Porn stars

I disagree. There are sub-genres and different types of horror. I love the film The Shining, but I've failed to sit through 1 Troma movie. A film like Silence of the Lambs, The Shining, or even Mr. Brooks (example given by OP) would not benefit from a porn star. Although a gory slasher film, exploitation film, or something similar to those to types of horror would most likely.

While all of the movies listed above are directed at adults, that does not mean that they will appeal to the same adults.
The issue is whether having the actor's name on the billing will harm the picture, and a related issue if you can actually leverage the actor's notoriety to increase the popularity of your film. The OP was "Does casting porn stars (in non porn indies of course) hurt your chances of distribution?"

Ron Jeremy had tried acting in non-porn movies, and was thrown off set multiple times (even during shooting) when they found out he was a porn star. Even though he was just trying to make a living doing acting. They decided he was a detriment to the picture.

But I don't think that's very likely to happen today on any movies designed for adults. For children, yeah, you don't want to have a pornstar's name even remotely associated with it (generally). And if it's someone with implants that just look ridiculous, it would be difficult to separate the acting from the pornstar.

But assuming the same quality of acting, do you think the same actor as a pornstar versus non-pornstar would actually HARM the distribution of the movie on a horror flick? If the groundskeeper in The Shining had been a porn star, would anyone have cared? I still doubt it, and that was even filmed long ago. Heck, I'm sure Nicolson did a soft-porn movie, although doing a search, I can't seem to figure out what it was.
 
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