Target audience
Zombie horror films are a type of genre that is designed to startle and unnerve the audience. People who watch our genre of film try to make themselves comparable to the characters so they are able to establish how long they would last if a ‘zombie apocalypse’ was to occur.
Demographics of the target audience
Zombie horror films tend to use relatively unknown actors. One example of this is ‘Shaun of the Dead’; Simon Pegg had appeared in only three small films before he was chosen to play the main actor in this zombie horror apocalypse. The benefit of using unknown actors is that the viewer can easily relate themselves to the actor, especially if they are of similar age to the targeted audience, because they do not assoicate them with other well known characters.
Our genre of film tends to contain a large amount of blood, gore and violence. Stereotypically, this appeal more to men then it does to women as it comes across as masculine not to be affect by this gory violence.
This female critic here criticises "The Walking Dead" for being sexist (and racist) and prioritising white males over everone:
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/11/the_walking_dead_has_become_a_white_patriarchy/
This might explaion why the zombie genre is more popular with men but personally I don;t think most people look into it so deeply and it is having generally more male characters that appeals to the male audience as they are given different stereotypes to relate to.
As mentioned above, zombie apocalypse films contain gruesome scenes; therefore they tend to be targeted at the more mature members of society. The age range of 15 to 40 are more inclined to watch this genre of film as common topics in everyday convocations are about such circumstances as a zombie apocalypse. People then become intrigued to find out how long they would survive if something was to occur.
This critic seems to want newer zombie horror to be as violent and disturbing as possible:
www.huffingtonpost.com/.../the-walking-dead-lori_b_2076558.html
She suggests that in our culture now, we are drawn towards much darker content and enjoy quite bleak dramas. I would say that starting our film by a zombie eating a little boy works quite well with this.
This female critic here criticises "The Walking Dead" for being sexist (and racist) and prioritising white males over everone:
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/11/the_walking_dead_has_become_a_white_patriarchy/
This might explaion why the zombie genre is more popular with men but personally I don;t think most people look into it so deeply and it is having generally more male characters that appeals to the male audience as they are given different stereotypes to relate to.
As mentioned above, zombie apocalypse films contain gruesome scenes; therefore they tend to be targeted at the more mature members of society. The age range of 15 to 40 are more inclined to watch this genre of film as common topics in everyday convocations are about such circumstances as a zombie apocalypse. People then become intrigued to find out how long they would survive if something was to occur.
This critic seems to want newer zombie horror to be as violent and disturbing as possible:
www.huffingtonpost.com/.../the-walking-dead-lori_b_2076558.html
She suggests that in our culture now, we are drawn towards much darker content and enjoy quite bleak dramas. I would say that starting our film by a zombie eating a little boy works quite well with this.
Analysing our genre
Horror films typically contain a lot of gruesome scenes. The audience enjoys this and they also expect it to be contained in the film as it is labelled with the horror genre. Here are some examples of sub-genre horror films that tend to be quite popular:
Action Horror – Combines stereotypically feature of a horror film. (Evil force, event, or supernatural personage) with the gunfights and chases of the action genre. Examples include ‘Dawn of the Dead’
Comedy horror – Combines the elements of comedy and horror fiction. Examples include ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Evil Dead II’
Gothic horror – Type of story that contains elements of Goth and horror. Usually full of suspense and jumpy scenes. Examples include ‘The Women in Black’
Natural horror – This includes natural beast that turn into killers. ‘Examples include ‘Jaws’ and ‘Snakes on a Plane’
Splatter film – These films contain graphic images of gore and graphic violence. Examples include ‘Saw’ and ‘Piranha 3D’
Zombie film – Zombie are portrayed as either reanimated corpses or mindless humans. Examples include ‘I Am Legend’ and ‘Dead Snow’
There is a wide range of horror films available. There is no specific type of sub-genre that is more common than another.
Film name | Year | Amount made | Actors/Actresses |
The Sixth Sense | 1999 | $293.5 million | Bruce Willis and 11-year-old Haley Joel Osment |
Jaws | 1975 | $260 million | Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw |
The Exorcist | 1973 | $232.9 million | Ellen Burstyn Max von Sydow |
What Lies Beneath | 2000 | $155.5 million | Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer |
The Blair Witch Project | 1999 | $140.5 million | Heather Donahue Michael C. Williams Joshua Leonard |
This shows the popularity of the horror genre in general and that there is a target audience. It is also easy to catch an audience when there are other successful products of a similar nature about, so this ias a particularly good time for zombie films with the success of e.g. "Contagion" and "The Walking Dead".
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