I understand (and agree) with the “horror is about trauma” take. The issue when people don’t understand the difference between actually having that theme organically and forcing it in.
Don’t believe me. Compare the original Black Christmas with the 2019 remake. One is actually a frightening film with feminist themes and the other can only be described as “What if Buzzfeed made a very bad horror movie”
This is why I think horror is much easier to write if you think like a comedian and have weird ideas. “What if there was a secret society of men focused on putting down women” is harder to scare people with than “what if there was a creepy dude in an attic who killed people”