Defining Horror/Thriller/Supernatural/etc.?

[Alyssa]

I'm trying to figure out what makes these genre - how would you define them? I know there are often overlap of several in many stories, and I know they overlap in my mind, so how would you define each to make them distinctive from the other?

-Thriller
-Horror
-Supernatural
-Mystery
-Fantasy
-Sci-fi

[DiegoPalacios]

For what i understand:

-Horror focuses on scaring your readers

-Thriller focuses on darker themes and suspense.

-Mistery focuses on....well, mistery. This one can work wonders if you are good at foreshadowing and making a clever twist.

-Supernatural focuses on a normal world where something breaks with the normal, for example, a ghost, aliens, bigfoot, sorcery.

-Fantasy is in a fantastic world/setting. These tend to have magic but how much magic it has it depends of the kind of fantasy and the world. There are many types of fantasy

-Sci-fi is similar to fantasy but more technologically inclined, and the extraordinary will probably come from other planet, techonology or experiments/virus, etc...Exploring other planets is a possibility too.

[mariusthered]

-Thriller-Horror-Supernatural-Mystery-Fantasy-Sci-fi

-Thriller - something that i enjoy an cannot wait to get to the next bit while not wanting it to end.
-Horror- a story that brings out my fears (horses attacking in my case!)
-Supernatural - a story that cannot really be believed yet events are happening
-Mystery - a detective case to be solved
-Fantasy- something with weird creatures and things with pointy ears.
-Sci-fi - things with pointy ears but in outer space.

[rmdooley]

Horror-speculative fiction with the intention to shock, frighten, induce feelings of terror in the audience

Thriller- characterized by a mood of suspense, anticipation, tends to play more psychological than horror does

Supernatural-inclusion of plot mechanisms and themes that occur outside the laws of the natural world (I tend to think of supernatural as a 'dirty fantasy.' It is more likely to take place in your hometown than Hobbiton and there will be monsters under the bed rather than elves across the river)

Mystery-A protagonist (private eye, detective, nosy teenager) solves crime. Usually procedural in presentation to the audience

Fantasy-The cognitively estranging elements operate outside the realm of the possible. The unrealistic mechanisms of the story are credited to something beyond the natural world such as magic. (I would put supernatural as a subgenre of fantasy)

Sci-fi-The cognitively estranging elements DO exist in the realm of the possible. The unrealistic elements COULD be realized one day and are presented to the audience through scientific-based explanation. (Scientific accuracy may vary, particularly depending on subgenre: cyberpunk, space opera, military sci-fi, etc.)

[Hexigate]

There are my personal definitions, stemming from my own observations.

-Thriller: Not entirely sure, but most stories that are labeled as "thrillers" seem to be action-oriented, only with horror elements.

-Horror: Any general exploration of the unusual and strange. The idea is that anything that is unknown can illicit terror (jump-scares not required). Personally, I would also add that such horrors serve to express the fragility of humans.

-Supernatural: A story with elements of what is considered outside the realms of our known sciences. They seem to refer mostly to existing mythos; demonology, angelology, cryptids, etc.

-Mystery: A story revolving around a question. The protagonist and friends would work to answer that question, and that makes the plot.

-Fantasy: A super-general, all-encompassing category, a fantasy is any story with major elements that go beyond realism. (Emphasis on major elements, because a lot of fictional stories are not fantasy because they don't rely on as much imagination.) When people think fantasy, they think LOTR or any old folklore with monsters. In reality, fantasy also includes almost all of Marvel's movies and Star Wars.

-Sci-fi: Stories that speculate the future of human civilization as technology progresses: Society, politics, culture, anything. Stories that are pure science fiction usually philosophize how humans will interact with technologies that will challenge our current "norms", such as Artificial Intelligence, alien encounters, genetic manipulation of humans, stuff like that.

[Zaboem]

I am not even going to answer because @rmdooley already wrote everything I have to say and wrote it better than I would have done.

[djwaglmuffin]

I'll tell you:

All my favorite genres (except for hack and slash horror)

[Alyssa]

@DiegoPalacios @rmdooley My shining stars of genre definition! Thanks!