Why do directors make horror flicks, i mean sure ...

First of all, anyone who gets ideas from movies is mentally disturbed most likely prone to do something horrible with or without the movie. Insane people have always been out there. You really can't blame movies or books or games or music for making them do something horrible. If you're stupid enough to want to copy anything you saw in a movie you're too stupid and too far removed from reality to live anyway.

You must consider also that horror was the first form of storytelling. When cavemen sat around the fire they likely told stories about how horrible things would happen if you went out into the forest at night or if you broke the tribe's rules. Fairy tales? All horror stories, really. I mean, murder, cannibalism, child abuse, decapitation, crushing, all the standards of horror can be found in fairy tales in their original versions. Consider them cautionary tales. As well, most people LIKE to be scared. As long as they're scared safely.

As far as directors, there can be several reasons. On a personal level, directors like Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro love horror, and both started their careers making horror movies. As did many directors.

And horror is a guaranteed money maker. In the 30s and 40s and 50s, horror was the financial mainstay of the movie business. The Chucky films literally saved the movie studio that made them. They were about to go into the dumper after making a series of artsy fartsy serious movies no one liked, then they made Chucky and that made enough money to save the studio and allowed them to make more artsy fartsy serious movies no one liked.

And horror is popular. To a point. I've made horror movies, and as an author, I write horror. But even I am not a fan of the recent torture porn school of horror. No point to it. And it takes it too far. The violence ceases to have impact. Using gore and violence, great, I'm all for it. But you should like the characters, and there should be a reason for the gore, it should have impact. CARNIES, the next film I have coming out is old school horror. Doesn't even have nudity. That was the director's choice, not mine as the writer, but it was okay. I prefer old school horror.

Horror will always be with us as it always has, because human beings do horrible things and the rest of us often use horror in order to deal with those events and to try to figure out what we would do in the situation. Cautionary tales, as I said.

FG-

To sum up BS's post. It is the bottom line.

The Golden Starches began as a burger joint. So why did they start selling latte lately? And McCrib sandwiches?

Jay

I think you mean "slasher movies". Horror is a very diverse genre that includes fantasy creatures like vampires, werewolves and aliens.  These creatures are fun to be scared of because they aren't real and therefore nothing to worry about when your head hits the pillow.  As for the slasher films, all I can say is that there are some sick people out there, and we can just be grateful that some of them would rather write, produce or direct their sick inclinations rather than act on them in reality.

Actually, most people who make horror, and I did mean ALL horror, writers, directors etc. are, in my experience, among the gentlest most non violent people in the world. Including me. Most are also cat lovers. Why this is, I don't know. Possibly because any aggression or thoughts of violence we have, we set down in words and get out and thus never have to even come close to acting them out.