Target audiences of five films

Friday the 13^th:

In the trailer of this film I can tell immediately after watching it that it is aimed at the older teens, between 15-19. I can tell this because of the music that is playing at the start, it is quite upbeat and modern, and it sounds like music that would be used at a teenage party. The next hint to the target audience comes with the actors, they are all older teens that have gone to get away from their parents to have a good time, and the sexual references made in the trailer clearly point this film towards the target audience. But there is a scene where this all changes and the teens are put into your typical horror dilemma, trying to escape the wrath of Jason, this is where the genre is clear to me because he is stood with a hockey mask, huge stature and great presence.

 

Texas Chainsaw Massacre:

The start of this trailer is near enough the same as the first that I analysed; it shows a group of people in their late teens driving along a road with music that is liked by that age group. In the van we see the sexual references like we see in Friday the 13^th, the people are getting intimate like in the previous trailer. This type of people appeal to the teens between the ages of 15-19 because of how the characters are portrayed and how the music links with their age. As the scene moves on, we see another side to the teens as they stop to help a woman and this is where the horror genre is established and reinforced because she says ‘They’re all dead’. The teen horror theme then comes into play as all the foreseeable circumstances come into play, for example; they find the location of the murderer unknowingly and are drawn into a wild run around to try to escape him.

 

Scream:

There is no road trip in this trailer but we can still get the common codes and conventions of a teen film because the first character we see as a girl in her late teens who is home alone and answers the phone to her killer unknowingly. The dialogue right from the start establishes the genre because the person on the other end of the phone talks about scary movies and how he wants to know his next victim. The typical party scene is next and is full of teenagers drinking and making sexual references. The trailer establishes the target audience easily by following the codes and conventions of its predecessors.

 

 

The haunting in Connecticut 2:

The trailer starts gleefully with country music blaring from the family’s car, they are all happy and enjoying their new home. I think that what establishes this as a late teen film is the plot and context of the film. It seems believable and doesn’t use gore, I think that is the main reason it is seen as a teen movie because there is only ‘jumpy’ parts that will get them on the edge of their seat. There are a lot of parts to this trailer that make it a horror and establish its audience even more, this ties in with the target audience because it has all the codes and conventions of your average teen horror and uses them all in its favour to attract the target audience.

 

The cabin in the woods:

Just like some of the previous trailers, the film starts with a bunch of late teen heading off on a trip, with the typical upbeat music of today to accompany them. The codes and conventions are clear, alcohol, drugs, sexual references; all these establish it as a movie for those between 15-19. As the trailer progresses we find that they have stumbled into their own demise, and the establishment of the genre comes into play as we see a variety of different attempts to murder them. The typical codes and conventions and the mise en scene are extremely clear and very predictable from a film in this genre.