"There has been some discussion of the terms terror and horror. And attempts to make distinctions. Boris Karloff ... might occasionally be persuaded to offer an opinion on such matters. It is worth recording that in his view horror is a response to a physical reality, such as murder and torture, whereas terror (a more intense form of fear) is awakened in the presence of the supernatural, the unknown, the invisible threat. I find this distinction persuasive."J A Cuddon, in his introduction to the Penguin Book of Horror Stories.
Personally, I'm not so persuaded - very many, if not the majority, of horror stories feature some element of the supernatural, as do many horror films. Having said that, I can see Karloff's point. I don't enjoy slice-and-dice movies but I do like what you might term supernatural thrillers; maybe the former are therefore the true horror films.
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