# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/82 "2024-02-06T15:12:25Z")
The 1932 original **Freaks**. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/83 "2024-02-06T15:23:17Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > > [@Sitnam](#): > > > > **Coherence** (2013) A sci-fi thriller rather than horror and so barebones I suspect it was a stage production at one point, but it’s all creepy as hell without a drop of blood. > > That movie is great, and I’m glad I actually got to see it on the big screen. The budget was super low, like, not far removed from _Blair Witch_ levels, despite a couple of recognizable TV actors in it. But it’s a fantastic headtrip. It wasn’t a stage play first, apparently, it was written deliberately to be a low-budget film. Would the Theatrical Performance bring people into the scene, or relax the audience because they know the story is confined to the limits of the stage? I don’t know, but it _could_ be performed with no adaptation. Certainly more than something like **Speed**. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/84 "2024-02-06T17:17:49Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > The segment called, “The Drop of Water.” Brrrr…really freaked me out as a child. Hell, it freaked me out three weeks ago when I watched it and I’m in my 60s. 😉 It’s the lighting; very effective. Plus, the witch is just so ugly! ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/85 "2024-02-06T17:44:11Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > ‘ **The Ninth Gate** ’ 1999 I liked it, but the book was better and scarier. My nom is _Cat People._ All mood and suggestion. I also like _The Haunting_ a lot. I’ve seen it at least five times, and it never fails to get me. I like _The Turn of the Screw,_ too. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/86 "2024-02-06T22:34:14Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > **Coherence** (2013) A sci-fi thriller rather than horror and so barebones I suspect it was a stage production at one point, but it’s all creepy as hell without a drop of blood. I watched this the first time thinking not a lot of thought went into it. After it was over, I learned that a great deal of thought went into it. But I really couldn’t tell that by watching it. Maybe it rewards rewatching, but I had a bit of trouble with it because the characters are all People You Hate At Every Dinner Party. If you had to pick one low-budget sci-fi movie, make it **Primer,** which manages to be entertaining while also totally incoherent. ---
**Author:** ![Tride](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tride/32/13907_2.png) [@Tride](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tride)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/87 "2024-02-06T23:03:40Z")
I don’t remember much gore in _The Thing_ but it scared the shit out of me as a teen. Kurt Russel version, obviously. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/88 "2024-02-07T20:21:02Z")
Are you joking? That movie is so gory, it’s fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/89 "2024-02-07T20:29:13Z")
From a certain perspective, _Into the Woods_ is a horror story. Try to watch [the Broadway version](https://www.amazon.com/Into-Woods-Sondheim-Bernadette-Peters/dp/B00NC9TT8A/) rather than [the 2014 movie.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Woods_(film)) ---
**Author:** ![Tride](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tride/32/13907_2.png) [@Tride](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tride)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/90 "2024-02-07T20:36:29Z")
It’s been a looong time. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/91 "2024-02-07T20:46:24Z")
> [@Tride](#): > > I don’t remember much gore in _The Thing_ but it scared the shit out of me as a teen. Kurt Russel version, obviously. A lot of people at the time felt as though _The Thing_ was unnecessarily gory. Roger Ebert referred to it as a “great barf-bag movie.” ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/92 "2024-02-07T21:06:22Z")
It’s -quite- gory, but a wonderful movie. So now @tride has the most excellent of homework assignments in having to go watch it again… You may need a nightlight for a few days. And may look askance at your pets. And friends. And anyone else… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/93 "2024-02-07T21:57:23Z")
Yeah, seconded. Great movie. I think the effects hold up pretty well, too. I’m really not kidding when I say ''fascinating" gore. It takes traditional ideas of gore and combines it with body horror in a way that you’re kind of detached from the whole experience because you’re just trying to figure out how the Thing _works_. At least that was my experience both times I saw it (decades after it was released.) ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/94 "2024-02-07T21:59:03Z")
Nosferatu, 1922. At least, I don’t remember it as being gory. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/95 "2024-02-07T22:11:12Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > If you had to pick one low-budget sci-fi movie, make it **Primer,** which manages to be entertaining while also totally incoherent. I love that movie! Even the first time when I had _no_ idea what was going on. ---
**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:** [February 7, 2024, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/96 "2024-02-07T23:30:32Z")
An obvious one that just occurred to me: **Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory** ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2024, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/97 "2024-02-08T00:17:27Z")
Godzilla : Minus One. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2024, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/98 "2024-02-08T00:44:56Z")
Would **Saltburn** qualify? A little blood, but no gore, and it does have a _monster_. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2024, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/99 "2024-02-08T16:22:30Z")
> [@thevolleyballer](#): > > I saw A Perfect Murder with Michael Douglas & Gwyneth Paltrow; even at the time it came out 30 years ago, the allusion to SOAT was obvious. Any others more recent like that? There’s Throw Momma From The Train, but it’s done as a comedy; any other dramas with the ‘trading murders’ theme? I could be wrong, but I always thought this was based on DMFM (AKA Dial M For Murder), not Strangers on a Train. Both Hitchcock movies, but very different. ---
**Author:** ![thevolleyballer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@thevolleyballer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thevolleyballer)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2024, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/100 "2024-02-08T19:49:41Z")
it’s both; the scene where she fights off the thug & scissors him to death is from Dial M, but Michael Douglas blackmailing Viggo to whack her is almost like SOAT, in which 1 guy goes ahead 1st boxing the 2nd guy in. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438/101 "2024-02-09T15:45:17Z")
As a youngster, _The Watcher in the Woods_ from 1980 really scared me. I’m not sure why, or even if it would count as a horror movie. There’s also _Return to Oz_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-non-gore-horror-movie/992438.md?page=4)