Do We Need Horror?

In class we touch on many different reasons for horror. What does it do for us? To us? Do horror films and their awful beings give us a sense of security that everyone has these issues? Or do we all need to capsulize our fears in something we can "manage?" If we can imagine the "enemy" can we then dispatch it?
These ideas all have their roots in our own phyche. Yes, certainly some of us believe that there have been encounters of the unexplained kind. Either we have witnessed these first-hand or through the eerie telling of someone quite convincing. But how could any of this produce anything vaguely affecting "horror" unless there is a part of our brain that believes something other than ourselves and our physical nature exists? This is the crux of our horror and fascination with it. There is something out there. Can we visualize it? Can someone else create the image for us? And, most importantly, if it is awful, impure and frightful, can we win?
Mankind has for centuries believed in another level of existence. This is evidenced by the many civilizations that have created their own gods, both benevolent and malicious. This is how we make sense of our own existence. If we have nothing to struggle with, our own lives take on less meaning. Many feel safer having religious beleifs which reflect the reality of such demons, and how to cope with them. It is our blueprint to salvation, it gives us hope. As Lovecraft believes, we still carry with us the most ancient emotion of fear, but try to "picture" it through art-horror so that it does not remain unknown. Oddly, this works side-by-side with religious beliefs. As we have seen with the images of Dracula and the means to destroy him with holy water and repulse him with the cross, or in The Exorcist's use of priests and the struggle of the soul with the Devil, we need these symbols to make concrete examples with which to wrestle. Only then can our frail human existence stand a chance against all that we view as threatening.
As surely as we will always turn to religion for hope, we will always create some type of horror to reflect our fears, and then a way to cope with them.