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

Though there is 28 days/weeks (not as good) later.

Paranormal, the marked ones. Poor DH watches this whilst I fell asleep. I woke up to find him almost white, terrified.

Personally I love 13 Ghosts, I love the zodiac angle and also the one about the real life story of the haunting in South Yorkshire... Trying to remember the film name now!

I don't really like horror but I loved the Orphanage and Pans Labrynth. Hated Orphan.
Don't Look Now and Rosemary's Baby.

Get Out is fantastic.

I really liked the Daniel Radcliffe Women in Black. Shit myself. I didn't realise it wasn't he original.

A tale of two sisters (Korean film) is pretty scary. Oh, and someone mentioned Rosemary's Baby, make sure you watch the original, not the recent(ish) remake. That was painful.

Most horror films seem to be either torture porn or not scary - Hereditary being a great example (audience at my viewing burst in laughter at a couple of scenes). I liked The Others, it was eerie rather than horrific though.

I find most horrors really cheesy and predictable and very rarely get genuinely creeped.
Japanese horrors leave a certain feeling with me though and psychological horrors are usually better than jump scares imo.
The audition is good, but think it's quite hard to get the original version dubbed.

There are some good British horror films. I’d nominate:
The Wicker Man - original Edwood Woodward version, not hideous Nicolas Cage remake
Village of the Damned - Black and White 60s version, not any remakes

Love a good ghost horror. It's when they come up with such a good creepy concept then seem to run out of ideas on how to end it. Or it's shown what's haunting and it's just something odd. That's always annoying.

Loved the first 2 paranormal then they got silly. The spin off The Marked ones was hard to tell if it was meant to be scary or a mick take.

Hey, OP. Like you, I detest torture porn/gore, but love psychological horror and proper haunting/demons films.

If you like found footage, two decent lesser known ones are Grave Encounters and As Above, So Below. I loved the Paranormal Activity films, especially the third one.

Coherence is a good lesser known one, too. Not horror as such - more science fiction - but mind-bendingly creepy.

One of my favourite horrors in recent years was Lake Mungo. It's an Australian film done in a mockumentary style. There is zero gore and no jump scares, but it is seriously disturbing. I still think about it.

I'm with you Op.

My favourites are Woman In Black ( yes seen in at the theatre too and wasn't disappointed)., The Ring ( and I like the US remake as it makes more sense) and The Omen.

It's got a bit of gratuitous violence in the middle but Silent Hill was a really interesting film. Never played the game so no idea what is was. I loved the ending...

The Pact is another decent but less well known one.

Triangle is another creepy one. A good horror comedy is Housebound.

Under the Shadow and The Invitation, both on Netflix, are both good and creepy.

Another decent found footage one is The Taking of Deborah Logan.

Have you seen Personal Shopper, with Kristen Stewart? Very strange and unsettling film.

A pretty good British found footage film is The Borderlands. Nice creepy atmosphere and unsettling ending. However, major warning with this one - although it not gory in general, it has one scene of extreme animal cruelty that has haunted me since. I couldn't watch it again for that reason.

Have you seen the youtube horror series Marble Hornets? Honestly more frightening and suspenseful than any movie I've seen in the last decade.

See, I didn't like The Wicker Man. I was really looking forward to it but it just seemed overblown and silly. Most people love it though.

I also hated Wolf Creek, especially as it geared up towards the end it became ridiculous.

Second The Taking Of Deborah Logan.

Kairo (English name "Pulse") is a great Japanese psychological horror.

I agree with Triangle and Kill List. Ben Wheatley (Kill List) also made A Field in England, which is worth watching but is pretty avant garde. Rec (original) is very scary, as is The Descent, but both are more traditional horror films with lots of gore.

For older non-gore horror films there's a great 70s Aussie horror film called Long Weekend (badly remade in 2008 with Jim Caviezel). Very creepy. The film Jacob's Ladder from 1990 is both disturbing and very sad in equal measures (and has one of my favourite lines of film dialogue of all time, but it's a spoiler so I won't put it here!)

For new films, I really liked Annihilation (Netflix) and Split.

I really enjoyed Dead Silence. The fact that it came out in 2007 and still pops in my mind now when I think about horrors speaks volumes(probably that I have no taste in movies )

Insidious, Conjuring, Sinister and also The Strangers with Liv Tyler 😱

Watching the Conjuring at the cinema I grabbed my husband and actually fell off my chair from being so frightened 😂

The haunting in Connecticut 🙈

I thought The Visit was awful.
Wrong Turn is great,bit gory.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose is really good.

The Vanishing (the original Dutch language one). Haunting

OK! Just finished 'The Boy',
Honestly i have seen better however it did have the twist factor and I did jump in places, 1 and half hours was the right amount of time for it.

like @bumblenbean said it is weird.

would probably give it 3 possibly 3 1/5 out of 5.

don't feel like I have wasted my time.

We've just watched Martha Marcy Mae Marlene. Not a horror, but a seriously creepy, unsettling film. Great watch.