Target Audience for Horror Films

By Jack Suddaby

Finding my Target Audience

• I need to establish who my target audience is so I can base my research and my trailer styles to there needs, as they will be the ones watching and more importantly buying my film. If my TA was middle-aged (30-40) then then it would be different opposed to a teenager horror film. Through research I have found that them most contemporary horror films are targeted at 18-25 year olds.

General Questionnaire

• To help me to recognize the different aspects such as their likes and dislikes relating to different areas of the horror genre I conducted a general horror questionnaire using 10 different people, the questionnaire was anonymous although I did ask to state how old they where to further my research.

What Gender are you? • I used the gender question to help me recognize what style of

trailer I should make, by edging it more towards females/males. However because I only asked so many people, the results would not be a reliable as a mass survey, yet when relating this to other questions a pattern could be shown between the gender and the style of film. The results where: 6 men and 4 women.

What age range do you fall into?• This question was based on the age ranges of the people who took part. This will let me

know what age range like my films. The results of the age range will be useful in conjunction with the other questions from the analysis such as the type of horror films they enjoy; it will then give me an idea of what type of horror films I should make for my target audience. Because everyone who took part in this questionnaire was between the ages of 15 and 48, I am restricted to that age range, however it is still clear that horrors are more popular with the younger generation.

What is your favourite of type of Horror Films?

I asked this question to help me decide what style of horror film is most favorable and will appeal to the greater audience. With the younger audience sub-genres such as ‘Slashers’ are more popular.

How do you usually watch Horror film trailers?

• Film trailers can be watched in several different ways and the answer can help me work out what percentage of my target audience would watch my trailer online. The answers prove my assumptions that watching film trailers is popular now through online media outlets such as You-Tube this means I should reach a wider audience.