>The IMDb classifies The Sixth Sense as thriller/drama/horror.  I'm
>interested in the thriller and horror aspects of the film and want to
>explain the difference between the two in simplified terms to my students
>here in Japan.  I'm having a little trouble so would appreciate any
>insights from listmembers.
>

I've always assumed that a major difference between thrillers and horror
films had to do with the nature of the threat itself - horror films deal
more with the monstrous and/or the unconscious, while thrillers operate
within a more conventional 'reality'. The horror genre seems to examine and
play with all of those unconscious, irrational fears about things which
disrupt our humanity - either mutated forms of humanity, or other life
forms which physically threaten us, or just expereinces which are unable to
be controlled through human technology or intelligence. The horror film
either directly examines these types of fears or displaces them onto some
kind of monstrous alien figure.

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