Sooo I've had opinions on this for years now, and I'm sure some of the older regulars will see it like a broken record. (Or maybe now, I don't remember if I ever went in depth on my viewpoint here before.) I'm a HUGE horror fan, my dad showed me The Blob... or some classic B horror like that when I was 3-4 in hopes of scaring me. It probably did, but he unintentionally awakened some fascination with the genre in me, and I've been watching horror and violent anime since.
(Warning: Discussion of upsetting topics like CSA, SA, abuse, animal abuse.)
There's a lot of nuances when it comes to horror, and it has some interesting psychology related parallels to it and kink porn in how it can/has been utilized over the years. I'll say right now that this doesn't apply to everyone, there are many people who just like to see character suffrage, and find stress relief from fictional violence. (Totally nothing wrong with that, it's completely natural.) Definitely not exactly what you're talking about, but I love talking about this subject so I'm gonna ramble about it anyway.
So there is a method of self-care that is encouraged by therapists called art and writing therapy where a person basically vents their trauma, thoughts and emotions via art and fiction. (There is some Psychology material you can read on these. Art Therapy studies and Writing Therapy studies.) The subject varies depending on the person, many people will create empowering or escapist works, others create dark and cathartic works, or very sexual stuff. The last two are the ones I'm going to talk about.
Fiction and art are fantastic tools to explore and vent trauma and/or mental health struggles because no real people get hurt in the process, and these tools have no boundaries in the sense that you can literally explore everything in vast amount of ways. That being said there are many people who get into creating horror or tragic and darker works for venting or putting their experiences and thoughts into perspective. It's very much a method of self-care, as I've met people who've created self-harm art or gore to satisfy urges to hurt themselves, people who create art and fiction exploring suicidality and death to help deal with their own depression and suicidal ideations, or to cope with the trauma of loss. There are people who make horror fiction with themes of abuse (Familial, spousal, etc.), generational trauma, cultism and such to explore their own childhood/adulthood trauma. Dark fiction/art and horror are SO good for SO many things, and the reason why it's shared it to 1. Present these experiences to others, it can be seen as a form of coming out and sharing a part of yourself you've been struggling with. 2. Find a community. There are many people out there who struggle with trauma and mental health who can't express themselves the same as a writer or artist can, so they look for those works, and can find safety with those who create and consume fiction the way they do.
The same thing can be said for porn and kink art/fiction. While this doesn't apply to everyone, there are some Psychology studies that show possible links between kinks and trauma. For many creating and/or consuming porn and kink art/fiction it can be a way to reclaim control over their bodies and experiences, I've met many queer people and cis/het women who make ero guro, SA or CSA porn, who were survivors of some kind of sexual violence and use fiction as reclamation because it's a safe way for them to do so. (Oddly enough, there's a similar occurrence with cis/het women making yaoi/BL as a way for them to explore sexuality because the nature of it being fiction, and because women aren't involved, they fell safe. There are some theories that many who do this have seen or been around spousal abuse as children, but those are just theories.) Same with people who are part of the BDSM community, many have experiences some kind of childhood trauma, and doing what they do is a form of therapy for them.
That all being said there are gray areas to these. I won't lie that certain horror works can have a negative impact, or cause harm in some way. Although there are some factors to consider with this such as when or the population's understanding of the subject, who sees it, and why. An example of this is the affect the film Jaws had in the 1970's, it became a huge hit, and upon seeing it there was a massive surge of people hunting sharks. Bringing the specie's population down by the thousands, while on a positive not it brought up interest in scientific studies of sharks, giving us the boost to have the knowledge we do know. That being said if Jaws was made today it would be no different than any other Sci-Fi B horror movie like Sharknado, it wouldn't have the same impact as it did back when so few understood the species. I also won't argue that vent art or certain types of porn can do harm. Children/teens, whose prefrontal cortex' are still developing, generally don't understand nuances yet and can be negatively influenced by certain works. This is where tagging comes in, and honestly I'm very much for teaching kids to separate fiction from reality, as well as teaching them critical thinking and nuances at a young age. (Not porn or horror! Just general stuff for kids to improve those brain skill.) Also parents should really monitor what their kids see, children shouldn't be invading adult spaces anyway, which vent and porn spaces are for adults exclusively.
I also won't lie that this type of work, specifically the kink and porn stuff, can be harmful in another way. Predators can very much get ahold of these works to pray on kids, pedophiles can get off on CSA vent art/fiction, rapists can jerk it to vent SA stuff. I won't lie that there is a minority of mentally unhinged people who will violent fiction or SA porn as an "A-Okay!" to do such things to real people. Many of these instances are so rare, but it's still something a valid reason why vent art/fiction is such a gray topic, do we allow for such works of fiction that help many deal with mental health struggles and trauma (Especially in capitalist countries like the US where getting professional help is off the table for many people due to cost.)? Or do we disallow it all to protect everyone from the few bad people who can potentially use it maliciously?
The predator one specifically is a hard topic because there have been cases of even child friendly media being used to pray on kids, as well as consensual porn of adults, or even pictures of pets. They will use anything to gain a child's interest, doesn't matter what is used.
Personally I'm very anti-censorship with art and fiction. To me, while there is always that possibility of negative influence, I feel the benefits outweigh the bad. Art and fiction have been used practically since their creation for venting, it's how we share thoughts and emotions with the world, it's only natural that not all of it is going to be sunshine and rainbows. It's also very healthy that not all of it is, some people need that outlet, and I'd much rather they use art for that an resort to self-harm or worse. You can also find really interesting commentary/view points you wouldn't if we all made the same stuff all the time.
There are a few things I'm still not sure of. While I'm on the fence about adding real people to fiction, especially in a malicious way, I feel that person still has the right to do it as long as it doesn't promote harm to that person, or they don't intent to go further than fiction. Sometimes the story around it has really interesting commentary too, such as a book that recently got published called Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin. She's a tran woman, and the book is a post apocalyptic story about testosterone turning men into zombies, and has some really interesting stuff relating to transness and all that. It's also vent fiction about terfs, where J.K. Rowling dies in an anti-climactic way while holding herself up in her castle. There's some interesting stuff to be said about how the death came about, and what the author is saying with it. That being said I highly recommend against anyone reading this unless they're adults who like super dank, grindhouse style sex horror. If you want an overall idea of it, Jessie Gender has a great video analyzing the book, and her discussion if it is much more easy to take in.
Interestingly enough, many fans of horror and kink stuff are cis/het women, poc and queer people. I imagine it's because those communities have experiences much more trauma, but that's just a theory.
I love dark stuff and the psychology surrounding it's creation. I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't like it since I've been drawing vent stuff since high school, like being a little tmi I used to draw ero guro as a teen as a way to deal with self-loathing and depression while my hormones were going catawampus. It helped a lot with getting negative crap out of my system. My current comic is also a vent thing with me dumping the abuse of my mom, friend and other family that I've held into since childhood, as well as mental health struggles and existential bs. Don't know where I would be if I'd never been able to create vent art/fiction. Horror, heavy fiction and kinks are important, and I imagine have saved/helped a lot of people. (Not meaning to make this all sound Deep™.)
I know this all isn't want you're talking about in the OP, I just wanted to go on a tangent about my thoughts on horror. Again, it's totally alright to like horror and kinks while not being a traumatized individual, and I hate that there are people out there who think there's something wrong with you for enjoying it. As well as people who think it shouldn't be allowed to exist. Shows a great lack in understanding what they're talking about.
Edit: It's probably obvious from the words I mentioned, but be wary when watching Jessie Gender's video, there is a lot of discussion on transphobia. As well as gore and SA.)
