The target audience for a hidden foootage film is paticulary tricky due to the number of possibilities withing the genre itself, unlike a vampire horror, that can be very limited in what themes its genre has.
For the Blair Witch Project, the target is limited slightly as the makers presented a marketing campaign which deliberately attempted to make the film seem actually "real". This effected how the film was perceived, as many believed that what they were seeing was the truth, and this put people off, especially since the filmmakers did not expect a wide release. This created a target audience who usually enjoyed, small cult independent films, possibly students. Due to a smaller budget than most horror films of the time, and a independent company backing them, the film wasn't exactly universally acknowledged till it had been circling around the media for a while, finally finding attention. The Filmmakers did not expect Blair Witch to be a critical success, so the target adudience was aimed at a smaller, more younger student type than the older audience it managed to achieve.
Paranormal activity on the other hand was picked up by an international company (Paramount) who found the independent film circling around the internet. and bought the rights to reproduce it into the cinema. By marketing the film globally with a huge budget backing, Paranormal activity was able to achieve a bigger target audience over a shorter time than even the Blair Witch was able to. The usual target audience for a marketed horror film, common with today's progressing film culture is 18-30's due to content of gore, violence and horror themes that a younger or older audience don't usually like.
Finally REC is a Spanish horror film, which was similarly marketed the same way as Paranormal Activity, and was released in cinemas and DVD (I think an american remake was done too). Sadly due to the language change, most Western countries are not keen to watch the film,limiting the target audience to that paticular country. Only those who generally enjoy horror films and are open minded to subtitles bother to watch, so the films target audience focuses on a smaller group than the Blair Witch project.
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