Audience Research

Who is the target audience of horror films?

There are lots of reasons why audiences come back to horror
films again and again; for their pleasure. It can give a sense of
escapism or suffice curiosity.
From my findings I can conclude that horror films from
different sub genres are aimed at different people .For example
comedy horror is aimed more at the younger, teenage audience
as it makes light of the horror which other, more serious films
from the umbrella genre of horror do not.

What do they like?

According to my research, through questionnaires, I found that
2/3 of horror movie watchers liked the films due to the thrill and
adrenaline rush whilst watching them. Similarly, 2/3 of people
preferred comedy horror to all the other sub genres of horror
which include: comedy, thriller, supernatural, psychological,
zombie and slasher films.

Brophy (1986) said The pleasure of the text is, in fact, getting
the shit scared out of you- and loving it; an exchange mediated
by adrenaline.
This proved true in my research as the majority of the people I
questioned found they enjoyed this aspect of these films and in
relation to watching it, loved the plot lines when they are well
made.