While reading what you have posted, Gibson's The Passion of the Christ comes to mind, as I would personally classify that film as being a horror movie. I found myself having to walk out of the cinema while the flesh was being torn off of Jesus' back, I could not sit there and watch a man being tortured like that. Though I understand that there is a difference between Jesus' story and that of a standard horror movie plot. Though I am sure on some level Gibson did intend for his film to "horrify" his audience, he clearly did not attempt to sugarcoat Jesus' experience.

I do enjoy horror movies, but prefer the psychological kind over 'Horror Porn' as you call it. People will continue to watch horror movies, it's like taking that haunted ride at the amusement park... it's that horror films contain so many negatives and shockers all wrapped up into one that make them seem so bad, isn't? You could see that horror-like gore in medical drama shows, or that amount of violence and aggressive behaviour in an action movie, and the sexual content, well, you could check that out almost anywhere nowadays.

I agree that 'horror' films are often just a fine excuse to thrill an audience and exploit our so-called 'fight or flight' response for dollar bills. But a sequence in 'Donnie Darko', in which a school teacher suggests that children may need to feel terror in order to fully develop as human beings, makes me wonder if horror films might actually be a welcome (necessary) evil? So we may not ever wind up again (I hope) in an epoch where the average person in 'Western' Society encounters life & death situations on a regular basis. But in the abscence of these 'character-building' scenarios, maybe watching horror films exercises our moral reasoning? In the same way that whilst we may not need to be in good physical shape any more because wooly mammoth is available in local supermarkets at $3.99 per kg but it does our hearts good to run on a treadmill in a gym. I'm suggesting that good/bad/reprehensible horror films may act as a twisted balancing mechanism in a moral universe? And if this is only expressed by a couple walking out of the remake of 'The Hills Have Eyes' during the rape sequence and 'wasting' $10 for the price of admission, that's better than nothing ...