Most vampire and zombie movies scared the crap out of me as a kid - even the cheesy "Night Stalker" original with Jack Palance.
I guess I don't know what it is about current movies - but they seem to fall in a number of categories.
First is, gore. They're trying to shock you with the level of grisliness they can get away with. They don't do anything to me. Freddy and Jason and Michael Meyers did nothing to me because they were never going to be allowed to die. Like the Terminator and Marion Barry, they were always gonna be back.
Another is, the level of catastrophe - you know, all life in the universe extinguished - God and all his angels destroyed - a torment in hell forever. They keep ratcheting it up in movies, and it's pointless. The bigger the catastrophe, the more likely the good guys will win.
Another is the moralism. You can always tell in your classically told horror story who the "good guy" is, who the "bad guy" is, and which of the various non-descript cast members are gonna DIE before the film completes - and which of the remaining cast will still be alive by film's end. Or if there are no really redeeming characters - the bad guys are gonna either win - or not be completely defeated by film's end.
So, horror films rarely scare me - but a good suspense film, horror or not can have me gripping the seat, ESPECIALLY if the director hasn't given too many clues as to who's gonna survive.