Description of Stereotypical Fan and Class Poll

Description of stereotypical fan:

The stereotypical viewer of our film would be either male or female, a dedicated horror fan of all types. The female viewer wears a wolf hat to show she isn’t afraid to stand out and would be the type of person to attend cosplay events. Her glasses are a symbol of the hours and dedication put into watching horror movies on a weekly basis. Her clothes and piercings show individuality and her own sense of style.  She is holding two lesser known horror films to demonstrate the wide variety of horror types she is interested in (action, psychological and gore). The male viewer is more casual and watches horror for entertainment and escapism. He too wears glasses for the hours spent in front of a screen. Both have a vast knowledge of films in general and would find it hard to pick a favourite.

Demographics:

The average viewer would be between the ages of 15 and 35 and belong to the social class categories between C1 and E. These categories are made up of all the working classes and are the reason why they are the target audience for horror films. This is because the upper classes have a seemingly perfect life, whereas the working classes are used to seeing some of the horrors viewed in the films in everyday life. Death used to be a very common thing within the working classes so seeing it in films was acceptable for them whereas, for the upper classes, death was uncommon and not spoken of so horror films do not appeal to them. The audience would be made up of 50-55% male and 45-50% female. However, the male audience would lean more towards the gory horror and females would prefer psychological horror. This theory was proven by a poll taken in class.

Psychographics:

Our trailer will be a hybrid of all the genre types of horror and so will appeal to people with a large variety of tastes. If these genre types are extreme we will be aiming more towards devoted horror fans who are not afraid to try anything new or who seek pace, thrill and suspense. If the genre types are less extreme this would mean marketing to a much wider range of horror fan categories with less specific interests. The audience we are aiming for consists of people who like to spend their money on the movie business and entertainment in the form of cinema screenings, DVDs and merchandise. They will have a more open-minded approach to gore, a less cynical view of psychological thrillers and will enjoy fast-paced action scenes. As mentioned above, these fans would also be open to cosplay events and have much more involvement in the franchises than everyday viewers. It is likely they would also not mind watching this film either by themselves or as a large group.

Class Poll:

Below is the class horror poll that we conducted in October, 2012. It was carried out with 8 males and 9 females, and confirmed that females generally prefer psychological and action horrors, while males prefer gory horrors. The results were close, however, which suggests horror can appeal to both genders.