Target audience research

We decided to ask some of our friends and relatives what type of age rating we should choose for our film opening and considering that our genre is horror we thought it best to either rate our film a 12, 15 or 18 as the film would not be suitable for young children.

After questioning people on there opinion of this we narrowed it down to either rating the film as an 18 or a 15 as our film opening is not too gory and violent but it still has those aspects of violence and gore because it is a horror, however if we was to rate our film opening as an 18 it would make the audience question why it is rated as this as it is only available to a niche amount of people either 18 or over, so people will wonder what kind of things are going to be included in the film/storyline that makes the film rated as an 18.

	12	Home media only since 2002. 12A-rated films are usually given a 12 certificate for the VHS/DVD version unless extra material has been added that requires a higher rating. Nobody younger than 12 can rent or buy a 12-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game. The content guidelines are identical to those used for the 12A certificate.	Les Misérables,The Perks of Being a Wallflower
	15	Only those over 15 years are admitted. Nobody younger than 15 can rent or buy a 15-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category can contain adult themes, hard drugs, frequent strong language and limited use of very strong language, strong violence and strong sex references, and nudity without graphic detail. Sexual activity may be portrayed but without any strong detail. Sexual violence may be shown if discreet and justified by context.	The Heat,Mama
	18	Only adults are admitted. Nobody younger than 18 can rent or buy an 18-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category do not have limitation on the bad language that is used. Hard drugs are generally allowed, and explicit sex references along with detailed sexual activity are also allowed. Scenes of strong real sex may be permitted if justified by the context. Very strong, gory, and/or sadistic violence is usually permitted. Strong sexual violence is permitted unless it is eroticised or excessively graphic.	Django Unchained,Evil Dead

We decided that we would rate our film a 15 as it would then be available to a wider range of people and age groups, therefore more people will be able to watch the film and this may cause the film to earn more of a profit. 

Films have age certificates because of the content that is portrayed in them, so in regards to the horror genre the rating would depend on how much violence, gore or frightening content was in the film, also it would depend on sexual content and swearing because most horror films either have mild or extreme swearing and may include some sexual content or nudity.