use of Mise En Scene, props and costumes, lighting,
location and dialogue. They are represented through wearing stereotypical clothing e.g. hoodies, jeans and trainers, thus
illustrating their normality. The location is a common place for a group of teenagers to get up to mischief as it is secluded
and out of view from the majority of the public. The lighting is dark around the teenagers and they are bright due t the
torches. This represents them entering a dark, huge new world that they don’t understand. Their dialogue is also limited
to help create suspense and show that they are unsure of what to say when a dangerous situation occurs. This reinforces
the fact that they are young and don’t have the experience or responsibility to make a decision. All of these factors
contribute to portraying to the audience a group of terrified teenagers.
• Other movies/films that have the same approach to representing the stereotypes of teenagers are ones such as “Texas
Chainsaw Massacre (2009)”, “Nightmare On Elm Street”, “Scream”, “Friday 13th” and “Saw”. All of the movies/films stated
previously use stereotypical representations to make the characters more relatable and thus creating a more terrifying
atmosphere. This means the audience are on the edge of their seats throughout and instead of focusing on working out
the characters they focus on the plot. This helps the story flow as the scenes continue and thus why stereotypes are used
in movies/films to illustrate a point. This is why ,as a prosumer, it was beneficial for me to use these stereotypes within my
production. The “Strong” character illustrates perfectly the average teenage boy. All black clothing, hoody, skinny jeans
and a air of trainers. This represents the social stereotype of teenage boys and reflects my target audience. (Relates to first
paragraph)

3. Examples Of Social Groups:
Teenagers:
Families:

4. • Age - The age of my target audience is from 18 to 25 years old, this is the age bracket that horror movies/films have the
most success in and make the most amount of money. Additionally, this is the age group that is legally allowed to view the
content and they will understand most of what happens in the movies/films as they are adult themed.
• Gender - The most common gender to watch horror movies/films are males. This does follow the stereotype of the male
role being masculine and not getting scared at a movie whereas women have a more fearful approach. This is however the
stereotypical view and not necessarily factual however the figures show men prefer horror to women, this may be due to
the over sexualisation of women within the film which can increase male viewing figures and decrease female, or it could
simply be because men prefer more violent movies/films.
• Interests/hobbies - My target audience hobbies and interests will include heavily socialising as this is the prime student
age, also they will enjoy going out and seeing various sites of interest. This is because of the explorative nature of being
young and intrigued by new things. Also they enjoy spending time at home to watch movies and social media is a massive
part of their lives. This in turn allows me to exploit this use of social media and give them surveys of what they think about
my idea and social media in general. Finally, most students partake in some sort of outdoor activity whether it is jogging,
cycling or sport. This means they are active and enjoy going outside.
• Likes/Dislikes - These are very similar to that of the hobbies and interests however this is more specific to what they
actually want. My target audience want (regarding horror movies/films) a good solid plot, dark themes, a narrative that
twists and turns leaving the audience slightly on edge, interesting characters, an evil creature or monster that is realistic
and jump scares. These are the key things for a horror to appeal to this target audience. The flip side of this is the dislikes,
the dislikes are things within horror movies that they don’t want e.g. a common, predictable storyline, characters that are
boring and have no backstory, pointless parts to the story that have no affect on the plot and finally, unrealistic situations
that could not happen.
Target Audience Research

5. Target Audience Research
• Lifestyle – The majority of my age category consists of students, students lead very lazy lifestyles and spend a significant
amount of their time socialising if they do go out at all. This gives them a lot of time to watch TV and movies/films allowing
me to capitalise upon their almost expert level TV analysis. Their lifestyles consist of clubbing, parties, general
socialisation, going out for meals/shopping and watching TV. However, this is only assuming that this age gap is solely
students and it could also be people in business or any other profession.
• Geographical location – Assuming that we are looking at students, we see that most of them are located in and around
university areas within cities. This means they are commonly close to cinemas and shops that distribute movies/films,
additionally they are surrounded by media in many forms due to commercialisation. London is a good example of an area
that has a dense population of 18 to 25 year olds that are surrounded by media and horror, The London Dungeon is a good
horror venue which has lots of advertising based around it. Therefore my film/movie will be more suited to a target
audience in a city rather than in the countryside.
• Socio economic – The age old stereotype of students not having any money has been taken into consideration regarding
the movie industry, cinemas have discounts or cheap nights for students which helps them see movies/films that they
want to watch. My target audience’s socio economic position is not as important as anyone can enjoy horror movies,
however middle/lower classes will approve of the themes more as they can be more relatable within reason. Overall the
only issue for my target audience will be money, however as my piece is only a low budget movie there will be no real
issue.
• Psychographic – This is what sort of attitudes, feelings, personality and interests my target audience may have. These
topics are stated in the above slide and previous slide, however, my target audience id more likely to be an extrovert which
means they are social, outgoing an communicate with others. This is the whole point of media in general and therefore
that is why they would be best suited to a very dark themed genre.

6. Representation of characters in Horror:
• Teenagers in horror films are represented as predictably naïve and lacking common sense. An
example of this would be by ignoring warnings in ‘slasher’ films or movies such as ’Danger of
death do not enter’. This inevitably leads to their demise which is commonly predicted. This in
some forms follows Levi Strauss’ theory which sates there must always be binary oppositions
for everything within film. The idea of the warning sign (intelligence) and the teenager who
ignores it (lack of intelligence or stupidity). Another example is good and evil or light and dark,
at the end of most horror films or their respective series the villain is killed or destroyed, this
shows the struggle between good (hero character as shown in Propps’ theory, the teenager)
and evil (the villain, the monster).

7. Representation of characters in Horror:
• Another way characters are represented is by sexualising the female characters. This is
done with the characters costumes and attitude. Most teen ‘Slasher’ films or movies
have some form of sexual activity or sexual implication within them. For example short
shorts and a thin crop top is an example of overly sexualising a female character within
the horror genre. In a small way Propp’s theory also comes into the sexualisation of a
female character in the respect that they are the love interest or princess. This is only
slightly similar however in most horror films there is some form of romance that ends
with death and gore.

8. How does your opening sequence represent
particular social groups?
In the previous two slides we can see my audience research, this information is what I collected through
various means to aid me in producing something that appeals to them. To represent a particular social group I
must first of all understand what they want to see, hence the research, which then enables me to create
characters they expect from the horror genre. This could be anything from the sexualisation of a female
character to a stereotypical villain character.
However, there are some issues with representing some stereotype within this genre. There are a few crude
stereotypes within the horror genre which are surprisingly pointed out in the ‘Scary Movie’ franchise. This
franchise essentially mocks recent horror films to an absurd, comical level. However, as ridiculous as they are
they do touch on some interesting points. One such point is the joke made in ’Scary Movie 3’ about the ethnic
(black) character always dying first. This is used in a derogatory manner in this movie however rings true
throughout the horror genre if you look carefully. This is a representation I wish to avoid as it can be offensive
and is difficult to convey without being crude. Another representation is not just the sexualisation of women
but also the weakness of them within films/movies in general and not specifically horror. This is again another
crude stereotype which I will not be conveying within my film/movie as once again it raises more criticisms
than it needs to, thus I will not be including it. The two previously stated stereotypes are also very difficult to
convey within an opening sequence, you cannot kill off a character that early on if you follow conventions and
you can only really tell if the female character is weak as the story develops.