How to horror

What, to you, are the most import aspect's of a horror?

For me it's blood (gore) because I love a bit of splatter, that and a good brutal bludgeoning.

Suspense and the unknown, a movie that never really tells you what's going on but leaves it up to your imagination, because the scariest thing, is the thing we are not aware of.

Its definitely about the unknown. Fuck the gore.
The psychological thrill is what really gets to me. The disturbing, the impossible, creatures or ideas that the most twisted part of my brain wouldn't have even dared to think of.

Gore isn't what i like in a horror movie... if the story right ... scares me more then freddy slicing and dicing.

Gore is more amusing to me than it is frightening, it even gets kinda funny to me if it's over the top. What really scares me is the concept of things in movies being possible IRL. That's why I think The Shining is so scary. It's not some ghost-girl popping out of your tv after a week, that's just silly, albeit creepy. Instead, it's just an average guy. An average guy that became insane, grabbed an axe, and went out to kill folk. It's scary because it's actually possible in reality, which drives the fear factor close to home, giving it more of an impact to the audience.

Ok just to clarify it's not that im scared of gore, I just love it.

As for what creep's me out the unknown is the most important factor.

gotta be the wtf factor. like "in the mouth of madness" that scared the shit out of me when i was little.

has to be outright bizarre! The weirder, the more disconnected and surreal it gets. The gore is like a added plus, its not really that necessary.

Old concepts can work if the story itself is very good.

Sadly, to a lot of horror directors, that usually means flashing something across the screen whilst cranking up the audio after a few seconds of quiet. Sure it catches you off guard, but that invokes the feeling of surprise, not fear. Far too many movies use that tactic to pull of a cheap scare.

The tenseness throughout. Cheap scares are okay, but not to be relied on. The pacing is also very important, and the build up. My favorite movie is probably The Exorcist. Jaws is also way up there. Not too familiar with current horror flicks.