Target Audience

Target audience is defined as; 'a paticular group at which a product such as a film or advertisment is aimed at'. It can be determined through a number of demographics, though not all are paticularly relevant for film, these are as follows;

• Age: perhaps one of the most significant factors, as most horror films are market to teenagers/young adults. This is commonly beleived because they reciprocate through the intense simulation of their sense - younger people have a more active imagination, and thus are more thrill seeking. This is as opposed to older people, who have developed sensory fatigue, whereby they are less likely to react to horror like a child would, or are vunerable to anxiety.

• Class: it is hard to create an arguement that woud justify using class as a factor in determining a target audience. Regardless of this your social status, everyone is entitled to watch what they want, thus suggesting that the idea of escapism is evident in all walks of life, and that the basic need of an outlet for this is a fundamental necessity among everyone.
  

• Ethnicity: this factor can largely affect the consumtion of horror films. This is because there is large cultural variations across the world, and therefore what people fear differs too. This is shown also throughtout history, as horror films often reflect the fears of society at the time. Thus, western societies typically fear the unknown, whereas in Japan, it is common for the fear to stem from urban legends and myths. Also, the pressure of the representation of ethnic minorites is becoming ever apparent. Some groups feel they are not fairly portrayed in horror, and perhpas this may be a by-product of the conventional characters that we usually see, and those of different ethnic backgrounds do not usually make an appearance.
  

• Gender: it is impossible to generalise certain horror films to one gender, as there will alwasy be people who break the trends. Therefore, it falls down to the represntation of genders in horror. Women are most commonly associated with the 'damsel in distress' character, or shown with a sense of weakness. This perhaps reflects the idea that men like to watch horror with women to be seen as the strong and protective type - this charater profile is often portrayed in horror among men.
  

• Religion: it could be seen as potentially important, especially when thinking about the importance of it in people lives. This is because satanic films can often create conflict with beliefs, whereby those who are religious choose not to watch it. Similarly, it could equally be said that those who are religious want to watch demonic or satanic films because they play on the true fears of some religious groups. Thus, it is hard completely decide if certain religions consume horror more than others. The Catholic Church wasn't particularly enamoured with 'The Exorcist' in 1973, but when they eventually saw that is was the Catholic priests who saved the day, they didn't find such a problem with it.
  

• Sexuality: this is an irrelveant factor as to who can watch the films, but is perhaps for significant in terms of representation. Therefore, this could have an indirect effect on how successful a film is, because if groups feel they are under representated then they are less likely to watch the film, or an any rate enjoy it.