Target audience research

Target audience research

The target audience for horror slasher films is for teenagers and young adults which range from 15 - 25 years old. One of the reasons why is that the characters within the films are young adults that attend college or university which the audience can connect with the characters with their previous experiences with college and university on the film which will make the audience more engaged within the film. 

The audience will choose this genre of film because they want to see suspenseful horror which will frighten them, to see action/ violence, gore and for the male audience, to see conventions for the male gaze. 

The target audience is more male orientated as horror slasher films usually contains conventions for the male gaze, contains violence and action, which engages males as these are the conventions that attracts the male audience to watch the film. 

What puts the target audience off from watching horror slashers is that some may be offended by frequent strong language, discriminatory behaviour/language, gore, portrayals of sexual activity, and strong violence. 

The target audience would expect to see in a horror slasher film, a masked killer that is almost unstoppable and unpredictable, killer's signature weapon, final girl, isolated areas which the characters are trapped in, the setting is at night, promiscuity, gore, death, eerie/sinister music, killer making startling appearances which may be supported by stings.

Questionnaire 

I produced a questionnaire to see and find out what my target audience wants to see in a horror slasher, so my film can appeal to a more larger audience.








The first question is a closed question simply asking what gender is the person. This is useful as me and my group can see what the males like to see within a horror slasher and what the females want to see within a horror slasher.

The second question is another closed question which simply asks what the person's age is. This is useful to me and my group as it tells us what the average age is for our target audience.

The third question is another closed question in which asks how often the person watches horror films. This gives me and my group an idea on how popular horror films are.

The fourth question is a an open and closed question in which asks the person if they enjoy horror slasher films and if they answer no, they have to explain why. This tells me and my group if people enjoy horror slashers and how popular horror slashers are and if the reasons why they do not like horror slashers (if they answered no) we can exclude those features from are film if similar responses occur regularly, which will make our film appeal to a more larger audience.

The fifth question is an open question which asks the person what they like most within a horror slasher film. This tells me and my group what to include in our film and what the most popular feature within a horror slasher, which can enable our film to be as successful as it can be by including those features.

The sixth question is another open question which asks the person what could be improved within horror slashers. This is beneficial to me and my group as it tells us what lacks in most horror slasher films and we can try to improve those features or add those features that may be missing in most horror slasher films into our film.

The seventh question is an open question which asks the person what they think is vital within horror slasher films. This tells me and my group what the main important feature that needs to be included in a horror slasher film, which we can include in our film, so t can be as successful as it can be as it appeals to our target audience as it is what they want to see within a horror slasher film.

The eighth question is another open question which asks the person what they dislike within horror slasher films. This tells me and my group what the majority of our target audience dislikes within horror slasher films. This is useful to us as we can exclude disliked features from our film as we want it to appeal to our target audience and to increase our size of our target audience.

The ninth question is an open question which asks the person what makes a scary antagonist within a horror slasher. This tells me and my group what makes a scary antagonist. This is useful to us as we want to make our antagonist to be scary as that is one of the main code and convention of horror is to scare the audience as they want to be scared. By including those features which make the antagonist scary, it will make our film more appealing to our target audience making successful as it can be.

The last question which is a closed question asks the audience what pace they like to see a horror slasher film focus on which asks three options which are tension/slow, intense/fast, and both. This gives me and my group an idea on what our target audience would like to see the pacing of the film to be and what the most effective pace a horror slasher film should be. By including the most occurred response from this question in our film, it will appeal more to our target audience, which should make it as successful as it can be as that is our objective.