The thing about the "general audience" is they have low low standards with Jump Scares. unfortunately
Shock isn't horror. They're doing it wrong, this means they're doing it wrong. You can cause panic and terror, perhaps even with shock one can evoke horror subliminally, but in of itself it is not horror and you can't substitute horror for shock and still call it horror.
My point was...
Just because everyone overcooks broccoli. It doesn't mean Broccoli is a bad vegetable.
Just because everyone misuses Shock to create cheap scares and jumps... It doesn't mean shock is bad.
As for "Shock isn't horror" well.. "Psychology isn't horror"
... Horror is a product not an element.
My argument is that Shock IS a component of horror. The typical "Hipster" argument is that Shock is completely unrelated to horror.
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You can cause panic and terror
Actually that brings up something interesting for me.
In Kings Quest 7 there is a creature called the Boogieman... and if you look at him in a still or a letsplay he... isn't really all that scary.
Yet why is he so scary to people who play the game? I mean, he doesn't look scary...
Ohh right because when he appears a very panic inducing music starts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-OBMOvQd_QAnd you only have a few seconds to get away before you die! He is the only enemy in the game who can appear ANYWHERE!
It goes to show that how you set a creature up can be MANY times more important then how scary they look objectively (If anything, I think you can go overboard with how "scary" something looks.)