# Favorite non-gore horror movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [November 1, 2023, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438 "2023-11-01T20:34:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/21 "2023-11-02T03:59:34Z")
_Island of Lost Souls_ (1933) _The Black Cat_ (1934) _Curse of the Demon_ (1957) _Horror of Dracula_ (1958) _Matango: Fungus of Terror_ a.k.a. _Attack of the Mushroom People_ (1963) _The Devil Rides Out_ (1968) _The Mansion of Madness_ (1973) _God Told Me To_ a.k.a. _Demon_ (1976) _Alucarda_ (1977) _Shock Waves_ (1977) _Near Dark_ (1987) ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/22 "2023-11-02T05:25:48Z")
_Sorry Wrong Number_ is pretty scary in a stalky sorta way. Barbara Stanwyke isn’t my favorite actress but she’s good in this. The flashbacks are a bit hard to follow and the pay off at the very end is great. I also love all that campy Vincent Price stuff. Oh, _Gaslight_ is wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/23 "2023-11-02T05:37:22Z")
> [@NinthAcolyte](#): > > 1963’s _The Haunting_ remains one of the most frightening films ever made, imo My favorite. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/24 "2023-11-02T07:27:28Z")
Thanks for the list! There’s a few on there that look interesting that I haven’t seen, and I now plan to! I should also mention that _Horror of Dracula_ (1958) (sometimes just titled _Dracula_) is the classic Hammer Films production with the inimitable Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee that all the subsequent ones tried to imitate. It ranks right up there with the 1931 Bela Lugosi classic and the famous 1922 silent film _Nosferatu_. Vampire fans must see all three! 🧛 Two of the mentioned films I’d like to see are _The Devil Rides Out_ because it’s another Hammer production with Christopher Lee, and _Near Dark_, if only because it’s directed by Kathryn Bigelow (who was also a co-writer). ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/25 "2023-11-02T10:52:40Z")
I really liked “A Quiet Place”. For me it would have been better without the jump scares (I _hate_ jump scares) but there’s only a few and otherwise it’s a fantastic movie about a loving family in a difficult time with suspense out the wazoo. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/26 "2023-11-02T10:52:59Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > [The Babadook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5WQZzDRVtw). No blood, not guts, no reliance on jump scares, and terrifying throughout. For me, as a parent, this was the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. I was watching it alone, and about 2/3 of the way through I had to turn it off, pace angrily and cuss a lot, and go make dinner. Finally I calmed down enough to turn it back on and finish it. I talked with a childless friend, and she was like, “Yeah, it was good, but not that scary.” It taps into some very specific fears, and it’s _brilliant_ at doing so. In the same vein, the Spanish-language movie _The Orphanage_ is excellent and devastating. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/27 "2023-11-02T11:26:07Z")
“The Entity” qualifies because there are no “blood & guts” or even deaths in it, but it was truly horrifying to me, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/28 "2023-11-02T11:42:52Z")
**It Follows** , a modern classic which had me asking “can you see that person?” weeks later. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/29 "2023-11-02T13:19:42Z")
Depending on your definition of “gore”, **Tremors**. Not much blood, but lots of giant worm slime. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/30 "2023-11-02T13:39:33Z")
I don’t look at it as a horror movie, but in the related genre of monster movies it’s a gem. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/31 "2023-11-02T13:46:09Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I have a soft spot for Poltergeist. I put this on for my 11 and 8 year old a few months back. They both noped out of the Living Room within 10 minutes. It wasn’t the little girl talking to the TV that scared them, it was the ‘Salt and Pepper’ channel the rest of our generation is familiar with so my wife and I finished it alone. Was a bit surprised by the parents smoking pot in the beginning for a PG rated film. Did not recall that. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/32 "2023-11-02T13:50:34Z")
> [@Smid](#): > > **It Follows** , a modern classic which had me asking “can you see that person?” weeks later. The Ring as an STD. Solid rec though. Scarier than it should be for little to no gore. Turns out with good writing and atmosphere you can scare people with no CGI budget. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/33 "2023-11-02T13:57:29Z")
The Awakening, with Rebecca Hall. A well-made movie with great cinematography I caught on a streaming channel a few years ago. Spooky and atmospheric, with a pretty good plot reveal. It’s been awhile since I saw it, so not positive, but I remember a well done psychological horror movie with maybe a well-placed jump scare or two, but little or no blood. > [@Smid](#): > > **It Follows** , a modern classic which had me asking “can you see that person?” weeks later. I was going to mention this movie as well. Funny story-- when I first watched it, I knew nothing about it other than that it was a low-budget horror flick with some positive buzz about it. I had no idea where it was filmed; before it started I thought it was an Australian production, for some reason. But the American accents and familiar-looking suburbia quickly made me think somewhere in the midwest… …then the characters walked past a Tastee-Freeze Ice Cream shop that I immediately recognized as a few miles from me. Caught me by surprise as much as any jump scare. I had no clue it was filmed locally. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/34 "2023-11-02T14:29:29Z")
I thought I’d have an easier time in this thread, but then I started mentally listing my top twenty or so horror flicks and realized how much onscreen viscera they contain. Out goes the entire _giallo_ genre. _Black Sunday_ might be in consideration, but there’s the scene with the witch’s mask at the beginning; Bava’s _The Girl Who Knew Too Much_ (a real proto-_giallo_ in B&W) is really effective, worth a look if you can find it. I’d list a few class Hammer entries, but their primary-color blood was kind of one of the selling points. I don’'t remember the first _Insidious_ having much if anything in the way of blood/gore, but it had the absolute best jump scares of the decade. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/35 "2023-11-02T15:27:39Z")
‘ **The Ninth Gate** ’ 1999 ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/36 "2023-11-02T15:39:48Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Depending on your definition of “gore”, **Tremors**. Not much blood, but lots of giant worm slime. Don’t know if I’d call it “Horror” but it’s one of my favorite films. Consider it stepped on. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/37 "2023-11-02T15:41:25Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Rosemarys Baby 1969 Best entry in the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/38 "2023-11-02T22:27:55Z")
The 1970s remake of **Invasion of the Body Snatchers**. If I might expand the question to TV episodes, I nominate **It’s a Good Life** from The Twilight Zone ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/39 "2023-11-02T22:49:48Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > The 1970s remake of **Invasion of the Body Snatchers** I watched Body Snatchers a few months ago. It’s held up well and still very scary. The Remake of _Cat People_ is also very good. I don’t remember much blood. It is pretty weird and hard to follow. I also like the 1940’s original. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/40 "2023-11-03T00:21:31Z")
> [@Smid](#): > > **It Follows** , a modern classic which had me asking “can you see that person?” weeks later When I do a Google search for _It Follows_, two little people move across the top of the screen like one is following after the other. Doesn’t work in Bing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438.md?page=3)