Way back here, I wrote a post trying to define the line between the two genres of Horror and Thriller. That post does cover a lot of opinions about how to define them, but rather than repeat them here, just go have a quick read.
The post ends with my decision that genre is defined by what audience you intend to market your film to. While I was quite happy with that, I have still been catching my lead trying to explain it to people as a thriller, and trying to swing him around has just proved rather frustrating. Until last night.
I had this genre defining thought a few days ago, but after having my tongue super charged by red wine and 15 cups of Turkish coffee, it was time to let it out into the world, where it was greeted with open arms. Needless to say, my lead will now be selling it as a horror film.
Relentless is essentially a chase/slasher movie, except that the killer is not some deformed freak who lives in the woods wearing some mask, rather he is a realism based serial killer. Had he been a machete wielding mask wearing killing behemoth, the genre line would not have been such a issue.
Whenever I try to think of similar movies to Relentless I seemed to only think of thrillers, which still didn't quite match up to my idea of how Relentless would look and feel. Some films about killers set in the real world (ie, with no supernatural elements) such as Se7en, Silence of the Lambs and Kiss the Girls are clearly thrillers, and not just because of the high brow/low brow approach.
The difference is on the Point Of View. In each of those three films, the protagonist is seeking out the killer, who remains unseen to them oftentimes, until the films climax. They pursue the killer to try to save the victim, following the information and clues set out before them. But they aren't the victim for the duration of the film. Yes, they often do step into those shoes at one point in the film, but that is more about character rather than genre.
Whereas for a horror film, we are on the journey with the victim. Yes, a lot of thrillers show us a few scenes involving the victim, but that is often more to add a sense of dread and urgency to our real hero's journey (eg, The Cell, Silence of the Lambs). However in a horror film, the hero is that victim, and we are on that journey with them.
As mentioned on my last post about this, I read a definition of genre that was close to this idea, but just missed out. And that was 'Horror shows, Thriller implies'. However there's no implying about the seven victims in Se7en and there's no seeing the final depravity in Martyrs. The real difference is who's journey are we on?
The simplest way to explain is like this. A thriller is where we are pursuing, a horror where we are being pursued. This is both actual and figuratively.
If The Silence of the Lambs was a horror film, it would be about the young girl Buffalo Bill captures, and we would be down there in the pit with her, rubbing lotion on our skin. Clarice Starling would be a sub plot thrown in there to raise our anxiety of running out of time. Which is essentially Saw, where we are in that bathroom with our hero, deciding whether or not to saw our foot off, and the Detectives are really there to give us some vital or not so vital information, and to up the ante on the time pressure already established.
So, when trying to figure out if the film you've just written/seen is a horror or a thriller, just think about who's story it is, and whether the protagonist is pursuing or being pursued.
Now that I've written this down, it does seem glowingly obvious as to the genre definition, but let me know what you think, or if there are genre films you think break my theory.
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