I think people have a lot of misconceptions about "horror". It isn't necessarily about gore and torture. Almost all my favourite horror stories don't rely on either, and indeed in many cases don't feature either.

For example, some of my favourite horror films: Don't Look Now (1973), The Innocents (1961), The Wicker Man (1973), The Exorcist (1973), and more recently The Babadook (2014) and Under the Shadow (2016) are deep, profound, and thoughtful, as well as terrifyingly cathartic.

My own work is strongly influenced by the gothic mysteries of the Bronte sisters (Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights), Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, as well as the ghost story greats. For instance, MR James's short stories, Susan Hill's The Woman in Black, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, and more recently novels like Laura Purcell's The Silent Companions and The Corset, for instance. These are blended with conspiracy theory tales. Think Coma, for instance (although my inspiration there comes primarily from the nail-biting 1978 film rather than Robin Cook's original novel).

I recently purchased The Beached Ones on Kindle, by the way. Looking forward to reading it. :)