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Hey Helio, I got this off another site... I think it answers everything in detail.
"Terror / Horror. Terror is fear, taken raw. Horror is fear, digested. Let's omit for now the political context, and deal with these things as they affect one individual. Terror is what happens when you are in great and immediate fear (provoked by danger and menace, and perhaps other things). It activates the sympathetic nervous system, initiating what some have called the "fight or flight" response. The body prepares itself for an emergency which is not emergent, but already here. You may sweat, get goosebumps, and have your irises and bronchi dilate. You need to pump air, because your heart is already pumping out more blood. Some blood vessels (like those in the long muscles and skin) enlarge to accommodate more blood, to provide energy where it is needed. Some vessels compress, like those in the G.I. tract, where the sphincters also may contract. Incontinence is observed in some individuals. The sympathetic nervous system includes many nervous pathways, and the endocrine system as well. The adrenal glands pump out epinephrine at a greatly increased rate. Some individuals may be paralyzed by fear ("in a funk"), others may be able to take off running. Some can even fight back (circumstances permitting). Being terrified is a whole body experience. Being horrified may lead to nausea and nightmares, but we experience it much more cerebrally, as an observer. We are appalled by what we observe, disgusted, sometimes filled with dread and foreboding. It's an emotional experience, but it has more to do with what's happening around us than what's happening to us."
From a genre perspective, there isn't a difference here. There actually isn't even a "terror" genre, officially. Some close genres are thriller, suspense, and horror (with the slasher subset), but no terror. Thought I'd throw that out as well...
Was your question serious, Helio? The serious answer is there is no difference. They are synonyms. Terror and horror are the same thing -- it's like asking what is the difference between dumb and stupid. (Not that you are either of those haha)
The difference between Horror and Thriller is the "reality" factor.
Horror is monsters and ghosts and Jason and stuff. Things that can not actually happen.
Thrillers involve people. Technically, everything in Psycho could have actually happened. I would contend that Scream and IKWYDLS are actually thrillers.
Dogglebe is right about Hitchcock for the most part. Except for maybe The Birds. That is a Horror film.
Did you get this out of the Ravenloft AD&D rulebook?
I got it from a site called The Phrase Finder... or something like that. It was posted by some guy who may have gotten it from somewhere else. Why did you ask? Is it from where you said?
DVD's like "The Exorcist", for example, are found in the Horror section, yet this type portrays something that can (and does) really happen to people
Simplistic Horror is usually thought of as teens getting killed off by numbers in a scary location--with little or no reaction to the loss of human life. Monsters, giant vegetable attacks, etc. are often more funny than scary.
Thrillers generally avoid blatant gore. Ghosts can fit in nicely here.
Looks like a category called "Terror" is needed to separate the fine lines of mixed genres.
I also noticed that on some DVD's it will be rated whatever for scenes of horror, and then on another DVD there will be scenes of terror. I've always been confused by that thing.
Go Read Vibration in the shorts section... I'll return the favor...