What is a horror film?

What is a horror film?
Wikipedia definition: ‘Horror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness. Many horror movies also include a central villain.’
Personal
A horror film has to have the audiences own identification of fear included in the narrative:
• Fear of monsters or the unknown
• Fear of the body being mutilated/tortured
• Our personal boundaries being transgressed e.g. if we are in our house and the door is locked we don’t expect anyone to invade.
These terrors are enjoyed by the audience watching at a safe distance due to the adrenaline rush we get through watching it and then the relief that it isn’t us.
Ideological
Stereotypically, horror movies have an underlying message attached to them. These are usually themes of punishment/ rejection or revulsion at subjects society has deemed wrong. This differs from simplistic morals like the rebellious ‘slutty’ girl getting killed instead of her ‘virgin’, ‘good girl’ friend who survives, to the more subtle fears of strangers/ hitchhikers overstepping our boundaries.
Traditionally a horror movie condemns non-Christian beliefs and usually involves some form of religion or praying to defeat the horror. However with our more modern perception of science instead of religion, we rationalize the supernatural and defeat it with psychology rather than chants or prayers.
Instead of the traditional monsters, modern day media exchanges them by taking sections of society that is considered wrong and labeling them. For example pedophiles (are there more than there were in the past, or have people just been reporting it more) and escaped mental patients who brutally murder innocent people (how many mental people actually harm people).
Industrial/ Financial
Horror is an extremely lucrative genre because the movies are generally cheap to make and they draw in a wide audience. This causes lots of remakes/ reinventions of every successful horror product to make maximum profit, for example the saw movies.