I recently saw the new Hugh Grant-led A24 movie Heretic in theaters. Before I went, I listened to a podcast that described the movie as “more of a thriller than a horror movie.” 

Ouch. 

While the podcast critics gave it a glowing review, this phrase sounded more like a back-handed compliment. Presuming Heretic was going for horror, calling it “more of a thriller” is effectively saying it was not scary. If you’re a standup comedian, you don’t really want to hear your performance referred to as “more of a one-man show” (aka not funny). Sure, it’s a sliding scale; thrillers can be scary and one-man shows can be funny. However, receiving a different label than the one you were going for can sting more than someone just calling it garbage.

I came away from Heretic disagreeing with the podcasters, as I found the movie sufficiently scary. The idea of being held captive, and forced to answer questions about my religion from a potentially violent stranger felt far more frightening than thrilling. My guess is that to most moviegoers, frightening and thrilling are just semantics, but if there is a difference between horror and thriller, then what are the parameters?

Surprise or Suspense?

I asked my friends how they differentiate the horror and thriller genres and their first answer was what most people go to horror movies for: jump scares. The perfectly timed switch in camera angle and blaring horn note can get the audience to white-knuckle grip their armrests. They may induce a scream, a head turn, a semi-curl into the fetal position, or a literal jump. Usually, it’s when the killer sneaks up behind their prey off screen, but an increasingly common jump scare is a person being flattened by a speeding vehicle that none of us saw coming (looking at you, Smile 2). If blood, gore and violence make no difference to you, a filmmaker can get quite creative with jump scares. The Final Destination franchise frequently utilized this tactic, as they spared no expense with gruesome onscreen deaths. 

Thrillers do not necessarily catch us by surprise as much as keep us in suspense amidst various chase scenes, gunfights and hand-to-hand combat. They do not lull you into a false sense of safety for an effective scare; they simply show your hero or heroine hanging from the edge of a proverbial cliff for 10 or 15 minutes at a time. I would boil the difference down to the known versus the unknown. Jason Bourne wasn’t getting haunted or terrorized by a headless horseman or hockey mask aficionado; he was being punched in the face and thrown through windows by government spies. With thrillers, we know who the protagonists are; with horror, we often don’t. 

The Thriller We Know; The Horror We Don’t

Horror movies tend to have a supernatural element to both the universe and the villains themselves. Ghosts, demons, clowns, or just some really weird people. Hugh Grant’s character is not someone you would find on a Magic the Gathering card, but he is strange enough and persistent. Moreover, he lives in an estate on a hill, far removed from the street with no close neighbors. This type of setting is so familiar to the horror genre that it creeps into the titles themselves (i.e. House on Haunted Hill). Sometimes it’s the woods, sometimes it’s a hotel, sometimes it’s a vessel floating through space. There’s immediately a mystique about such a setting, as most of us don’t have a whole lot of friends living in creepy mansions or traveling to Jupiter. It increases the tension, as now we’ve moved from our universe to one where this character can create any dysfunction. However tormented or brutal they are remains to be seen, and the odds of escape or rescue plummet. Horror protagonists are further isolated by inclement weather and, in a more psychological sense, the disbelief of characters that actually can help them. Thrillers frequently take place in a downtown metropolis under blue skies (maybe to simplify shooting action sequences).

The identity of the protagonist matters greatly to how we differentiate the two genres. It is not uncommon in any given genre for the main character to have a “superpower,” whether it’s counting cards, switching to a Rastafarian accent at a moment’s notice, or beating up a garage-full of guys slipping on motor oil. Thrillers tend to have powerful main characters. They are either extremely cunning, such as in political thrillers like Miss Sloane, or physically imposing, like the aforementioned Jason Bourne. They are still an underdog, as they are likely taking on an entire institution. But their background gives us a reason to believe they have a fighting chance. 

Meanwhile, our horror brethren can’t really do anything. They often have to figure out what or who the villain is, which may take a third of the movie, before even figuring out how to defend themselves and their loved ones (another third). Horror movies go for a much more vulnerable profile, often someone we associate with innocence. Horny teenagers, single mothers, third grade children, or as in Heretic, young missionaries. Perhaps the purpose of horror choosing easy targets is that it is scarier to think of an evil force being so indiscriminate with whom it preys on. In thrillers, we often get the sense of who is off limits or considered worthy of protection. Take Trapped, for example, starring Charlize Theron as Karen and Kevin Bacon as Hickey. Yes, Karen’s daughter is kidnapped, but Hickey is merely after a ransom, and the plan goes off the rails when learning of the daughter’s health issues (and Karen fighting back, of course).

Weaponry

Most thriller protagonists are handy with guns, knives, and their fists, which highlights another difference between the genres: the weaponry. Writers in the horror genre almost always go for an abstract version of a weapon, adding to their supernatural feel. The Exorcist uses a Bible, a crucifix and prayer. We’re more than accustomed to the stake in the heart bringing about a vampire’s demise (thanks Buffy). In The Babadook, our heroine fights off a monster with the power of…belief, I guess. I don’t know, she just kinda yells until it goes away (I know there’s a deeper meaning but still!). These “weapons” all make sense when you watch, but a more blunt interpretation is they’re great budget-savers. No real weapons or weapons expert is needed on set; box checked.

Blood and Gore

The use of blood and gore illustrates another distinction between horror and thrillers. In horror, the blood and gore are for the audience. In thrillers, they’re for the characters. Final Destination shows us characters getting beheaded or crushed by construction equipment. Die Hard shows us John McClane with cut up feet as obstacles he has to maneuver around. In the action thriller category, we frequently see characters having to nurse their own wounds or figure out how to hide them from villains. It becomes a part of the plot; the rising stakes and the decreasing odds of success. 

Horror and Thriller Resolutions

The conclusions of horror movies and thrillers tend to vary. In thrillers, our heroes win far more often than not. They outsmart or beat up the bad guy, they clear their name, and they either return to everyday life or get ready for the next mission. The glaring exception off the top of my head is Arlington Road, the 1999 thriller about a professor who believes his neighbors may be terrorists (they are). Much of the time, though, good triumphs over evil, and even in conspiracy thrillers, the protagonist makes it to safety whether or not the conspiracy continues. 

Horror tends to have a more pessimistic bend. The group of main characters rarely make it out unscathed, most meeting their untimely end and the survivor (usually dubbed the “final girl”) left scarred for life and still not really safe. The vast majority of horror films keep hope alive for a sequel, so the writer and director do the most complicated mental gymnastics possible to suggest that the threat is still out there. 

Movies often get studied in focus groups before release to see how the ending fares with test audiences, and the fact that thrillers have more positive endings suggest favoritism towards the names we know versus the ones we don’t. Thrillers tend to have an A-lister front and center. We as audience members do not like seeing our favorite box office draws get axed, and if you glance at some of their contract clauses, you’ll probably see that they don’t like it either. Meanwhile, horror movies, which are often low-budget, tend to have lesser known actors and the filmmakers have no problem killing them off or replacing them for the sequel. Smile 2, for instance, features a completely different main character than its predecessor and, very early on, does away with the only returning character. Are they complete no-names or bad actors? No, but it didn’t cost $20 million to book them either.

Maybe a good tell is how we interact with each genre. MovieWeb lists the highest grossing horror movies and the highest grossing thrillers. They have one movie in common: The Sixth Sense. It’s second on the horror list, only seventh on the thriller list. This difference suggests thrillers are more popular and more mainstream, which makes sense as many of them can be branded as action movies with a formidable cast. The horror genre has a smaller but more fervent fan base, and the experience of being scared is heavily dependent on music and sound effects. As Alfred Hitchcock states, “There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.” This reality compels many fans of the genre to watch the most anticipated horror films while they are in theaters, which makes it telling that they still do not outperform their thriller counterparts.

The End

Okay, these are a lot of thoughts for a throwaway comment on a podcast I listened to. In looking back, though, there seems to be quite a few differences between horror and thriller (at least from where I’m sitting). Your preference for one or the other may speak volumes about your cinematic tastes. Do you prefer to be scared or simply excited? Do big-name actors or small budgets draw you to the box office? Are you squeamish and empathetic or do you enjoy the blood and gore? What piques your interest more, films grounded in reality or the supernatural? And most of all, what kind of ending do you need: Thomas Jane in Deep Blue Sea (we did it) or Thomas Jane in The Mist (oop)?