Secondary research into audience

Target Audience for Horror Films

The majority of horror films made nowadays are often aimed at a young adult audience, usually 16-25 year old, this is due to film companies research showing that this is the most popular age group for watching horror films. Film makers feel that their target audience should be around 16-25 as it means that their film has a very wide target audience and the target audience is often above 15 as many film makers use the classification rating of 15. The higher end of the target audience being 25 is set because research has shown that the many people over the age of 25 can be turned off by the sight of blood and gore whereas a younger audience are thrill seekers. The horror genre stimulates the audience to make them feel uncomfortable in a controlled environment and therefore it makes sense for the target audience to be of a maturing age. 

We often expect to see people watching horror films in large groups rather than in smaller groups. This is often good for film makers as it means that they make more money as it is often common for the cinema to become sold out as groups of teenagers often go together. Couples are also very common to go and watch horror films together for a date, people do this because they feel that it can be romantic to comfort each other. 

Stereo-typically, the gender target audience for horror are males as the appeal to action and gore more than females however this is not always the case. Females also watch horror films however, similarly to the older age group, women may feel uncomfortable watching gore.