Target Audience and Characters are Important!

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Getting started with planning for my opening requires knowing my target audience. So, that is where I chose to begin. After conducting some research, I found that 60% of the horror genre audience is between the ages of 15 and 30, compared to 40% for the average film. [1] I decided that my target audience will be the same for this reason and because I plan on reaching not only the minorities that makes up 33% of the audience, but also want to appeal to the older fanatics who grew up with the classics including the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street franchises. 
When discussing the characters, I would like to possibly include the typical archetype ‘nice girl’ who tends to be the last survivor and is the most pure compared to the rest. The movie watchers fall in love with this character as the film progresses, leading to a greater thrill and more suspenseful climax when the character gets in trouble. Aside from this role, I would like to include some sort of monster/creature. Monster-like humans tend to be scarier than made up creatures because they play on audiences’ fears that it could happen in real life. When compared to vampires or werewolves, human monsters have created doubt, raising the question “is man better than these beasts or have we just done too good of a job fooling ourselves?” [2] Many fictional creatures also require special technology or make up which I do not possess. [3]
As for the plot, I do not know what I want for my opening yet because I plan on keeping it as original as possible. By straying far away from the typical plot clichés, it will make the film much more memorable. Also, I do know that I want to keep it more modern for my target audience . The film It (2017) broke records last year, beating The Sixth Sense (1999) as the top grossing horror film of all time, earning $700.2 million worldwide. [4] The original excelled and remains a classic, but the more modern take in the remake was more popular and attracted larger audiences. My partner and I will keep discussing different ideas, combining them to create something amazing.

[2] Elliott, Dave, et al. A Field Guide to Monsters. Hylas Pub., 2008.

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