Target Audience for Horror films

The target audience for horror films is normally people between the age of 15-25. This is because young people seek thrills. Many young people are not put off by the graphic images, but they are drawn to them. The Human Centipede is well known for its graphic images and themes. Older audiences may be put off by such violence.

Horror films are generally aimed at the middle class. This is because they are able to acquire thrills at reasonably low costs. For the lower class a horror film may be a way for them to escape their less exciting lives.

Many young females also enjoy the horror genre, although they are most commonly aimed at males. Males are seen as immature, therefore they are more likely going to be into the blood, guts and gore that is normally in a horror film. Horror films are mainly aimed at males because stereotypically males enjoy the violence more than females and the thrill seeking attitude is also linked with males more than females.

Horror films can also be aimed at groups of people because normally it s a social event to go out with friends and get scared together by watching a horror film. groups of teenagers are also attracted to  these types of films as it gives them something to talk about afterwards. However, generally the target audience is people who have an interest in films that contain blood and intense horror. They may also be targeted at people who enjoy mystery because sometimes in a horror film, not everything is explained to us at the beginning of the film and we have to watch more for the information to be unraveled.

Location Planning

For our short film we were planning to film part of it outside in a park/forest area. We though about places such as a park near silverlink road which is also situated near TORC or Belgrave lakes.

Script

Script – screenplay

Starts in the forest on a Friday night and it’s dark and creepy

Girl is screaming and running away from something. She is panting heavily and running as fast as she can. Someone is running after her.

Still outside we see her stop and she is panting heavily and then everything goes quiet. Just as she is about to turn around we see a hand cover her mouth and she screams.  (when editing: add in title sequence with some creepy background music).

The next scene is then at the school. There are a group of teenagers quietly discussing something in the corner of the canteen.

Lily: I haven’t seen her since Friday afternoon when I dropped her off at home. She mentioned something about going on a date with some guy.

 Josh: Has anyone heard from her since then?

Ryan: No, she seemed a bit conflicted when I last saw her; like something was definitely wrong, she just didn’t want to tell me.

Josh: When was this?

Ryan: Friday afternoon.

They all look at each other, confused about what is happening and their thoughts.

(Detective Atkinson and some officers walk through the canteen up towards the teenagers in the corner)

Atkinson: Hello, I’m Detective Atkinson, I’m working on a new case. I need to speak to you all separately so please can you follow me.

(They follow the detective to the room and they each wait outside for their turn to be questioned)

Josh: I haven’t seen her since Friday morning.

Ryan:  She seemed conflicted.

Lily: She was meeting some guy.

Atkinson: hmmm (in deep thought)

Skips back to the beginning scene.

Storyboard for film

Synopsis of my film

One day a young, teenage girl doesn't turn up to school and all her friends become worried.  They have heard rumours that she has been taken but refuses to believe that she isn't coming back, so they set up their own secret meetings and retrace her steps to try and find out where she may be. During this a whole load of secrets and clues are uncovered and the group start to find who their friend is a really is but are they into deep? Will they ever find her? Will they make it through alive or are they just chasing never ending clues?

Conjuring - Annabel analyisis

In the beginning of the Scene, we can here the rain on the window which should create a calm atmosphere but it doesn't - it creates tension. This also helps set the scene because now we know that  it is a raining night and normally in horror films it means that something is about to happen. The use of the non-digetic sound of rain helps the watcher to know what is going on in the surroundings and helps to suggest what is about to happen. The sound of the rain also helps to create an atmosphere and normally rain is calm but in this particular scene it is dark and we know that a storm is taking place so it creates a tense atmosphere.

In the opening scene we also see the costumes that the characters are wearing and we can see that they are wearing pajamas which helps us to understand the time of day that this happening. Most scary things happen at night so it also sticks to the conventions that happen in horror films. The pajamas also help us to guess an estimation of the girls age and they imply that she is only young. This also add to the tension because we feel the tension that the young girl is feeling as well as our own.

Through this scene we know that they have placed a dark filter over the top which establishes the time of day and it also helps add to the tension.

Representation in "Horror" and "Thriller" genre

Horror

Stereotypes

A widely held but fixed and over simplified image of a particular type of person or thing.

Archetype

A very typical example of a certain person or thing.

Films stem from books:

• Bram Stoker created the original Dracula 
• Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein

Dracuala was high class from Transylvania, Romania. He was part of the hierarchy.

Character like this always have to be male, middle aged, white and have an eastern European accent.

Stereotypical antagonist = white, middle aged males.

• This is a very recogniseable representation, which can also be known as a dominant.

Some examples of this may include: 

• Freddie Crugar - Nightmare on Elm Street
• Norman Bates
• Mike Myers - Friday 13th

Horror movie heroines:

They are normally single, white and virgins 

There role has evolved from victim to aggressor

Thriller

Hollywood has always been 'white' centric, for example leading actors/directors have always been male and Caucasian with black ethnic, minority actors only playing minor roles.Acts like Will Smith and Morgan Freeman broke this mold.  

In thrillers they always have a white, male protagonist but in the 1990's things began to change. In the film Se7en, Morgan Freeman is playing a lead role 

Having a homosexual/lesbian protagonist is almost entirely rare even in Liberal Hollywood.Being openly gay in these films is unheard of.

Thomas Harris, who created, Hannibal Lecture is critacised because all his antagonists have homosexual tendencies and sexual deviances.

Female have predominatly played the victim role, or the femme fetale (seductive and can't be trusted).

For example 'Silence of the Lambs' (1990) and the role of Jodie Foster playing FBI rookie 'Clarice Starling' meant that the representations of women had been challenged.