Audience research : The Evil Dead

Trailer and Synopsishttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWG_w5w8ZLs

David, his drug-using sister Mia and his friends Eric, Olivia and Natalie travel to an isolated cabin that belonged to his parents to spend a couple of days together. Mia promises to stop using drugs and Olivia, who is a nurse, promises to help Mia in her abstinence. They discover a hidden basement with witchcraft and the Book of the Dead, and Eric reads it and unintentionally summons an evil force. Mia, Olivia and Natalie are possessed by evil and Eric reads the book trying to learn how to destroy the demon.

Production Company

• This film is produced by Tri Star Pictures, FilmDistrict and Ghost House Pictures. These production companies are known for producing several other films such as thriller ‘The Call’ and Ghost House pictures is known for producing films such as The Grudge franchise.

Marketing • This film was marketed both in print and digitally and also relied

on using social media in order to market the film as this film was produced by a company that is not involved in ‘the big 6’ so they are more likely to use digital campaigning to market their film

• This film was also premiered at the SXSW film festival on the 8th March 2013 and the soundtrack to the film that was released both physically and digitally with the physical version being 30 minutes longer than the digital version, which was released on the 9th April 2013

• This film also made ancillary revenue from the selling of merchandise such as t-shirts, Dvds and other items of memorablia such as figurines.

Audience: GEARS• G – predominantly males due to stereotypical themes of violence and horror that are usually

associated with masculinity

• E – due to the high representation of white males within the film which might be an indicator of the audience they are hoping to reach, however from my own research I have learnt that ethnic groups such as the afro-Caribbean community make up 61% of the audiences for horror/thriller films such as this one

• A – due to the representation within the film we might assume that the the target audience for this film is the age range of 15-25 by doing this the producers of this film may have excluded a percentage of their audience by making the age rating of this film an 18 certificate due to its graphic content

• R- Due to this film being made by a production company being based in America this film will have a predominantly American audience however but due to the success of the original it is more likely to reach a wider audience due to their familiarity with this film.

• S- This film is likely to be appealing to the working class and the unemployed/ those in full time education who would fall into the socio-economic categories of C2, D and E of the socio-economic table which includes skilled manual workers who are considered to be doing ‘blue collar’ jobs and also ‘E’ which includes those who are considered to be unskilled and are likely to be unemployed. However this film may be limiting its audience as it cannot cater to those who are in full time education entirely due to its 18 age rating..

Stats

The film grossed $25.8 million in its opening weekend, finishing first at the box office.[22] It went on to gross $54.2 million domestically and $43.3 million internationally, for a worldwide take of $97.5 million, against its $17 million budget, making it a box office success.

4 C’S Model• This film is unlikely to appeal to the ‘Mainstreamers ‘ of Young and Rubicam’s model

as the key to their lives is security and structure. They might not feel attracted to watching this film as horror films tend to be very chaotic and the characters aren’t in a secure environment which makes horror films unpredictable and erratic.

• Meanwhile this film might be appealing to the explorers of this model as they are described as always looking for something new and different which all horror films aspire to be. They may be drawn to this film due to the new technologies it uses in its production such as CGI and specialist lighting tools.

• This film is also unlikely to appeal to the ‘succeeders’ of this model as this segment of audiences is likely to be career orientated and unlikely to be watching these fictional films, however the succeeders are likely to use films such as this as a form of escapism from their stressful work lives

Critical response

Distribution