Film audiences on thriller films

I have looked at a number of thrillers to find out what  audience they generally target.

Funny Games:



 Initially, I was searching for Funny Games (1997) but I could not find the classification for that one. However, I have found the American re-make which was released in 2007 and the film is targeted at 18 year old because it contains sustained threat, humiliation and violence. The genres are: suspense, drama, crime fiction and psychological thriller.

The Game:

The Game was released in 1997 and the target audience age is 15. The genres are: adventure, action, suspense, mystery and psychological thriller.

The Taxi Driver:

The classification for this film is R18 which means that this film is to to be shown in specially licensed cinemas, or supplied only in licensed sex shops and shown to adults older than 18 years. The Genres are: existentialism, crime fiction, drama and psychological thriller.

The Shining (1980):

Is rated R18 because it includes sex, nudity and graphic scenes. The genres used are: horror and mystery.

The Manchurian candidate (2004):

As well as Funny Games, at first I was looking for the original to find the classification however because it was old and there wasn't a clear classification at the time it is understandable and therefore I looked at the remake. It targets at viewers aged 15 due to the violence and language. The genres used are: thriller, mystery and drama.

The Sixth sense:

It is classified for people aged 15. The genres are: suspense, childhood drama, drama and supernatural.

Fatal Attraction:

The target audience is 18 and the genres are drama and thriller.

Se7en (1995):

The classified audience is 18. The genre is crime, mystery and thriller.

Psycho (1960):

I could not find the classification however the genres are: horror, mystery and thriller.

From my research I think that overall, thrillers target the 18+ audience due to some obscenity scenes. For instance, I searched 9 thrillers and 5 such as, Funny Games, The Taxi Driver, The Shining, Fatal Attraction and Se7en all target 18 year old and above. I believe that this is probably because most include a lot of violence and psychological issues and that can be disturbing for the young viewers. Many thrillers nowadays are intellectually challenging and every one of them tries to be the 'best' and top the others. Therefore this genre is slightly skewed to the male audience.

I decided to certify my thriller opening 'Karma' (psychological thriller) as 15+ because it suits best for that audience and because the film explores sensitive issues for instance: psychological torment, obsessiveness and childhood drama. The young viewers would be very vulnerable to some scenes. And I don't think it should be 18+ because it is not overly explicit. Although psychological thrillers mainly aim to young males, Karma is actually slightly skewed to young females. Films with a similar target audience to Karma are: Vacancy, Memento and Silence of the lambs (1991).

To look further down on psychological thrillers I have looked at two psychological thrillers that are very popular and slightly skew to 15 and above female viewers.

A Tale of two sisters (2003):

A tale of two sisters is a South Korean psychological horror film by Kim Ji-woon. It targets 15 year old and the genre is drama, horror and mystery. Summary of the plot: It is about two sisters that spend time at a mental institution but then return to their father's home where they have to live with their cruel and unstable stepmother. And what makes everything worst is that during their recovery, there is a interfering ghost.

The silence of the lambs (1991):

The silence of the lambs is an American thriller. Summary: A young FBI cadet must confide a manipulative killer to get his help in finding another serial killer however this one skins his female victims. The film classifies at 15 year olds.