I only saw the American version of The Ring, but the “make me shriek” parts didn’t necessarily do much for me. It was the “movie within a movie” – the actual contents of the videotape-that-causes-all-the-trouble – which I found inexplicably creepy and horrible. It’s not much explained (although parts of it make sense in terms of the movie, other parts don’t) which, of course, makes it much more creepy.
A hearty second to that. The best traditional-type scary ghost story movie I know of. No gore, but plenty of chills!
I have seen a number of these suggestions, and some rank among my all-time faves.
Session 9
Insidious
Quarantine
The Haunting
In the Mouth of Madness
The Blair Witch Project
The Ring and The Grudge (both American and Japanese)
Pan’s Labrynth
The Others
Just saw
The Haunting in Connecticut (pretty good)
Hide and Seek (pathetic)
Case 39 (pathetic)
Will seek out
rec and rec2
Stir of Echoes
Hope to catch Woman in Black in the theatre
I watched this tonight on Netflix streaming, and I honestly wish I hadn’t. I have a 12 year old daughter and the last 22 minutes were my worst fear shoved graphically in my face. I know you said it was disturbing, but it was disturbing in a way I hadn’t expected, so much so that it made me physically ill. Right now I feel as though I’ll never get some of those scenes out of my head.
But yeah, the first two thirds were a turd.
The Skeleton Key is a pretty decent supernatural thriller with a good twist.
One film you should avoid at all costs: Dream House. I made the mistake of watching it a few nights ago. It’s sort of a Shining-The Others mash-up that gives away all its momentum when the twist is revealed in the middle of the film, and things just get lamer and lamer. Apparently the director tried to get his name removed from the credits after the studio re-edited it, and the stars Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz refused to do any promotion. Can’t blame them.
Christopher Walken as the Angel of Death come to Earth to take the soul of a child that can end the War In Heaven.
Bonus points for Viggo Mortensen (still relatively unknown back then) as the Devil. Almost upstages Walken.
I watched The Ring US version in the theater, and I have watched the original version on dvd, and I have to say that it almost turned me off horror forever. When I saw it, I was of the opinion that I’d seen the best and I literally stopped. Because if it got any scarier I probably couldn’t handle it. But. I’m a curious person. I watched the original Japanese Ring and original Ring 2 and Grudge and the original Grudge.
Me too. That was horrific. I don’t know why I kept thinking something would redeem it in the end, but it certainly never happened. I thought the main girls, especially Amy, did a great job of acting like real teens though. I hope they didn’t have nightmares after filming that. 
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, it is streaming on Netflix.
Ok, I know the OP said no slasher flicks, but this is a slasher film the way Evil Dead is a zombie film (speaking of has the OP seen the Evil Dead Movies?). It is a mockumentery about a world where the classic slasher movie character’s are real, and a group of college kids are making a doc about an up and coming slasher killer.
It’s fantastic. A funny, wonderful deconstruction of the genre that manages to be totally scary at the same time. Also, not very gory. Good good stuff.
My friend Sarah tells me the Woman in Black is so scary she cried from fear.
While I haven’t seen it since I was a kid, I was terrified by Sisters, directed by Brian DePalma. It also features Charles Durning, Barnard Hughes and Olympia Dukakis (in addition to starring Margot Kidder in a dual role).
Sisters is creepy and weird and all kinds of awesome. Not really scary, but awesome. Good suggestion.
I thought Let the Right One In and the American remake Let Me In we’re fantastic.
Also, I know you said no gore/torture flicks, but Hard Candy with Ellen Page deserves a mention. Not so much gory as mind-fuckery. The less you know about this one, the better.
Two scary movies which stayed with me were The Orphanage and Wolf Creek.
My sister had nightmares about Eden Lake, but that might be because, unusually so for horrors, its quite possible in the UK… We tend not to have summer camps and hockey masks, so US generic horror is kind of removed…
Watched Quarantine again last night. Really good one. Still scary.
Go stream “Red, White, and Blue” and “Dead End.”
I’ve got to try to watch the American version all the way through some time (I tried, but just couldn’t make it through)…I’m trying to figure out how the plot proceeded without explaining the imagery in the tape - both the Japanese and Korean versions (the latter is titled Ring Virus if you want to check it out), figuring out what it all meant was how they found Sadako/Eun-Suh.
Well there is various detective work based on the video in the film but I think they delved further into the nitty gritty of the back story in the US sequel.
I don’t know how I could’ve forgotten this overlooked little gem, Triangle.
See if you can rent or stream it. It was available on Netflix last year when I saw it on a whim. Paranormal, trippy, eerie and very satisfying. The kind of movie I rewatched the next day, to see how all the strings tied together. It’s not really a “slasher” film so much as the marketing might make it appear.
I bought Triangle in the Blockbuster going-out-of-business sale, but haven’t watched it yet. Will get to that this weekend.
Last night I watched [rec]. It was what Quarantine was based on. Quarantine was a faithful remake, and a great film, but [rec] was just a little bit better. It added a little something in penthouse apartment. the silhouette zombie zero coming to life when she heard the noise was creepy as all git-out.