The difference between a horror and a thriller

Horrors and thrillers. Two movie genres that can be alarmingly alike, yet are entirely different. The confusion between these two genres often stems from, fear-inducing thrillers being mistaken for horror due to the fright produced from it. However, some thrillers do intend to scare the audience, it is not the main objective of a thriller. Here are the differences between a horror film and a thriller film:

INTENT

In plain terms, the purpose of a horror film alone, is to scare, meanwhile for a thriller, it isn't. A thriller usually aims to intrigue the audience with mystery, which when dark enough, can look like a horror. And this is why the two genres are sometimes mixed up. One thing to note is that thrillers are usually more story-driven than horrors.

JUMPSCARES

Once again, thrillers main focus isn't to scare the audience so features such as jumpscares would not usually appear. Horror films on the other hand frequently make use of this technique to keep the viewers on the edge of their seats.

NO HOPE

Horror films don't usually have a surprising story. Everyone usually just dies. And that is why they are different from thrillers. This lack of hope in horror films is quite the opposite in thrillers where the mystery usually continues to give the protagonists hope.

FOCUSED ON DEATH

Another difference of horrors from thrillers is its focus on death. This the reason death is nearly always included in a horror, usually because most horrors make use of death to keep the audience in the belief there is danger.