I had no difficulty understanding your post. But, at least now, based on your response, I see why your initial points were so broadly drawn: you have no trouble taking a flaccid generalization and running with it.
British horror certainly has a rich history, so I've never felt the need to engage in grade-school "my dad would beat up your dad" type arguments with regards to my favorite type of film. The horror genre--much to the chagrin of English critics and film historians of the time--was THE backbone of that country's film industry through the 60's and 70's. Hammer, Tyburn, Amicus and others, while encountering varying degrees of success, all brought international money to England with their movies.
However, British Horror barely made it out of the seventies. Hammer, the most prolific and profitable studio that specialized in horror and science fiction--certainly did not. Once horror films found effective shocks in elaborate FX, in the wake of The Exorcist, the Brits couldn't keep up. It was all a matter of the lack of technicians and money: the British system just didn't have the fountain of cash that Hollywood did. The import export ratio flipped the other way: more money was to be made by taking in Western films than by producing on the homefront.
By the time the 80's arrived, the British Horror industry was dead. I'll have to check my sources to get the exact dates, but there was a period of about 5 or 7 years in the 80's to 90's where not a single British horror film was given a theatrical release.
I suppose I didn't really address any of your points, but I will say this: the Brits have produced a fair share of cinematic turds, probably on an equal ratio to their American counterparts.
As for the gore argument, it seems silly to believe anything but what is obvious: from the 60's and 70's on, British horror producers who were so inclined would have put as much blood and nudity as the censors would allow (which, given the restrictive environment, wasn't much). If that were not the case, then Norman J. Warren's Alien Prey(1978) would have had the same day-glo drops of Technicolor blood as The Horror of Dracula(1958), instead of reasonably graphic scenes of lesbians being bloodily devoured. The proverbial envelope is almost always pushed to pad the profit margin, and this is true for the British as well as the American industries.
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