Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Silence of the Lambs
Untraceable
Uninvited

I recently saw all 4 films.  They all deal with psychopathic killers.  First and last film are typically classified as horror films whereas middle two are classified as thrillers.  What differentiates thrillers dealing with psychopathic killers from horror films?  Why are Saw films and Hostel classified more as horror rather than thriller?

Oh, the fun of genre!  Genre is such a subjective item, it's hard to put any hard and fast rules on it.  But, I'll give my 2 cents on this.

Thrillers are about suspense.  Most horror movies would also fit the definition of thriller, but they add the additional elements of blood and gore.  Also, horror movies typically focus more on the kill rather than the killer.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Definitely a horror movie to me.  It's all about the blood and gore.

Silence of the Lambs - Thriller.  There is some blood and gore, but it isn't the primary focus of the movie.  It focuses more on the psychological scare than the shock of a kill.

Untraceable - Thriller.  Again, like Silence of the Lambs, this focuses more on the chase and the suspense around the kills rather than the kills themselves.

Uninvited - Can't say since I have not seen this movie.

Horror is a problem without the 'Thriller' part of the question... how something like The Hostel (torture/pain/gore horror), Blair Witch (suspense/chills horror) and Chris Lee's Dracula (fantasy/traditional horror) can actually be one genre is not really telling the watcher anyhting.

Then there's the question of somethign like Buffy that, because it has vampires in, has the horror genre despite the fact it never really set out to horrofy anyone (FWIW my local has anything with vamps/werewolves etc that's not intended to scare/horrify the audience just as Fantasy but i know from discussions on here more disagree with me than agree... that's what local is for!)

I believe Addicted has a huge set of tags specifically to address this issue alone!

Personally I wouldn't think to call Uninvited a horror film. Maybe it plays like a horror film for 90%, but after the twist it's anything but.

I'll give it props though, I had the BD from the library and watched it a second time (a rarity for me). It didn't hold up nearly as well knowing what was coming, but did play well on both levels. If I had to catergorize it, I'd go "Psychologicaly thiller" mixed with good old fashioned "F'ed up".

Quoting Lord Of The Sith:

Quote:
I hate this generalization but it is the best one I have heard.  If you have to think then it is a thriller.  If there is a lot of nude coeds getting slashed to bits its horror.  There are obvious exceptions to this rule.

I've never heard that, but damn, as much as I dislike it, it does have merit.

Quoting surfeur51:

Quote:
Horror = mostly gore and(or) monsters

Thriller = mostly chilling atmosphere

But as for most of other things, I hate black and white reasoning, and everyone can discuss from which grey you move from thriller to horror.

That's imo what matches the best.

Thrillers are scarying with the atmosphere. Horrors more with the pictures that are used.

But like all Genres it's many times your personnel thinking what's deciding and the transitions are floating.