Terror vs Horror
by juliusmsanz
Yesterday I got to watch an old favorite: Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
It brought back some nice memories and inspired me today to speak about the not so subtle differences between terror and horror.
They are completely different things. Terror is more about anxiety and distress, it’s about feeling scared and more than scared. Horror revolves around disgust and shock, it’s about feeling disgusted with something. If you watch a movie where blood flows every minute and people are mutilating themselves then you are watching a horror movie. It wants you to feel disgusted and sick and nauseous. But if you watch a movie where you know something bad is going to happen, but it takes the time to set everything right to scare you to death, then you are watching a terror movie. You see, terror is all about you finishing the movie and feeling scared about a situation similar to what’s happened in the movie. It wants you to feel dread and anxiety. The fear goes with you.
Let me give you an example:
A few years ago I had the chance to watch Hostel. If you didn’t see it, then I’m sorry but I’ll have to spoil it. Hostel is a great example of a potential great terror movie turned into an average horror movie. Let’s leave the racial remarks aside. Some youngsters go out and decide to travel across Europe if I’m not mistaken, and after arriving in some eastern european country some bad things start to happen. They run into a human selling and torturing ring and suffer the consequences. Why can this movie be terrifying? Because it can scare you, telling you not to go to Europe. Shady things happen, people get kidnapped, people get killed. It’s scary, it can make people second guess themselves into not travelling abroad. Travelling is great by the way, it’s a very unique experience that can enrich you beyond belief.
And then it turns into a horror film because it shows graphic violence without even thinking about it. I can remember the scene of the girl with her eye out. That’s gruesome to say the least, and then the girl kills herself after seeing her reflection. It’s shocking. Did the movie need that to be more scary? No. It just wanted to make you sick.
Terror is all about subtlety, Horror is the exact opposite. There are plenty of horror films out there, but no so many terror films. I find it harder and harder to be truly scared and let my imagination run wild from the scare as time goes on. When I was a child things were different. I remember grabbing all my toys and locking them because I was scared they would come to life and maybe attack me.
Anyways this is it for now, later I’ll have to properly thank some people who nominated me for some awards, do some nominations myself and share some things about me.
Have a nice day!
Writing Smarter 
Frankenstein, Dracula, Twilight Zone all the older stories are bone chilling still. I’m with you. I prefer the subtle approach.
I grew up on horror flicks and still love them. The scariest movie I can remember? Terminator. The idea had me up at night.
Heartless, no soul, no purpose other than its programming. Unstoppable. It can’t empathize. You can’t sway it. It’s coming to get you and no one is going to believe you or help you.
You know it. And Twilight Zone’s great!
I crushed so hard on Rod when I was a little girl 😉
This is a fun topic to think and read about! I believe that the usage of terms like horror and terror change over time. Back in the 30s and 40s horror movies were ones like Frankenstein and Dracula, but by the late 50s horror had to be more graphic to qualify. Note the gore content difference between the earlier Universal monsters and the ones in Hammer films and Roger Corman’s Poe-themed movies.
Another genre term you didn’t use that balances elements of both terror and horror is SUSPENSE. The tension created through anticipation can be resolved either through horror or terror, terror (fear) being more subtle.
You bring a valid point, because suspense is the build. However I believe that suspense is much more associated with terror than horror. Hitchcock’s a master of suspense, and you can see he always went subtle. Thanks for your input
I can deal with horror movies, as they are mostly, ‘in your face’ stuff. I don’t like the stuff that makes me terrified, psychological thrillers do that. Give me nightmares for weeks!
Great post 🙂
That’s terror films for you!