What's the difference between a thriller and a horror story?

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Random question I've been asking myself lately. It's weird because I wouldn't consider them the same thing, and I could easily say "this is a thriller, this is a horror movie" but at the same time I'm having a hard time pinpointing exactly what makes the difference between the two. And to make it worse, I also don't think they're mutually exclusive; a movie can be both a thriller and a horror movie (and I'm sure many people would consider thrillers a sub-genre of horror).

At first I thought horror generally includes supernatural elements, but then again a lot of them just have a regular person as the villain, or a group of regular people. And I'd consider something very grounded in reality like Green Room a horror film.

So right now, the best I can come up with is that a thriller is generally more of a gritty crime story with horror elements, the focus being on the mystery rather than on horror and trying to scare the audience, but then again I'm not entirely satisfied with that either because not all thrillers fit that description and a lot of them do try to be scary. And of course, a lot of horror stories focus on a mystery to solve.

So how would you draw the line between the two?

[Mozenrath]

I really recommend the videos PlagueofGripes did on Horror. He makes a lot of very interesting points, such as what many horror films/books/games do wrong, and touches on the difference between a thriller and horror, which do often have overlap. I forget what his distinction he drew was, though, so this post is not terribly helpful. They are only like half an hour combined, though, so you would probably find it pretty quick.

[Joker]

The main difference for me is a Horror is supposed to scare you or give you nightmares while a Thriller is more suspense and adventure.

Michael Clayton, Panic Room or The Fugitive are thriller films

The Exorcist, The Thing and Halloween are horror films

Of course some films blur the lines between the two very similar genres like Psycho.

[Deleted]

There's overlap between the two, but a thriller primarily "thrills" you through it's quick pace (which likely alternates between slow build-up and exciting action) without necessarily trying to frighten you or fill you with revulsion. Speed, the movie about a run away bus with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, could be seen as a thriller. The action keeps you on the edge of your seat but you aren't likely scared. The Saw movie franchise or a classic horror movie adds an element of terror or discomfort, often invoking the supernatural.

[Koda, Master Crunchyroller]

Similar to Joker's response my distinction is thrillers mainly aim to fill the viewer with suspense, while horror films mainly aim to scare the viewer and fill them with dread.

Of course this means the two can overlap often. For a recent example of overlap, I view Get Out as both a thriller and horror film.

[LexExpress]

Apr 20, 2017 6:07:15 GMT -5 Joker said:

The main difference for me is a Horror is supposed to scare you or give you nightmares while a Thriller is more suspense and adventure.

Michael Clayton, Panic Room or The Fugitive are thriller films

The Exorcist, The Thing and Halloween are horror films

Of course some films blur the lines between the two very similar genres like Psycho.

Agree with this definition. I would also add that both genres can have killing/murder but the distinction there would be that thriller murders tend to have motive and are committed in a "usual" way (e.g shooting, poisoning), whereas a death in horror tends to be senseless and done in a gratuitously violent or supernatural way. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule.

[I'm Team Bayley and Indi]

ironically the music video to Thriller is more of a horror

[Red Impact]

Thrillers are designed to elicit excitement and suspense, horrors are designed to elicit dread and uneasiness. That's why the spy thriller is a fairly big genre, with none of the elements of horror. But the line has been muddied a lot by modern horror movies, which are more trussed up thrillers reliant on jumps more than anything else while still calling themselves horror movies.

[Fundertaker]

Well, at least in Portugal, thriller movies are called suspense movies since it's what they basically amount to: build up the suspense throughout the movie into a thrilling conclusion. Horror movies are supposed to add some sort of actual horror (usually scares) to the audience, which is usually more of a visual thing.

[Throwback]

I've always differentiated the two by saying Horror is just meant to scare you while Thriller is meant to make you think.

Basically Horror has the simple plots like "Boy drowns in lake, comes back to take revenge" and that's all you really need to know.

But Thrillers have more in depth plots that keep you guessing. I guess the first that comes to mind as an example would be scream. Where the characters have backstories that you need to know and you have to follow what's going on for it to make any sense.

So I guess. Horror = Gore for the sake of gore. Thriller = stories that make you think

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Apr 20, 2017 11:00:33 GMT -5 Throwback said:

I've always differentiated the two by saying Horror is just meant to scare you while Thriller is meant to make you think.

Basically Horror has the simple plots like "Boy drowns in lake, comes back to take revenge" and that's all you really need to know.

But Thrillers have more in depth plots that keep you guessing. I guess the first that comes to mind as an example would be scream. Where the characters have backstories that you need to know and you have to follow what's going on for it to make any sense.

So I guess. Horror = Gore for the sake of gore. Thriller = stories that make you think

I very much disagree with that considering a lot of works that make me think are horror, not to mention horror works don't need to be very gory and indeed a lot of them aren't. I also don't think that gory and psychological or clever are mutually exclusive, just like how I don't think thrillers are inherently smart (not that I think they're inherently dumb either).

[The Thread Barbi]

When it's close to midnight it's a driller.