Our target audience

For our research on psychological thrillers I looked at different clips from psychological thrillers and how they differ from one another, and why they have the particular rating they do. For my research I looked at clips from the cell and American Pyscho.

As our film is psychological thriller it usually includes a mental conflict usually within the main characters mind, therefore being more emotional which could attract a female audience. Psychological thrillers can cause the audience to be scared as some psychological thrillers include the element of horror which could attract a teenage or adult audience.

Due to the horror that occurs in psychological thrillers, the majority of psychological thrillers are an 18+. Psychological thrillers can also include violence which is another factor that would support why many psychological thrillers have a high age rating system.

The audience we are aiming to attract is a 15+ males and females who enjoy psychological thrillers. Our film has to be aimed at this age as it contains violence and a character who is mentally conflicted. However it will not have to be an 18+ or R rated movie as it will not contain death or any too disturbing scenes.

Furthermore, many people who watched our opening scene so far and who gave feedback in our questionnaires were aged around 15 - 18. Therefore we know that people around this age group would find our genre of movie appealing.

According to  http://www.iankingsley.com/articles/007-psychological-thrillers.php who wrote a psychological thriller called 'sandman', the most important aspects of a psychological thriller are the personality of the main character and how they think. Therefore due to this, our target audience have to be of a high age range to understand what the protagonist (good guy) would be thinking, and why they act the way they do.

Themes involved in psychological thrillers can include:

• love triangles causing the main character distress
• terrorism
• murder
• guilt and obsession

The characters in psychological films include:

• criminals/convicts
• assassins
• or in our case, an innocent victim that is on the run

A 15+ certificate includes:

• strong violence
• drug use
• sexual nudity or references
• strong language

There can be risks in creating a movie aimed at a 15+ audience such as the issue that teenagers may copy what they have seen in the movie such a violence. However in a 15+ actions such as suicide and self-harm should not be focused on in great detail as it could be copied.