to think most "scary" movies aren't scary, they're just sick/gross? Where are the really well-made, genuinely scary films?

[Greensleeves]

I love a really scary, spooky movie, and so does DH. But all too frequently we are disappointed. Blood and guts/green vomit/rotted corpses/gunge do NOT make a scary movie! The ones that have scared the living shit out of me and stayed with me for years are films like the original The Woman In Black and The Others - no blood or gunk to speak of, just really well-written, well-paced menace and mystery and great characters.

Yes, this is a stealth request for recommendations

I thought the woman in black film was shit. But if you can go and watch it in a theatre in London. That shit was scary.
I'm yet to watch a good horror.

Oh I think the original version of the film was terrifying! Maybe it was just that I was quite young when I watched it, but it scared me to death. Thought the Daniel Radcliffe remake was piss though.

The Conjuring is really good. Traditional horror without all the gratuitous violence and gore

Hereditary and the Paranormal Activity series scare the poop out of me. I hate torture porn horror!

Try "The Haunting" directed by Robert Wise, released in 1963. Truly scary. No blood.

The Japanese versions of the fridge (original versions) are really scary!

I prefer reading horror to seeing it. The gaps your imagination fills the blanks with are automatically the scariest thing to YOU - not the usually run of the mill horror by numbers a filmmaker fills them with.

The Others with Nicole Kidman.

Agreed that the woman in black in the theatre is brilliant, the Daniel Radcliffe film was utter toss.

I don’t have any suggestions, I did really enjoy the Haunting of Hill House on Netflix though if you haven’t seen it. Otherwise I’m just following for suggestions too.

I've seen all of those! Love the Conjuring movies, we wanted to go and see The Nun at the cinema but it didnt happen, so will have to wait for it to be released to watch at home

The Haunting is brilliant.

We loved the Haunting of Hill House and were so sad when we finished it!

The Ring - Japanese original.

Have you seen the strangers? About 10 years old, has liv Tyler in it! I absolutely shat myself!!

Was The Babadook gory/gross? I can't remember.

I agree (work in the industry) that it's mostly either torture porn or jump scare bonanza at the moment.

You may enjoy:
What Lies Beneath (oldie but good, 2000)
Ghost Stories (v British, 2018)
Crimson Peak (gothic spooky costume drama, some violence, 2015)
The Orphanage (in spanish, 2007)

I find most "scary" movies to be quite scary. You just need to be a movie wimp like me & problem solved. Even watching that poor baby bear video last week was more than my nerves could handle.

OTOH, half the things MNers fret badly about I am completely chill on. Find no more than a hassle, certainly not even anxiety-inducing.

I live scary movies too. Don't find them scary though.

Have you seen the exorcism of Emily rose?

The orphan?
The thing? (1982 version)

Love the alien , aliens and alien 3 too

The original made for tv The Woman in Black is available on youboobtube, i think. Scared the living tits off me!

The Fog from 1982 with Jamie Lee Curtis in it is FRIGHTENING! Serious jump-out-of-your-skin-shout-at-the-tv-sleep-with-the-lights-on-scary!

The Japanese versions of Dark Water and The Eye are excellent.

What Lies Beneath with Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford was scary.

Pans Labrynth, the Devil's Backbone and The Orphanage (all Spanish) were intense.

Was The Conjuring the film about an Amityville-style house with Vera Farmiga and that young cop from tv-Fargo? Yes very spooky. Saw it a couple of weeks ago.

A very moving unsettling film from the early 50s (i think... Really should google!) called A Carnival of Souls is a classic.

1962! But b/w so i thought it was earlier.

And yes to The Conjuring - old-fashioned style, very little cgi - at least, not really obvious cgi.

Guillermo del toro has directed some truly unnerving classics as well as the obvious Pan's Labyrinthine and El Orphano
Try Devil's Backbone and Cronos.

My husband is a big horror fan and he recommends:

It Follows
Let The Right One In (original version)
Hush
Hereditary
It Stains The Sands

Have you seen 'Rec'? Completely shit myself when I saw it. I'm rubbish with scary films but it really was terrifying.

The scariest film I have ever seen is an early 80s horror called “the changeling”

Iirc you don’t actually see a ghost or anything. I rewatched it about ten years ago as hadn’t seen it since I was a kid and it was still scary as fuck !

I am a horror nerd, and agree there are very few decent horrors around these days.

I recently finished the Haunting of Hill House and thought it was the best horror I've seen in a long time. Other than that I've found a couple of other hidden gems that have proven quite good:

Fractured (on Amazon Prime)
Clinical (Netflix)
Creep (Netflix - I see they have added a sequel to that recently, but haven't checked it out yet)
Hell House LLC (Prime)

I'm a sucker for a found footage horror, and anything supernatural - slasher/gore/torture porn movies don't do anything for me

Most horror films are rubbish
You have to go independent or international to get good horror films-Korea makes a lot of good horror for example

Try 'It Follows' and also 'Raw' are a couple of decent horrors I've seen of late
But if you want to be really creeped out the read some of Susan Hill's work....you won't sleep!