Analysing The Differences Between Thriller and Horror Films

After analysing the opening of 'Silence of the Lambs' by looking at why the opening of the film was a thriller and not a horror we felt we needed to define and clarify the clear difference between the two so throughout researching and producing our opening of a film we were certain on what we were heading
towards.

We would say that a horror is a film based on showing things of 'horror' such as gruesome murders and torture where as a thriller is widely known as a film which as based on suspense, and more likely to be from the victim's point of view, some thrillers do contain murders and torure but they are not shown and the suspense in thrillers normally lead up to solving the crime behind these gruesome acts




We feel the the thriller genre involves a lot of suspense and excitement, and the films are usually plot driven, and contain a lot about crime, spy or mystery or executing clever plans. Most horror films are made to be exciting and suspenseful however they usually involve a main character that deals with terrifying situations. These include things such as creatures, own psychological fears, aliens, serial killers, inner fears and ghosts and many more. The main focus within horror films are dark, twisted and usually results in traumatic, strange and frightening experiences for the characters within the film. It does however not necessarily involve graphic violence but is more likely too in comparision to a thriller film.