Media presentation on Target Audiences for Horror Movies

1. Secondary Research:
Target Audiences - Horror
Dylan Mann-Hazell

2. What Gender is the Target Audience
for Horror?
• It has been statistically proven in 2011 that
the majority of horror film DVD’s that are
bought have been bought by males. Although
this does not allow the conclusion that men
like horror films more than women, such
statistics can be viewed by producers of horror
films, and they might be persuaded to add
content that, stereotypically, a male would
enjoy. This could be, for example, guns, cars,
soldiers, video games.

3. What Age is the Target Audience for
Horror?
• The majority of popular horror films have been age
restricted to 15 or 18 in the UK, so it is evident from
this information that horror films are targeted at older
teenagers/young adults. Also, many people that are
the main characters of horror movies are between the
age of 16 and 30, which further backs up the fact that
the target audience for most films are teenagers/young
adults, for the audience would be able to relate to
these main characters through sharing an age. People
are less likely to be interested in a character if they
cannot relate to them in some way, and having the
right aged actors is an easy way to allow a large
amount of people to relate.

4. What Class is the Target Audience for
Horror?
• Generally, the class that watch horror movies the most
are the working class, but this could be just due to the
fact that the majority of people in the UK are working
class. However, it does allow producers to understand
that making films about working class people in horror
movies is a good way of getting more money, for, again,
people can relate to the protagonists, and films that
people can relate to immediately become more and
more popular. This does not exclude the middle and
upper class from being able to relate to the
protagonists, however, for there are still many films
focusing on those with more status, power and money
in life.

5. Conclusion
• To conclude, horror films are aimed mainly towards young
adult/teenage working class men. With this knowledge,
very popular and successful horror movies can be created
by producers by adding things that men, teenagers/young
adults, and the working class all stereotypically enjoy.
However, this is only the stereotype of what type of person
would enjoy a horror movie, and the producers may be
losing money by limiting their target audience to young
adult/teenage working class males, instead of broadening
the target audience stereotypes, and allowing more types
of people to start buying tickets/DVDs to see horror
movies, which is something to watch out for in the film
making industry.