Horror - Audience Expectations

Horror Definition: an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by something frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting; a shuddering fear.

Why do people choose to watch horror films?

 

Horror films are able to entertain and excite audience on a level other film genres can't. The ''Thrill factor'' makes them appealing to audiences and is what makes them so different and unique to other genres. For example comedy is created to be funny and action which entertains an audience in a much different way.

 

A wide variety of sub-genres allow for many different audience types to enjoy a different experience of horror. As we are planning on creating a paranormal film, we need to make sure we achieve a good sense of mystery and suspense.

 

 

Target Audiences for Horror

 

Typical horror movie goer: 15-24 male.15-24 males (largest group of cinema group goers) look for thrill and action within a film whereas females typically prefer romance and comedy as they are lighter forms of entertainment.

 

On the other hand, recent figures  from 2007 show that females watching horror has exceeded male viewers for the first time. The UK film council website stated that 'the number of women attending cinema screening of horror films now marginally exceeds male attendance figuires for the first time.

 

 

This shows that more and more women are now watching horror, so we as film makers need to appeal to women as much as men. By having a strong female lead that was originally a victim, we incorporate understanding of many women's expectations in films in general.

 

Horror - Institutions/Distributors

Paramount Pictures - Distributed Paranormal Activity successfully.

                                                     - Many divisions to productively distribute a film successfully.

       Some divisions are: 

     Advantages:     Global reach (distributing around the world).
                            Viacom's many branches could help boost film's success.
                            Modern technological advancements in terms of distribution platforms (our target audience        
                            16-24 males and females use technology all the time).
                            Previous success with Paranormal Activity.

    Disadvantages: Not specialized in horror.
                            Audience expectations for our film could differ from what they are used to.  
                            Viacom's leading brands also have a different audience to the one we are targeting. 

  
Lionsgate - Distributes many horror films successfully (Texas Chainsaw, Saw films, Silent Hill etc)
                           - Familiar with audience expectations for horror genre. 
                           - Able to distribute globally.  

'Lionsgate produces movies that major American studios would not accept because they are too controversial or too disturbing for major studios.' 

                          As our film is intended on not being too disturbing, so  it can attract and appeal to a wide and gender-balanced audience, in a real life scenario it could potentially be produced by another distribution company, for example Paramount distributed Paranormal Activity which is closer to sub-genre and theme with our film, hence making it a better choice.