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what seperates thrillers from horror

post #1 of 4
10/20/03 at 3:59am
Thread Starter 
is it just that horror movies have an element of the supernatural in them? or is there more to it?
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post #2 of 4
10/20/03 at 4:11am
Interesting question. I don't know how to answer that one. The terms are kind of fuzzy.

I do know that the supernatural element isn't necessary. For example, Psycho and the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre are both in the "horror" genre. But they are many which are ambiguous. For instance, is Silence of the Lambs or Seven a horror movie or a thriller or both?
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post #3 of 4
10/20/03 at 4:20am
Eventhough there is no one pat answer, I think that it can be as simple as something such as gore factor ...

Take the giallo films of the 70s ... Were they mysteries, thrillers, horror films ??? .... As an example, the film TORSO has no supernatural overtones, and it is basically a murder-mystery elevated to horror becasue of the great gore and brutality ... not to mention the sexy female cast which also is a staple of the horror genre ...

Is Hitchcock's FRENZY a horror film ???

Can Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM be considered horror ???

How about AUDITION ???

In my book, all 3 of those films are horror films, although they are not horror in the same way as your classic monster/supernatural film might be ...

And I think it is good to remember that just because a film transcends genres ( ie PSYCHO ) that doesn't make it any less of a horror film than your run-of-the-mill jump-scare movie ....

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post #4 of 4
10/20/03 at 7:30am
Around 100 million $ in boxoffice...

Didn't they, for example, begin to call The Ring a thriller once it passed that limit?

Actually, for me horror is not about supernatrual but emotions. A movie can be completly real and still scare me senseless. Or it can be a zombie slaughterest. I think, as others have pointed out beore, that horror is a very wide genre. We have everything from movies like Braindead that goes for laughs to movies like Dark Water, serious slow moving "dramas". That is also why it sometimes is difficult to draw the line for where horror begin and thriller end.

Is Identity a thriller or a horror for example? (for me it exists somewhere in the middle, but I do think of it more as a thriller than a horror)

I think that there are no set rules, it's up to each and everyone to see what they think the movies fit in.

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