Horror VS Thriller
What is the difference between a horror and thriller film?
The general conventions between the different genre of films alter slightly for their variating purposes. All horror films have the intentions and purpose of ‘horrifying’ the viewers. This signifies that you can expect all horror films to aim to scare the viewers. This differs from thriller films, which although they may comprise horror scenes, do not have the sole purpose of scaring their audience. All thrillers have different but sometimes similar storylines that often build tension up till a ultimate climax. As thriller films invoke high levels of tension and excitement in our bodies they are attractive to audiences for these rare feelings that we get watching these films. Others, who may prefer the fearful and tense atmosphere surrounding horror films may prefer them over thrillers. The main difference is that thrillers can vary from films about stalking and crime like ’The purge’ all the way to mind tricks and games like the famous ‘Inception’.
Dark scenes with eerie lighting is used to create fear and smiling faces act as a contrast to movie so viewer is on edge.
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Similar darkness however image does not convey fear but rather interest and mystery so not all aimed to scare.
Horrors often try to scare viewers through the supernatural and with timed jump cuts or 'scares' and often emphasise youth and innocence in relation to fear factors.
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On the other hand thrillers often pick up upon the unnatural such as the lack of people/ emptiness as seen above to raise the mystery and also the tension created.
Evaluation:
We completed this task as a general note on what people would associate when they thought of thrillers. As many thrillers are almost crime dramas a lot of the iconography related to crime. Such as handcuffs and magnifying glasses. This helped us realise how common crime thrillers are, so we wanted to bridge that gap and do something out of the ordinary but without changing the foundations of the genre.
Maxwell St. Hill