Target Audience Of Horror

When looking at a horror film, we stereotypically expect the film to be over a 15 age rating due to the fact that if it did not include the scary or gory aspect to it, it simply wouldn't fit into the genre of a horror film.

We would stereotypically expect horror films to be targeting males as we expect women to want to watch romantic films as they fantasize with the love story and the lifestyle that the film follows. However, men are more dominant so we therefore expect them to want to watch something that will frighten them as we expect men to dream more about the fear of the un known.

Horror films also include young vulnerable characters within their film, this allows the audience to relate to being that age which therefore links to them digging into their own fears that they had at that age and linking them to the film to make it more scary.

We would expect our target audience to be people aged 15 - 30 as some horror films that are released have a 15 age rating. However most are 18 due to the level of detail they place into making the audience as scared as possible. Having an 18 age rated film also allows for more dramatic and graphic scenery that is only classed as suitable if over the ages of 18.