Target audience for different types of thrillers

Religious Thrillers

Religious thrillers use the histories and myths of religion (e.g. a religious artefact is discovered and many different people and groups fight to control it or the devil returns to the earth and people have to try and stop him). The target audience for this kind of thriller can vary between ages 8 and up because if it is executed in a way in which younger children can understand what is going on without the over-emphasis of action and romance. Or it can also be aimed at a target audience of 18 because in some cases like the film 'End of Days' there may be use of intense violence and gore and strong sexual content.

Political Thrillers

Political thrillers usually involve political relations or the fate of the entire government to be at risk and it is up to the main protagonist to prevent something from happening that causes this to happen. The target audience for this kind of thriller is for more mature and intellectual audiences, this is because they are more likely to contain mature themes and violent moments and it is too intellectually demanding for younger audiences because it is likely that they will not care about political issues at all.

Supernatural Thrillers

Supernatural thrillers involve transcendental elements which are used prominently in an antagonising way and some characters may have supernatural abilities which help them to advance through the plot. The target audience for these thrillers would be young adults from the age of 12 and up because the elements help to inspire their imagination because they are at the age when it would be most prominently used.

Conspiracy Thrillers

Conspiracy thrillers usually involve a protagonist (or group of protagonists) who is trying to confront a large, powerful organisation that only they seem to know about. The target audience for these kinds of thrillers would be 18+ because there would usually be increasing scenes of violence, disturbing imagery for the ill hearted, notable scenes of sexual content and therefore certain kinds of thrillers would need the viewer to be intellectually capable of understanding the extent of what is supposed to be happening.