What are your opinions on horror, sex, and sexuality?...Should I go halfway "balls-deep", but not too far.
I think the balence is going to be different for each writer. I was raised in a very culturally catholic family in a lot of ways, horror is how I've been working through a WHOLE LOT of repression via parable. We live in a strange culture that is more afraid of sex than of violence, so I kinda... use violence to talk about sex. I know. It sounds bizzare, but here we are.
That being said, any story with humans (or in my case used-to-be-humans) in it will probably have a few of them having sex, the question of the writer is "does it happen on or off screen?". For myself, I always keep it off screen, but I enjoy writing double entendres and heavily implying upcoming or recently-finished intimacy. Plus queer (and straight) flirt-banter is one of my few joys in life so I take what I can get.
Anna Iguana:
I think horror touches every aspect of experience.
I completly agree! We write horror to work through things that scare us, and we live in a culture that is
TERRIFIED of sex in a lot of ways, so I think the crossover is inevitable.
I also would like to challenge all y'all in this thread to read a little of Bram Stoker's Dracula if you haven't already, and note all the overbearing sexual overtones because whew lad. I have a very rigid theory that every vampire story is a story about sex, and Dracula is what kicked that theory off. Now I see it everywhere.
Crowned in Fireflies, excellent point about Alien! It is absolutely a story revolving around fear of rape! They're not even making a metaphor, it's literal!
I think a lot of the risk of alienating readers can be mitigated if you are upfront about the content you intend to create. A simple "This chapter contains sexually explicit content" can save unprepared readers, and probably let them feel more comfortable sticking around for the next bit they are comfortable reading, since they have a sense of trust that you will warn them of such things.