Scary movies that don't rely on gore or jump scares?

I want to like horror. I really do. But I just can't stand the cheap jump scares, and the thought that gory=scary. I want something that's got legitimate, not cheap scares. Is that so much to ask? Even just "Creepy" works for me. I figure out of everyone to ask, it's the tropers.

Bonus points if it's on Netflix, so me and my friends can watch it easily.

edited 8th Nov '12 6:22:33 AM by Xiphoniii

• The Haunting directed by Robert Wise
• The Blair Witch Project
• Dark Water directed by Hideo Nakata
• The Birds
• Jaws
• The Others
• The Fly
• Videodrome
• The Thing directed by John Carpenter

While The Fly, and The Thing (and possibly Videodrome, haven't seen it) are very scary, and don't rely on jump scares, they're not really "not gory", although they're gory in a different way than just blood all the time. A lot of very disgusting Body Horror in both.

I think we can both agree though that the body horror does serve a legitimate purpose as oppose to simply giving the crew something to paint on in between takes.

Hm. I'll give Blair Witch a shot, I never really got around to that one.

Doesn't this belong in recommendations? Also, there are already threads about people not wanting graphic gore or jump scares in their movies.

• shrug*

But whatevs.

I dunno. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, probably. The atmosphere in it made my skin crawl when I first saw it. Black Christmas(NOT the 2006 one). There are loads more.

edited 8th Nov '12 8:49:13 AM by Prowler

Session 9 has absolutely no jump-scares and the very little gore there is restricted to some blood toward the end. Instead it relies pretty much entirely on tension to scare its audience.

edited 8th Nov '12 8:50:26 AM by LizardBite

Halloween 1978

edited 8th Nov '12 9:04:44 AM by maxwellelvis

Pans Labyrinth and The Orphanage. The former is also a film everyone needs to see. Both in Spanish, so you'll need to be fine with reading.

edited 8th Nov '12 9:47:42 AM by imadinosaur

Well, I watch anime, so I'm fine with reading.

Supernatural Activity (the first one I refuse to watch any of the sequels) depending on which ending you watch.

Perfect Blue, Rosemary's Baby, A Tale of Two Sisters and The Exorcist should count.

edited 9th Nov '12 7:15:18 AM by harkko

Beyond Alien's infamous dinnertable scene, it relies much more heavily on tension and atmosphere than cheap jump scares and lakes of gore. I hate jump scares as much as the next guy, but there's one scene in particular (I'm hesitant to call it a "jump scare", because it's one of my favourite horror sequences ever and I really don't feel the term does it justice) in which the buildup is almost unbearably tense.

edited 9th Nov '12 7:58:36 AM by pagad

The Orphanage sure,Pans Labyrinth isn't horror though,it's fantasy/historical fiction.

Arguing its lack of jump scare status is kind of like arguing Alien or The Exorcist aren't actually horror movies.

'cuz I mean, didn't it make you jump?

(On a useless aside, I get the giggles when people get pissed when others argue Alien is a slasher in space, because Ridley Scott himself called it that.)

edited 9th Nov '12 9:09:15 AM by Prowler

Surprised I didn't see The Shining here. It's a book (by King) adapted by Kubrick. It's cinematography (as with any SK film) is top notch. The Shining's horror relies on the atmosphere it sets, I was pretty unnerved throughout the film. I gotta say, I didn't really like the beginning, it was a bit uneventful.

It's more like I wanted to distinguish it from what "jump scare" means to most people: a cheap surprise that will make you jump, not because it's an effective technique for scaring the audience, but because it's impossible not to.

Yeah, if it's actually got suspense and build up, something jumping out isn't bad to me. It's when they just throw something at the screen and make a loud noise. It's cheap and I don't like it. :(

So long as it's something that is horrible and worth being scared of outside of the context of a jolt, and not, say, a lamp or a plant or some bullshit like that...I've never been bothered.

The Thing is my favorite horror film, and it's filthy with jump scares but in it, every single thing that causes one actually is supposed to be horrible and malevolent, so...yeah.

And if it's a horror-comedy, I'll give the movie more rope still because it adds to the amusement factor for me.

Pans Labyrinth isn't pure horror, but it does have very strong horror elements, like the pale man.

edited 9th Nov '12 10:47:53 AM by imadinosaur

While the Thing is rather gory, that isn't where the fear comes from.

I rather like The Exorcist.

Are you looking for scary movies with no jump scares or gore, or movies that would be scary even if they didn't have jump scares and gore?

Either way, the classic Frankenstein is surprisingly scary, and there are zero jump scares or gore in it. Also, try the silent film Nosferatu.

edited 9th Nov '12 12:45:46 PM by dontcallmewave

I think that The Shining is a lot scarier and unnerving before Jack goes axe-crazy.

Frankenstein: Ohhh yeah. Then try it in stage-play format.

The Shining has a lot of jump scaring at the end,actually the only Stephen King book that doesn't seem to rely on that is It,maybe The Tommyknockers to.

So yeah I'd recommend It even if just for Tim Curry.