• Wondering which camera, gear, computer, or software to buy? Ask in our Gear Guide.

Horror vs. Thriller: What's the difference?

I'm almost finished my next script, a Horrror screenplay. I mean a Thriller. No, most likely a horror.

Can someone give me an industry definition between the two?

My script isn't horror like, say, "The Grudge", but it does contain supernatural elements.

Any help would be appreciated as I hesitate to cross-pollenate and use the cop out "horrror / thriller"
 
indietalk said:
At the screenwriting stage, I would think the genre definition would be very important. If you're commissioned to write a horror, you should know exactly what they want without asking what they mean by horror.

If you're commissioned to write a script, you're not going to know exactly what they want unless they tell you or you ask them. That has nothing to do with genre. If they say they want a horror film, that could mean a lot of things. Do they want The Grudge, or do they want Friday the 13th? Both are horror films but both are radically different in terms of style and how they scare you. It depends on the producer.
 
Beeblebrox said:
If you're commissioned to write a script, you're not going to know exactly what they want unless they tell you or you ask them. That has nothing to do with genre. If they say they want a horror film, that could mean a lot of things. Do they want The Grudge, or do they want Friday the 13th? Both are horror films but both are radically different in terms of style and how they scare you. It depends on the producer.
That's why filmy said, you have a meeting about the genre.
 
indietalk said:
That's why filmy said, you have a meeting about the genre.

That's not what filmy is saying at all. He's saying there is a hard and fast "industry" definition of each genre, and your "horror" pitch had better have supernatural elements, and that there are lengthy discussions about why you've classified your movie in a certain genre.

None of that is true. If it were, then there wouldn't by any need to have a meeting about the genre. Once they told you it was a horror, that would be the end of it and you'd know exactly what to write. But that's ridiculous.
 
Last edited:
The problem I am encountering is the sale of a spec script in the Inktip world.

A wrong classification there will get me absolutely nowhere fast. It may be different in the film world, but when you have a dozen checkboxes to fill out, and you have to pick, a choice needs to be made.

Inktip has boxes to check which suggest a standard definition.

Incidentally, this is one of the biggest weaknesses of Inktip: My inability to classify my film or to 'check the boxes' correctly will piss off producers, not get my script noticed, etc. etc.

So now you know the context of my question.
 
Beeblebrox said:
That's not what filmy is saying at all. He's saying there is a hard and fast "industry" definition of each genre, and your "horror" pitch had better have supernatural elements, and that there are lengthy discussions about why you've classified your movie in a certain genre.

Hmmm. Is that what I said?

I don't recall saying that your horror script BETTER HAVE supernatural elements. I also didn't say there was a HARD and FAST industry definition of each genre...

I do remember saying that it is perfectly acceptable to call your screenplay a “horror thriller.” --Is that what you consider hard and fast?

I wasn't aware that I was going to have to give a history lesson here...

Horrors started out BEING horrors because of the supernatural element to them. Supernatural doesn't have to mean what we generally think of as supernatural i.e., ghosts, monsters, demons, zombies, wolfmen, vampires, etc...

A supernatural element can be as simple as Michael Myers not dying. In a more recent film, WOLF CREEK, the supernatural elements were the crater and everyone's watch not running anymore even though those elements were not fleshed out to any conclusion. The Australian Outback in and of itself can be supernatural if, for no other reason, than it is foreign to most audience members i.e., out of their natural world.

In HOSTEL, the supernatural element is the fact that people are selling people to be tortured... No witches, no goblins, LOL.

What I said was that generally speaking, horror screenplays are fantasy or supernaturally based. I also said that the lines have obviously become blurred but the fact remains that most good horror scripts have supernatural elements to them.

Granted, I've only optioned one screenplay (a thriller) and sold one screenplay (a horror thriller) so I'm not claiming to be the end-all expert as you seem to think I'm claiming to be. In addition to these screenplays, I've had too many meetings to count where I have IN FACT discussed genre at great length.

As a matter of fact, in the script I sold a few months ago, I've had several meetings as well as conference calls where several producers and I discussed the supernatural elements of my screenplay.

I also never said that you would have a meeting just to discuss the genre of your screenplay... I wouldn't go so far as to say that having a meeting about genre is absurd but genre does in fact come up.

In almost every meeting I've ever had (remember, too many to count), the meeting was with producers and execs that have already read the script. They already know what they think. Now they want to know what YOU think and you had better be able to discuss this AT LENGTH with them if you want to do business.

In these discussions, I've had to heavily discuss character arc, theme, supernatural elements, strong vs. weak first acts, subplots... You name it, I've discussed it and I've discussed it with some pretty big wigs over the years...

But you're ABSOLUTELY CORRECT in that I certainly cannot attest to your experiences within the subject matter as you cannot attest to mine but what I do know is this...

Once you tell a producer, director, or studio exec with some status what genre your screenplay is and you do sit down for a meeting, genre is not a dead horse (like this thread)... You need to be prepared to discuss and defend the genre you've selected for your screenplay.

All these people will discuss your script with you on the basis of genre... Some might want you to make it into something else (I've had this discussion too many times to count) i.e., some other genre while others might want you to increase other elements within the genre you've selected... Anything could happen and ANYTHING can be discussed in a meeting.

I also mentioned NOTHING about a pitch in my previous posts in this thread however, I can tell you that I have in fact pitched several times to studio execs and producers in Hollywood... A few of these screenplays have been in the horror genre and one of the first things I was asked was to discuss the supernatural elements...

In my first horror script, I too thought there were no supernatural elements since it was reality based. It was in fact, the producers that asked me to discuss the supernatural elements and it was in THAT discussion long ago that I was taught that supernatural doesn't necessarily have to mean ghosts, monsters, witches, vampires, etc...

I'll finish this dead horse with just one last caveat...

Hollywood professionals do talk genre. They expect you, the screenwriter, to absolutely be familiar with whatever genre your screenplay is. In fact, the more expert you are about that genre, the better because producers, directors, and studio execs WANT their screenwriters to be the experts INSTEAD of them.

filmy
 
Last edited by a moderator:
FilmJumper said:
Hmmm. Is that what I said?

I don't recall saying that your horror script BETTER HAVE supernatural elements. I also didn't say there was a HARD and FAST industry definition of each genre...

If you're having trouble recalling, then let me quote your previous posts on the subject.

"You don't have to trust me but if you write a screenplay and eventually have a meeting with an executive to talk about it, you'd better be prepared to discuss the genre AT LENGTH.

If you say it's a horror script, be prepared to discuss the supernatural elements."

And on whether or not there is a standard industry definition of "horror," you said:

"trust me...There is."

The simple fact that the people YOU'VE met with and the people I've met with differ on their interpretations of genre means that there is NO standard Hollywood definition of "horror." You can have a horror with no supernatural elements. It depends on the script, the writer, the producers.

Hollywood professionals do talk genre. They expect you, the screenwriter, to absolutely be familiar with whatever genre your screenplay is. In fact, the more expert you are about that genre, the better because producers, directors, and studio execs WANT their screenwriters to be the experts INSTEAD of them.

In the interest of ending this rather stupid back-and-forth, I will say that I agree with you that a writer MUST know what his story is, the tone, the style, the vision. That's not the same as being an expert on genre, but it does mean that the writer must be an expert on his own story. No question about it.

However, that really isn't this writer's problem. He's having to fill in boxes on Inktip asking him to narrow down the genre of his film to one supercategory and possibly several sub-categories. It's an inherent limitation of a site like Inktip. In my experience, writers tend to be overly broad with their genres, which is understandable but frustrating on the part of the producer/director looking for a specific kind of script.
 
Last edited:
I've had issues with this for years.. mainly with Blockbuster as they seem to put many horros in DRAMA!

Anyway, I think most of the mainstream thinks horror is a dirty word.

Me I think things are horror that most don't. I think Steven Spielberg's Jaws and War Of The Worlds are horror films. But what do I know. I think I mostly make horror, but I usually say thriller to get more people to watch them :lol:
 
In HOSTEL, the supernatural element is the fact that people are selling people to be tortured... No witches, no goblins, LOL.

I hadn't been paying attention to this thread, because I thought:

a) I knew the answer to the question
&
b) It had been covered in the first couple of postings

It turns out that neither is true: :huh:

So, I'd really like some clarification about the way some execs view the horror genre. In particular this idea that a supernatural element (the defining feature of a horror film) doesn't have to mean "supernatural" in the dictionary sense; it can just mean "something that trancends normal human behaviour in a horrific way." (That's my quote and I'm just fielding it as a way of illicting a clearer definition). Which now I think about it makes sense, slasher horror is about abherent human behaviour, not spooky stuff.

The reason I ask this is that if that is the case I could probably choose to re-genre my screenplay True as a Horror/Thriller; even though there is no dictionary definintion supernatural element - just people being really bad to each other (which strikes me as the very definition of natural human behaviour ;) ).

Oh, and by the way - I've learned stuff from both Bebblebrox and Filmy both here in this thread and in others over the years - You're both knowledgable, experienced guys. I think it's fair to say that as every exec is making this up as they go along, everyone's experience is going to be marginally different. Personally I think we all gain from having both perspectives. Now if you guys will hug in a manly fashion, I'm really interested in learning some more about this.
 
What Clive said.

When I read my screenplay, it doesn't "scare" me the way the Grudge did. It's much more sublte. It has supernatural elements: maybe it's just a different type of horror...

Horror lite? ;)
 
Adamo C. said:
I'm almost finished my next script, a Horrror screenplay. I mean a Thriller. No, most likely a horror.

Can someone give me an industry definition between the two?

My script isn't horror like, say, "The Grudge", but it does contain supernatural elements.

Any help would be appreciated as I hesitate to cross-pollenate and use the cop out "horrror / thriller"

Im hitting this thread a bit late. So forgive me if someone already said this.

but Horrors can be thrillers but thrillers are not always horror films.

:D
 
Back
Top