Target Audience for Thriller films
Thriller films are aimed at an audience who enjoy the intrigue and mystery with a high level of anticipation. Their main elements are suspense, tension and excitement. The target audience can depend on the sub-genre of the thriller film...
Psychological thrillers allow the audience to play detectives along with the characters of the film to solve a mystery so the audience need to be attentive and have a focused mind. A psychological thriller can include some psychological issues which may be disturbing for younger viewers, however it tends to be a mental and emotional conflict rather than violence. For psychological thrillers, the target audience tends to be a mixed gender of 25-45 years, because of the amount of mystery and the depth of the plot.
Whereas the horror thriller film tends to be aimed towards the younger male gender due to the amount of gore and blood. Compared to a general horror film which is more concentrated on special effects and scary costumes and make-up, a horror thriller film contains a deeper plot for an audience that enjoy gore but that also look for a good plot to keep them interested. The Saw films, for example which have widened the target for horror thriller films, contain a fair amount of gore but also have important plots.
Action thriller films are usually aimed at a male audience in their late teens, due to the amount of action, violence and intensity that may appeal to a younger generation. They include a large amount of special effects and loud noises to create atmosphere which generally does not attract the older generation.
For our thriller trailer, we aimed for a target audience of mid-teens to young adults. The reason for this is because our main characters were teenagers themselves and so perhaps the audience could relate to these characters and recognise them in their society. We didn't have large amounts of over-dramatic gore, apart from one scene were we see our antagonist holding a blood covered knife, and we avoided cliché loud and dramatic music but rather decided on mysterious music with build ups of an instrument at some parts to create tension. For these reasons I would perhaps class our thriller under the psychological thriller genre, as it requires a focused train of thought and has a more mysterious element to it to keep the audience on the edge of their seat.
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Psychological thrillers allow the audience to play detectives along with the characters of the film to solve a mystery so the audience need to be attentive and have a focused mind. A psychological thriller can include some psychological issues which may be disturbing for younger viewers, however it tends to be a mental and emotional conflict rather than violence. For psychological thrillers, the target audience tends to be a mixed gender of 25-45 years, because of the amount of mystery and the depth of the plot.
Whereas the horror thriller film tends to be aimed towards the younger male gender due to the amount of gore and blood. Compared to a general horror film which is more concentrated on special effects and scary costumes and make-up, a horror thriller film contains a deeper plot for an audience that enjoy gore but that also look for a good plot to keep them interested. The Saw films, for example which have widened the target for horror thriller films, contain a fair amount of gore but also have important plots.
Action thriller films are usually aimed at a male audience in their late teens, due to the amount of action, violence and intensity that may appeal to a younger generation. They include a large amount of special effects and loud noises to create atmosphere which generally does not attract the older generation.
For our thriller trailer, we aimed for a target audience of mid-teens to young adults. The reason for this is because our main characters were teenagers themselves and so perhaps the audience could relate to these characters and recognise them in their society. We didn't have large amounts of over-dramatic gore, apart from one scene were we see our antagonist holding a blood covered knife, and we avoided cliché loud and dramatic music but rather decided on mysterious music with build ups of an instrument at some parts to create tension. For these reasons I would perhaps class our thriller under the psychological thriller genre, as it requires a focused train of thought and has a more mysterious element to it to keep the audience on the edge of their seat.
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