Before Goth became a mall-rat style choice, there was Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. In 1981, Cassandra Peterson hosted a syndicated horror movie TV show, and a cult favorite was born. Peterson, a member of the Groundlings improv troupe, combined sexiness, camp and a genuine enthusiasm for low-budget gore flicks.
The mystery that creates glamour can also stoke suspicion and inspire audiences to imagine hidden horrors. A face in shadows can be alluring or frightening, depending on expectations and mood (cue scary music). Poison, the traditional tool of the femme fatale, is a particularly horrifying weapon, silent and invisible until it kills. Conspiracy theories, which conceive of secret plots, play on the arch-villain glamour Jens observes. What mere mortals could conceive and coordinate such vast maneuverings?
The turn from glamour to horror runs through some of our most resonant and enduring myths, from the Fall to Frankenstein. We're culturally inculcated with the belief that behind glamour's illusion is not dull reality, with its mix of good and bad, but something terrible and threatening. Not surprisingly, then, the substitution of horror for glamour can be powerfully persuasive, particularly in areas where the general public lacks knowledge or direct experience.
To take a modern example, beginning at least as early as Silent Spring the environmental movement used horror to destroy the glamour that mid-century culture had attached to such products of modern science as pesticides, plastics, and, of course, atomic (a.k.a. nuclear) power. This tactic was effective because it tapped pre-existing fears, as you can see from the many monster movies of the period. After decades of glamorizing the natural as good and portraying the artificial as horrific and dangerous, it's not surprising to find that even the "miracle of modern medicine" has been replaced in many people's minds by fears of insidious poisons and hubristic scientists. So we find ourselves in the 21st century tracking measles outbreaks caused by the belief, impervious to evidence, that vaccines cause autism.
Just because horror may puncture some of glamour's illusions does not make horror realistic. As Jens notes, horror has a glamour of its own. It is far more exciting than realism and, by "encourag[ing] those convinced to choose sides," often heightens the audience's sense of importance, wisdom, and moral worth.
[Atom Age Vampire public domain image via Ogg-Stream, watch the movie here.]
Before Goth became a mall-rat style choice, there was Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. In 1981, Cassandra Peterson hosted a syndicated horror movie TV show, and a cult favorite was born. Peterson, a member of the Groundlings improv troupe, combined sexiness, camp and a genuine enthusiasm for low-budget gore flicks. 
