Horror movies that are actually scary and not just gore/startles

[upgray3dd]

Plenty of great picks so far. If you are willing to go WAY back, The Innocents (1961) is legendary. If you like The Others, this is the grandaddy of that movie. Once you've gone that far back, there's no reason not to check out Roman Polanksi's Repulsion (Rosemary's Baby is great too, but it was already mentioned)

The 70s pretty much has the best of every genre of movie ever. Alien, A Clockwork Orange, Eraserhead (David Lynch movies are pretty hard to define, but they are all at the very least CREEPY) and the first few truly great slasher movies (halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

The 80s was dominated by the slasher genre, but that doesn't mean there isn't good stuff. The Stepfather, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Serpent and the Rainbow and POLTERGEIST are the big ones.

I remember being quite fond of Candyman in the 90s (one of the only 90s horror films I can think of that I like)

As far as more contemporary films go, you are probably gonna have to get used to subtitles. Devil's backbone, Pan's Labyrinth, The Host, Let the Right One In,

 

[cojo965]

The Thing. It actually manages to have a great atmosphere and have tons of gore as well.

Which one? The new one, the 80s one, or the 60s A Thing From Another World?

 

[xPixelatedx]

Well, you are certainly going to have to scroll back time to find what your looking for XD They don't make scary horror games/movies anymore. Somewhere people got confused that thought gore and violence equated to horror.

But yeah, I would say:

The Thing (the remake from the 80s, not that recently released garbage)

The Shining

and the original Alien

 

[SaikyoKid]

Umm, I'm not entirely sure if it falls underneath the "jump scares" you're trying to avoid, but I still have a love for Sam Reimi films. For something more recent and taken a wee bit more seriously as a scary move, then "Drag Me To Hell" is still probably my top scary movie from the past ten years, easy. Evil Dead also were pretty good in their owns ways.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

The Blair Witch Project

I fucking loved that movie. It's weird, there's either people who thought it was terrifying, or there's people who thought it was stupid. I've rarely seen any middle ground with that movie.

 

[Simiad]

i recently watched a low budget horror called Midnight Son
( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1068961 )
which is a great take on Vampire lore and just a good movie, it's one of those low budget jobs that stands out from the rest and is well worth a try.

More mainstream ones that I'd mention have already been mentioned, especially 'The Others' which is very understated and quickly becomes very scary. I'm also a fan of the Paranormal activity movies and Blair Witch (not the bigger budget sequel though) in spite of how cool it is to hate them.

I've been watching horror movies since the early '80's (the undeniable Golden Age and worth looking through that back catalogue) and it's difficult to find something fresh -and- scary these days. If you don't mind Zombies there's a short (german or russian) movie called Rambock that piles on the tension in it's 60 minute runtime.

If you like the handcam (found footage) phenomenon (some can be very creepy) recent ones I enjoyed were;

Grave Encounters
V/H/S
Undocumented (not great but not terrible)
The Poughkeepsie tapes (disturbing)
Evidence (see opinion on undocumented)
I can't miss out the classic French movie 'Man Bites Dog' when listing Found Footage movies, it's not new but it is awesome.

Oh and I watched 'The Cabin in the Woods' last week, it wasn't scary but it was a good, fun horror comedy.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I found 'Fragile' with Calista Flockheart surprisingly good it's a little girly but actually quite creepy.

The 80's version of 'The Thing' is good too as people have mentioned.

 

[Froggy Slayer]

I can't tell if people in this thread are being ignorant or are actually clueless. The 1982 version of The Thing is a remake and the 2011 version is a prequel to the remake.

Because the 80's Thing is so different, though, I consider it to be another adaption rather than a remake.

 

[RhetoricalFish]

You're looking for more recent movies, right?

I'd name Ti West's The House of the Devil (2009) and The Innkeepers (2011) as two personal favourites of mine. They are both extremely tense and atmospheric and honestly, I could talk about them for ages.
However, they've got quite a low rating on IMDb, so they're not for everyone. It would take a while to explain why, so I'd rather recommend to just watch the movies and decide for yourself.

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006) is one of my favourites as well, but it's a cross between horror and comedy. I'd even go so far as to say that no movie has ever been able to pull off the mix between comedy and horror as perfectly and originally as this movie did. It's not comparable with traditional horror-comedies, like Shaun of the Dead or Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. The Cabin in the Woods did something similar, but I can't talk more about it without ruining the fun.

Frank Darabont's The Mist (2007) is not that scary, but is very enjoyable and definitely worth a look!

Danny Boyle's Sunshine (2007) has got a great atmosphere and was scary to me because I was young and I didn't know what I was in for. Beautiful, stunning cinematography, and I'm glad I saw it on the big screen, but if you're a horror veteran and expect to be scared, you're probably in for a disappointment.

On my to-watch list of recent horror movies are Martys (2008), Inside (2007), The Descent (2005) and Drag Me to Hell (2009). Still haven't gotten around to those, but I've been hearing great things about them.

Also, I guess these days east is the way to look for genuinely scary horror experiences. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about Asian cinema to give good recommendations beside some classics like Ju-On (2002), Audition (1999) or Dumplings (2004).

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

You're looking for more recent movies, right?

I'd name Ti West's The House of the Devil (2009) and The Innkeepers (2011) as two personal favourites of mine. They are both extremely tense and atmospheric and honestly, I could talk about them for ages.
However, they've got quite a low rating on IMDb, so they're not for everyone. It would take a while to explain why, so I'd rather recommend to just watch the movies and decide for yourself.

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006) is one of my favourites as well, but it's a cross between horror and comedy. I'd even go so far as to say that no movie has ever been able to pull off the mix between comedy and horror as perfectly and originally as this movie did. It's not comparable with traditional horror-comedies, like Shaun of the Dead or Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. The Cabin in the Woods did something similar, but I can't talk more about it without ruining the fun.

Frank Darabont's The Mist (2007) is not that scary, but is very enjoyable and definitely worth a look!

Danny Boyle's Sunshine (2007) has got a great atmosphere and was scary to me because I was young and I didn't know what I was in for. Beautiful, stunning cinematography, and I'm glad I saw it on the big screen, but if you're a horror veteran and expect to be scared, you're probably in for a disappointment.

On my to-watch list of recent horror movies are Martys (2008), Inside (2007), The Descent (2005) and Drag Me to Hell (2009). Still haven't gotten around to those, but I've been hearing great things about them.

Also, I guess these days east is the way to look for genuinely scary horror experiences. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about Asian cinema to give good recommendations beside some classics like Ju-On (2002), Audition (1999) or Dumplings (2004).

I reeeeeealy liked House of the Devil. I'd go so far as to say it revived my interest in the horror genre. I had given up on ever again seeing anything that wasn't an unscary gory psychological thriller or some kind of weird, too-self-aware-to-be-scary... thing. Anyone who hasn't seen it owes it to themselves to give it a try. At the very least, you'll learn a lot about what it is you are looking for in a horror film, as I did. I had better say no more.

If they are on Netflix, I will check out some of these films. Name dropping The House of the Devil gets you far with me lol.

Drag Me to Hell is a good film, but it would have been a classic if it had been made a few years earlier. I think you'll see what I mean.

 

[Rad Party God]

There's a good Spanish 'handheld camera' type movie called Rec. Check it out.
SHAME THAT THEY NEVER MADE ANY SEQUELS. EVER

Dunno if it's sarcastic (wich it probably is), but I'll write this anyways.

They actually made two [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1245112/] sequels [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1649444/] out of it.

That being said, Alien and The Thing (80's) are my all time favorite horror monster movies, they both kinda rely on gore, especially The Thing, they both share an extremely well done tension building within the characters and both are highly atmospheric, both still has amazing effects, despite being so old.

As for other great horror movies, Poltergeist is still my favorite "haunted house" movie ever, also The Excorsist still gives me the creeps.

 

[ninjaRiv]

Pontypool! A zombie movie without being annoying. It's the atmosphere that gets ya.

Also, yeah, The Thing. One of my favourite movies.

 

[Dangit2019]

There's a good Spanish 'handheld camera' type movie called Rec. Check it out.
SHAME THAT THEY NEVER MADE ANY SEQUELS. EVER

I know, right. It also sucks that they didn't make any sequels to the Matrix, Nightmare on Elm Street, or the Indiana Jones movies. Also, I can't believe that Star Wars didn't get anything like, say, a prequel.

 

[ninjaRiv]

There's a good Spanish 'handheld camera' type movie called Rec. Check it out.
SHAME THAT THEY NEVER MADE ANY SEQUELS. EVER

I know, right. It also sucks that they didn't make any sequels to the Matrix, Nightmare on Elm Street, or the Indiana Jones movies. Also, I can't believe that Star Wars didn't get anything like, say, a prequel.

What are you talking about? Indiana Jones got a sequel! People called it Indiana Jones 3, for some reason.

 

[rob_simple]

I can't tell if people in this thread are being ignorant or are actually clueless. The 1982 version of The Thing is a remake and the 2011 version is a prequel to the remake.

People often assume that 'Best Known=Original'. I remember the same thing happening when some pop starlet did a cover of Hallelujah and people were going wild over her 'ruining Jeff Buckley's song'.

OT: I don't know if it necessarily counts as a horror film, (it's more of a really dark psychological thriller) but there's a Korean film called 'H' that I picked up a few years ago in a sale and it's now easily one of my favourite films of all time.

Spoiler

 

[Artemis923]

While it might not be the scariest movie, Cabin in The Woods is an excellent deconstruction of the cliches of the genre, and it and it's main characters are at least halfway interesting.

Cabin in the Woods totally blew me away, being a long time horror-fan. I can't be quick enough to recommend that masterpiece.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

IT by Stephen King is good if you haven't seen it. It has some gore but is, on the most part, creepy as fuck.

The recent tv show 'The River' is pretty horrible too.

 

[kasperbbs]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090887/ ! Ok.. It was scary when i was a child, can't remember why, but i was afraid to look under the bed for a while D:. I wish i could watch a horror flick without constantly thinking: 'why the hell are you splitting up?!', 'Stupid b***h you have a gun in your hand and he has a knife, use it maybe?' and etc..