Origins of the Term "Thriller" and why it should be abolished.

In the 90's after the wake of the 1980's horror movie boom, the word "horror" sort of became a no-no, very taboo if you will. So instead of labeling movies as "Horror" films studios decided to start calling things "Thriller"s. A LOT of these films went on to become very successful and revered in the eyes of the general public. Let's examine some of these movies and look at why they're NOT thrillers but instead horror films.

Silence of the Lambs - Silence of the Lambs was billed as a thriller to the movie goers, but look at its content. The story is about an FBI agent that goes to an imprisoned cannibal to seek advice about catching a serial killer that skins his victims to make a suit of their flesh. Yea that's definitely not a horror movie.

Se7en - A serial killer that kills people in various ways related to the seven deadly sins, including (POSSIBLE SPOILERS): Forcing a man to cut off one pound of his own flesh, giving a pretty woman the option of living ugly or dying beautiful, and strapping a man to his bed for a year.

Misery - A. this is based on a story by Stephen King, and this isn't a Green Mile or Shawshank Redemption so you can bet its a horror story. B. Its about an author that gets held against his will in an obsessed fan's home. That is pretty scary in my opinion.

The Sixth Sense - A story about a boy that can see ghosts? Horror.

Hard Candy - A girl extracts revenge on a man that she suspects is a pedophile by torturing him. Yes, its a horror film.

Bug - People think that bugs are crawling under their skin?

P2 - A man locks a girl in the parking garage of her work on Christmas eve and stalks her/kills people "for her". Oh yea, not horror at all.


If you look at the lists of "Thriller" films online the list only gets longer as the years get closer to the present, because people either don't want to admit they've made a horror film or they've made something that isn't exactly an action movie or isn't exactly a drama so they stick it in the thriller category.

In conclusion 90% of Thriller films are a lie and can easily be classified into another genre. There are however a select few that could be called thrillers but not nearly enough to warrant its own genre. Thriller should be seen as a sub-genre of horror, not its own.