Target Audience For The Horror Genre (GENERAL & INDEPENDENT)

Making sure you are correctly targeting the audience who will want to watch your film the most, is very important in the world of film and film advertising. If you are not catering for the niche horror audience, your film won't do well in cinemas. The target audience for horror films seems to be males (almost 55% of those who see horror films are male, according to audiencetargeting.com), aged between 15 and 25 which could be why many horror movies tend to focus on characters who are around those ages, for example all the teen slasher films such as Nightmare On Elm Street. There are issues regarding those in that age range though because in this day and age, new advances in technology due to the internet and the pirate-movie industry mean many teenagers and young adults would rather pay nothing to illegally download films online than go to the cinema, so film producers have to work extra hard to make seeing the film in Cinema 'unmissable'. This means making sure there is a Unique Selling Point to draw the audience in, and make them believe this isn't just another run-of-the-mill horror film but something that is different, without being completely off the mark.

We conducted research among our peers to find out their opinions on horror films and how to make people want to see our film. 21 people were asked, 12 of whom were female and 9 male, and all were between 14 and 23. When asked which genres of horror they enjoyed, the highest ratings were given to Paranormal/Supernatural, Comedy and Zombie horror, however, the genre we are aiming for Satanic also rated quite highly.

We found that most people do not like continuous voice overs on Horror trailers but some explained that lines of dialogue that explain what's happening partially are useful.





Many of the participants asked said they enjoyed horror films for the suspenseful parts.

We found a pretty even split between those who like gory parts and those who don't.








Overall, I think this individual research has given us a much better idea of what to include in our trailer or not.

Full Film Idea - DIABOLUS

Our film idea is one that’s based on the idea of possession; the demon in the case is called DIABOLUS (also the title of the film) which is Latin for Devil. The protagonist Chris is an stereotypical teenager coming up to his 18^th birthday. However, he is contacted by a Psychic who tells him he is in danger, as he was born to become a human vessel for the DIABOLUS as soon as he turns 18. Despite this warning, he tells her to leave him alone and that he doesn’t believe in superstition. The Psychic then takes matters into her own hands, knocking Chris out with sleeping pills, and setting up an exorcism in an abandoned caravan in the woods. At the crucial moment of removing the demon, Chris wakes up confused and hits the Psychic as he runs away into the woods. What he does not realise is that, the DIABOLUS that was dormant waiting for him to turn 18 escaped and has instead taken the Psychics body as a vessel with a plan to possess Chris’s once more and go on a murderous rampage. Chris runs to a nearby barn, with no idea where he is and takes shelter while the DIABOLUS uses the Psychic’s skills to locate him. Later, in the evening, Chris is woken by the Psychic trying to knock him out with a metal pole. He runs deeper into the barn buildings to hide where he finds phone signal and rings his friend asking for help who figures out where he is and says he is coming to find him, despite disbelieving Chris’s story. In a battle against the DIABOLUS, his friends are killed, and Chris is nearly taken over by the demon several times but manages to resist it after a few minutes due to anti-possession sigils the Psychic drew on his skin right until the very end where the audience believe he has killed the Psychic and the DIABOLUS. However, as he goes to leave, she grabs his ankle and pulls him out of camera view meaning the audience never find out what happens to him.
-THIS WILL PROBABLY CHANGE SLIGHTLY WHEN WE'VE FILMED-

DIABOLUS perpetuates the work of several key narrative structural theorists, the first of which being Todorov. It follows the basic ideas of beginning with an equilibrium, which is disrupted by an event setting off a chain of events, creating disequilibrium. This is then resolved by the denouement and a new equilibrium is settled at the end. However, DIABOLUS does twist Todorov’s idea a little because when the audience think a new equilibrium has been reached, it turns out the Psychic isn’t really dead and drags Chris off screen meaning the audience has one last big scare and they are never sure what happens to him. Another theorist’s work that can be seen in our film idea is Propps work on character types. Chris is obviously the typical ‘Hero’ however, you are never sure whether he thinks he can save the Psychic (who would be the ‘Princess’ character type) or he is just trying to survive himself. The last theorist whose work fits DIABOLUS is Barthes, who did work on binary opposition (the juxtaposition of two contrasting themes). Binary oppositions clear in our film idea are: good/evil, human/inhuman and trapped/free, the last being because the most terrifying moments of the film would be when Chris is lost inside the barn buildings.

Shot list:

In order to give us a better of what we're looking to shoot, we wrote up a shot list to follow (loosely).

Filming Schedule

Props, Costume & Final Locations List

Props & Costumes:

• Kilt, Boots, Black top and Hoody for Becca
• Jeans, Trainers, Blue Checked Shirt and Black Jacket for Chris
• Candles
• Ingredients for fake blood (Maple syrup, Red + Blue Food Colouring, Cocoa Powder and Water)
• Wax for wounds
• Face paint for wounds + bruises
• Pendulum
• Map
• Dagger shaped plastic shard

Final Locations:

• Barn (Martham)
• Church (Caister)
• Caravan (Ingham)
• Windmill (Limpenhoe)
• College Photography Studio + Grounds