Classic Horror Movies That Are Truly Scary (Without The Gore) 👻

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]Some of the scariest horror movies in history barely show any gore at all.

[00:00:05]We're talking ghostly atmosphere, uncanny dread, creeping tension, the eternal battle between psychological fear and real life terror. There are so many great horror movies out there that have stood the test of time with little to no blood and guts to show for it. And honestly, those are the films that have stayed with me for the longest. So, if you're like me, one, how's therapy going? and two, let me talk you through some of my favorite creepy horror movies of the classic era with little to no gore.

[00:00:40]Welcome or welcome back to my channel.

[00:00:41]If you're new here, I'm Chenade and this is my spooky corner of YouTube where I talk about the spooky books that I've read, the spooky films that I've watched, and I share the occasional spooky shenanigan with you based on what Black Phillip tells me. He's up there whispering. Today, I'm sharing some of my favorite and some of your favorite classic horror movies that nail spooky atmosphere, but keep the gore to a minimum. Now, don't get me wrong, I have no problem with gore. Love a gory horror movie. Give me a slasher, give me people being torn apart, Final Destination style deaths, I am here for it. But generally, my favorite type of horror movies are the ones that will mess with your nerves and mess with your mind with their ghostly goings on. And when I shared some of my picks on a recent short video, it seems many people agreed with me. What is more frightening than the idea of something reaching for you, whether it is from the shadows or from beyond the veil that you cannot see? So, I thought it was worth a deeper dive looking at why these films resonate with us and also sharing suggestions so you can settle down and really have a disturbing evening. Housekeeping as always, this is my personal list and my personal picks of films that I particularly love and have resonated with me. What I find scary you may laugh at and what you find scary I may need to call your mother about. I have gone with mostly classic movies, older movies with a supernatural core to them. And yes, they have low gore. Though I do also have some quick modern suggestions and I've also got a couple of nods to horror adjacent psychological thriller ones that I still think are incredibly impactful in the horror sphere. I've also added in suggestions from my subscribers, some of which I haven't seen, but I think are worth mentioning.

[00:02:08]One suggestion, a film from the 70s. I watched the trailer of it to try and refresh my memory to see if I'd seen it.

[00:02:14]I feel like I either need to take mushrooms watching this film or everyone in this film was taking mushrooms and it's not the wicker man. We'll come to it. All of the movies I'm about to mention should be available to stream somewhere. However, you may have to pay to rent them. Check out places like TubeB, also i Player in the UK. You can check out YouTube as well. But before we get to the picss, a quick word from this video's partner. It's really going to help you when you get stressed out with horror. Trust me. Running away from huge monsters, watching heartpounding horror, reading scary stories in the dark. It'll all make you work up a sweat. Which is why I have partnered with the wonderful people at Wild to make sure you stay dry, fresh, and smelling sensational.

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[00:05:33]My number one film, the film that has impacted me possibly most in my life, has started my love of horror. I have mentioned it on previous videos and I will never stop talking about it. It is The Innocence 1961. This is an adaptation of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. It stars Deborah Carr and it had a screenplay written by Truman Capot. The Innocence itself is such a landmark film and so influential on so much of the horror that we see today.

[00:05:56]Not only is it a great story, a great truly chilling story. It is a wonderful film in terms of the way it is shot, the way it is framed, the way it is acted. I defy anyone to watch The Innocence and not be moved in an unsettling way at some point. Maybe you won't find it absolutely gut-wrenchingly terrifying. I personally do find it very very scary but it has that power of the uncanny about it. It is a great story examining psychological terror alongside real life hauntings and you are constantly wondering what is true and what is in the protagonist's mind. The film is set at the turn of the 20th century and that Victorian Edwwardian ideal of propriety of holding herself up and being a good member of society. Underneath that there is this bubbling feeling of emotion. In the film, Deborah Carb plays a young woman named Miss Giddens. She is hired as a governness to two very angelic children in the beautiful country estate of Bllye Manor. She is hired there by their children's uncle. Miss Giddens arrives at her positions and she feels that she has just hit the jackpot because these children are perfect.

[00:07:04]They're lovely. There are some hints that Miles had some difficulty at his school because he is sent home early.

[00:07:11]But they must be wrong because he's such a gentleman, so well spoken, so lovely.

[00:07:15]And Flora, the girl. Oh, what an angel.

[00:07:18]So, so sweet. Miss Giddens is very certain that she can do a good job here.

[00:07:22]But then she starts to hear from the servants. Miss Gross, the housekeeper, starts to tell her about the past of Bllye Manor. The trouble was that the children had a governness and a companion before two adults, a male and a female named Miss Jessel and Peter Quint. And those two previous servants died under mysterious circumstances. And it's not long before Miss Giddon starts to notice things about Blime Manor that are not all right. She sees the ghostly figure of a man, of a woman. She notices that the children are being secretive and she is certain that there is an evil presence at the manor and that it wants the children and she is fixated on the past of the servants and this will escalate and escalate and we as the viewer watch this unfold and we are left wondering is there something wrong with blime manner from Miss Giddon's perspectives which we see we see ghosts we see frightening things but no one else seems to agree with her and we are challenged ed with the idea that is she imagining this? Is this all in her head?

[00:08:25]The Innocence is a masterpiece in my opinion because it could have just taken a simple haunted house story. It could have used a lot of the tropes that were being used in horror at the time and presented very straightforward shots of hauntings of ghosts with really heightened soundtracks and really loud sound effects to give you those jump scares and those terrifying moments. But it does rely heavily on the source material and the great book The Turn of the Screw in that sense of what is actually going on in Miss Giddon's mind is so well translated onto the screen.

[00:08:58]Particularly the way in which the innocence is shot. You see a lot of creative use of the camera with a lot of people in the foreground and people talking in the background. Lee Cronin's got to have been watching the Innocence with all of the split diopter shots that he uses in his films, but that is an a technique that is employed in the Innocence. And there is a surprising lack of eye contact all the way through the film where you have people sort of addressing sort of off camera and talking to each other, but it's rare that they seem to meet each other's eyes that you see on camera. It always gives you the sense that people are sort of talking maybe to other people in this vicinity. they're sort of talking to the room and it gives this wonderful sense of isolation I think with the characters that everyone feels cut off and individual even though they're sharing stories they're chatting the children are chatting to the governors it gives this sense of distance this is a film where we do see the ghost we do see the hauntings but it's all from Miss Giddon's perspective and it is very crucial the way it is shot the way that her face is framed when we see these hauntings we're seeing her reaction and she is an unreliable narrator because we cannot trust her we cannot trust her opin opinion because of her showing signs of instability, not reeling and screaming, but certainly not quite as centered and as sensible as she thinks she is because she seems to be fixated, as I've said, on the past of Miss Jessel and Peter Quinn. She's very interested in their relationship. It speaks to her own repression. We see scenes of her when she's experiencing these hauntings.

[00:10:30]She is not screaming and she is not reeling. She is gasping. She is sort of gasping almost in an erotic manner. And it's not gratuitous and it's not played out as in, oh yeah, this is a sexy film.

[00:10:42]It's just this this woman confronted with something and what is bubbling up inside of her? What is she haunted by in the movie for all of the psychological elements of it where you're wondering is Miss Giddens's mad and are the children okay? And who's really haunting? It has some absolutely blinding moments of terror and they are so beautifully done.

[00:11:02]And again, it's the example that I use of here's where you can show horror without a drop of blood and it will absolutely grasp you by the throat. This scene with Miss Jessel in the reads in the lake, that scene will never leave my mind. That has affected me since the first time I've seen that film. And I still get chills of joy and genuine terror every time I watch that film because it is not a closeup. It is not overdone. It is a hint of something in the water in the reads and you are not sure what you're looking at and you're wondering it. It could be mistaken. It could be mistaken. I can't I I feel like she's watching me. I can't do it. The opening of the film with Flora singing the willow song. A willow will I think it is. A willow I die. This angelic child's voice without a compliment soaring through the darkness. The sound, the music, the way it is shot, the framing of it, the innocence is a superb ghost story. If you have never watched it, please see it. Next, another adaptation of another great book. We have The Haunting, 1963. This is an adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, which is a wonderful book. I have done a separate video on that should you wish to watch it. And The Haunting delivers more psychological terror, really, really scary scenes, and just horrible things in a big old haunted house. The Hill House has no business being as scary as it is. The story of the haunting is that a group of people have been called to Hill House, a reportedly haunted house, by a gentleman named Dr. Mark Way. He is conducting a scientific experiment where he wants to prove or disprove that hauntings actually exist. Dr. Mark has sought out various people with a connection possibly to psychic activity to join him for this experiment. And the people joining him will be Elellanena Nell, who is a woman who has had a very difficult past. She has been caring for her sickly mother. She has had strange occurrences around her, but she's sort of shy and introverted. And this invitation represents her getting away from her horrible sister and brother-in-law and all the work that she's had to do for her late mother and to get out and do something for herself. You also have Theodora, Theo, who is a young woman, a psychic, and who is independent and very much her own person, and that will play into the story a little. and also Luke who is a relative of the family who own the house and he is quite flippant and sort of jolly when they all arrive for this experiment. Elellanar and Theo become quite close quite soon. It is implied that Theo is interested romantically in Nell. But as they settle in for the night, terrifying things start happening. They start experiencing banging on the doors. Theo and Nell are in their room and their room is racked by the sounds of absolute battering on the walls on the door. Demonic laughter.

[00:13:45]They are absolutely terrified and it's a deafening scene in the film as well. The sound is really high. They also see writing on the walls that says, "Help Elellanena come home." And they also experience other strange things in the house and they start to wonder is this a ghost? Is there a haunting taking place or or is there something wrong with Ellaner? As Dr. Markway reveals more of the history of the house, explaining about its owner who built Hill House as a strange architectural feat of madness.

[00:14:14]It has also been plagued by tragedy and all sorts of unfortunate occurrences in the house. But the house itself seems to be sentient in a way, or at least that's how it appears. And as they continue their stay there, Elellanena becomes more unstable and the hauntings rack up and just some stuff will go down. The Haunting, in my opinion, is a very good adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. The sense of terror that was in the book is brilliantly translated onto the screen here. Again, the way this film is shot, they built the set of Hill House and they put a ceiling on the set. You would not normally have a ceiling on a movie set.

[00:14:50]It would be open for the lights and everything, but they put a ceiling in there to create this sense of claustrophobia. And that does resonate through the film when you are watching it. Again, very beautifully shot in high and low angles of the actors as they're experiencing the hauntings. In comparison to the likes of the innocents, the sound in this is really ramped up. It is deafening, as I say, at points with all of the knocking and the banging and this kind of really horrible cacophinous effect. The tension of walking through and wandering through the house, like going from dreamy things to sudden jump scares and horrifying moments. There's a scene in the spiral staircase that ju I did not need to jump that much and it's such a simple moment in the film but done so well and lit so well. I can't say what it is if you haven't seen the film. I don't want to spoil it for you. Just when she goes to the spiral staircase, brace yourself. It's one of the great haunted house books and it's one of the great haunted house films because you do always get the sense through this that Hill House is in control. that these are people who have come into the house with their attitudes whether they are cocky or whether they're scientific and whether they can beat any kind of phenomena and you have creepy servants who are just going we won't come here after dark great love that you have other people who are trying to find something in themselves in the case of Ellaner and Theo as well but the house is in control those who walk into Hill House are already on the back foot they're never going to win against this property and that sense of dread and the lack lack of control really nicely unfolds all the way through the film. I'm broadly going through these films chronologically, but I wanted to jump in here with a horror adjacent couple of films that did also land in the '60s, and they both star the absolute icon Betty Davis. One of them is Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, 1962, and another is Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, 1964.

[00:16:38]Whatever Happened to Baby Jane is a psychological thriller, horror to an extent, but it's not supernatural. Betty Davis and Joan Crawford. The lore behind this film, the two actresses who appeared in it and they fought and they had battles and Betty Davis character is stuck looking after Joan Crawford. Two actors who are sisters, one had a great amount of success, one didn't. And it's the psychological torment of those two and what Betty Davis does to Joan Crawford. It's camp, but it's still really unsettling and it's a joy to watch these these icons of the screen unfold in the horror. and what Jane does to her sister, the torment and the horror that she inflicts upon her. As I said, it's not supernatural, but it is really unsettling and it is such a great film. Hush, hush, sweet Charlotte, southern gothic horror, I would say, psychological thriller as well. You have Charlotte played by Betty Davis who was a southern bell and has experienced tragedy in her past and it is rumored that she murdered her lover that she killed him with an axe and she lives as a spinster in the crumbling huge southern estate that she has and it is her sort of psychological torment of her trying to keep her house together, keep her household together, the people who come to help her and her constantly wondering is she being played? Is she being haunted? what is catching up with her from her past in this big spooky mansion. It has been many years since I've actually seen Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte and making this list I was like no that is that is what my plan is for the weekend. I think actually I need to sit down and revisit that film again just to see the camp parts of it and the atmosphere of the southern estate and everything that Charlotte seems to be haunted by in this film. Oh, it isum.

[00:18:23]I'll never forget watching it the first time with my mother who was like, "Do you want to see a really, really creepy film? Oh, this is great. This is great."

[00:18:29]And someone's head gets cut off. That was how my mother used to sell films to me. But the next straightup horror film that I will come to is Rosemary's Baby, 1968. Another adaptation of a book, and this is one of the most faithful booktoscreen adaptations, I think, of all time. The dialogue was lifted straight from the book into the film.

[00:18:47]All the references are in there.

[00:18:48]Rosemary's Baby is a story of a young couple, Rosemary and Guy. They are moving into a new apartment in New York.

[00:18:54]Guy is an actor and he is struggling along and Rosemary is a housewife. She has a rather traditional role in their marriage. They have moved into a beautiful building, a huge, huge new apartment that Rosemary is very keen on.

[00:19:06]The history of the building is a little murky. There's said to have been some some some hints of dark things going on there, but that was many years ago. It's going to be fine. The couple move in and they are trying to start a family. Once they have moved in, they do encounter the Castets, the neighbors next door.

[00:19:23]The Castets are then captivated by Rosemary and Guy and really insinuate themselves into their lives and is a little bit wearing, but Rosemary goes along with it. Okay, Guy is very taken with them and they chat away to them and Rosemary does end up falling pregnant, but it's not a a normal pregnancy. Let's say that. And then as the pregnancy continues, Rosemary feels that there is something very wrong here. What do the cast of vetses have to do with her pregnancy? And what could they possibly want with a baby? And all of these strange fears that she has about possibly them having nefarious reasons for getting involved with her or is there something otherworldly at work in these apartments? It all builds to a conclusion. What it is about Rosemary's Baby that I particularly like is the horror of domesticity that is shown. It is a very luscious film to watch. It is quite beautiful in terms of it being set in the New York summer and seeing Rosemary and Guy do up their beautiful apartment which was in the real life Dakota building which is very famous for different reasons of her sort of setting up home but also trying to build this marriage and this family and this lifestyle that she thinks that she wants and it not being everything that she thought it was. guy in this is one of the great gaslighting husbands of all time played by John Cabites. He does it so well. It's a great performance by him on screen because he's so smiling and kind and lovely and everything and sort of really getting involved and you're like you you know where it's going. It's a very famous story, Rosemary's Baby, and a lot of people will know what the crux of the story is, but I'm not going to say it here because in case you hadn't seen it, but it does a lovely creeping dread story of what's this all building towards, you know, is she crazy or or why are these people so insistent on being in her life and why is her pregnancy going so strangely? And it is with lightness. It is with a kind of that bright air. It's not dow and dark.

[00:21:26]Mia Pharaoh playing Rosemary is full of light and happiness and determined to be a good wife all the way through it. It's a great precursor to the various tradife horror novels and things that we're seeing now of where is her agency and why won't people listen to her. Ruth Gordon in particular, she won an Oscar for her role as Mini Castets. the way she's so genuine in the role, the way she is interfering and very relatable.

[00:21:53]She's immediately like someone you know, but even though she's playing this larger than life funny silly character, you see the moments of subtlety that Ruth Gordon brings to that role. The way her eyline goes, the way she stands, the way she moves around is really really controlled and a very good study of someone very toxic in your life. Fair is fair. There is a tiny bit of gore in Rosemary's baby. You do see a dead body moments after they have passed and yeah, it's only fair to mention that because you will see blood and it's seconds, but it's just showing that that person has passed early on in the film. There is also slightly triggering subject matter with Rosemary's Baby because obviously this is a woman who falls pregnant and there are moments in this which some people may find uncomfortable. So, you may want to check your trigger warnings there. Speaking of Rosemary's Baby, I'll also give a shout out to a later film which I also love by the same author who wrote Rosemary's Baby. Ira Leven wrote Rosemary's Baby. Ira Leven also wrote The Stepford Wives. And Steepford Wives was turned into a film in 1975. And that is a great film that I love. Again, it's not supernatural. So, it's a nod here because we're trying to stick to the supernatural, but absolutely a horror, a psychological horror. Again, a terrifying look at a community. It's one of the original Tradife stories. the story of a young woman and her family who move to Steepford which is sort of run overseen by these very nice kind of guys run it and all of their wives the wives who've lived there for a while are perfect beautiful smiling trad wives essentially they look great they cook they clean they want nothing more than to serve their man and to take care of the children and you have these new women who come into the community in the 70s liberated happy successful their own people completely coming in and encountering this. But what does this mean for these women who are anomalies in this community? The real tension like a thriller of what is unfolding and this spiraling out of control that our female protagonist experiences when she is watching her friends around who she thinks she has allies and then she starts to see things change one by one.

[00:24:03]Yes, the Stafford Wives was remade and it was turned into a comedy and it was fine. It was fine for what it is, but it lost all of the the impact of of the original novel and of that great film.

[00:24:12]So, I mean, it's fine. The the comedy, it just wasn't great. Remember, if you like what you see, if you like what you hear, please subscribe to my channel, like this video, hype this video, send it to friends, send it to enemies, send it to Crows, save it for the future, and let me know in the comments your favorite atmosphereheavy spooky films that you'd recommend to anyone. I have said before that I think it needs to be lore that you need to watch the original Wickerman at some point in your life.

[00:24:36]Now, I am a huge folk horror fan and I think that that is reason enough for for that to become law. It's my list. I don't care. 1973 is The Wicker Man.

[00:24:46]Still, there are people who believe that the Nicholas Cage version was the original. You know what? Just don't watch that one. I mean, if you watch it and you enjoy it, it is what it is. The Wicker Man 1973, just get that into your life. It is weird and it is strange and it is funny and it is bright and it is absolutely batshit and I absolutely love it. The Wicker Man is the story of a police constable Sergeant Howie who is called Sergeant through the film. He arrives on Summer Isle which is a beautiful island in Scotland in the outer Hees I believe it is and he has arrived there because there has been reports of a young girl who has gone missing. Now the sergeant, he arrives, played by Edward Woodward, like he is a stiff pole walking through the community. He is a very religious man.

[00:25:33]We hear this voice over at the start of people sort of laughing and joking about the sergeant about how devoutly religious he is, that he is due to be married, but he has even decided to save himself for his wedding night. This is how straight and moral this man is. And he arrives on Summer Isle to investigate this disappearance. and he is confronted with a community of people who abide by the land. They live off the land. Summer is known for its abundance of fruit and apples and beautiful produce. It's not done well lately though it's suffered a bad harvest. But everyone in summer they drink, they sing, they dance, they observe the old ways. Even though they are young modern people and older people as well, there is a lot of reliance on yes nature and their primal instincts.

[00:26:20]Even the way that the children are taught in school, they are taught pagan values. And this infuriates the sergeant. He doesn't think that any of this is right at all. He will say so to Lord Summer Isle played by Sir Christopher Lee brilliantly. And he is there to investigate this disappearance and also wrestle with his own issues about the community that he's confronted with. What are they hiding? Where is this girl gone? But why are they all behaving in this way? and they're all building up to their big Mayday celebrations. And the longer the sergeant stays there, the more he gets involved in seeing what is behind the community. And it builds to one of the most famous horror endings of all time.

[00:27:01]I will argue the last bit of this film, I can't say what it is if you haven't seen the ending of it, but it will build up to something where you're going to go, "Wow, wow." I would say Wicker Man is low gore all the way through. The ending is the ending, but you have to experience that for yourself. Now, is the Wikaman a supernatural story? You are wondering that all the way through.

[00:27:23]You are wondering about whether or not that there is something otherworldly about Summer Isle. It's not overt. It's not implying that there is a ghost, that there is something there. But this is pure folk horror. And folk horror is the horror of nature, the horror of the land, of people who observe the old ways. And the old ways will fight the new ways. And that will emerge in a horrific manner. It is a film that feels uncanny. It is atmospheric. And so many films and TV shows and books have tried to replicate what was captured in The Wickerman of the overtly overthe-top with its horror from the get-go. It is all about nature and smiling and happiness. But what lies beneath that?

[00:28:02]What does that mean if you are observing the old ways? Because we know that the past and that the olden times and pagan times were brutal. That they were harsh.

[00:28:11]They were times of sacrifice, but also nature brings out all of the natural instincts and all of the natural sides of ourselves that maybe certain people tried to keep buried, tried to fight against. And it's a good thoughtful story looking at the horror the way that the sergeant as a Christian observes the pagans and saying that they are wrong and it's base and it's disgusting and it is brutal. Yet Christianity, the different factions of it is built on brutality, not just in terms of its crusades and its war. Look at the body and the blood of Christ, the Christ figure. Everything is violent and bloody, but in the face of the paganism, it's suddenly, no, no, no. We're the ones who get it right. It's a very good story, challenging which version is the biggest hypocrite. I suppose the very recent remasters of The Wickerman are well worth giving your time over to. It makes the points heavily and it it doesn't shy away from certain subject matter, but there's something so funnily joyful about this horrible, horrible story. But back to the purely spooky haunted house film. A haunted house film that I think is underrated in general, but is clearly beloved by so many people because since starting this channel, it is a film that was recommended to me again and again and again. I did see it much later than I'd seen these other films, but it is The Changeling 1980.

[00:29:28]George C. Scott stars as a man who at the beginning of the film witnesses the death of his wife and his daughter unfortunately in a car accident. He is a famous composer and musician months later dealing with his grief, he moves to a different part of the country and he decides to move into a house that is run by a historical society in a slightly ludicrous setup. I will have to say this about the changeling that he gets in touch with the woman at the historical society because they have all of these properties and they say, "Oh, we have this house that has been empty for 12 years, but it's huge and it's rambling and it's got a big grand piano in there and that will probably still be in tune. Why don't you move in here?

[00:30:05]Surely nothing can go wrong." The man John does indeed move into the mansion and no sooner has he moved in that he's plagued by strange sounds. Strange sounds are happening inside the house.

[00:30:15]And at first you're thinking, is he being tormented and haunted by his dead wife and his dead daughter? Certainly there are symbols and things that emerge around here that makes him sit up and puts him on edge. But slowly he starts to get hints that it could be something else, something linked to the history of the house. There are scenes in the film of a seance, of voices coming through, of rooms that are boarded up right at the top of the house and strange things that will move and become very upsetting when you see them move through it and it turns into this unraveling of this mystery in the house. I think The Changeling is a great haunted house film. I don't think it's a great film overall. I will say it. I think it's campy and it's very heavy-handed and the script is okay, but it absolutely works as a haunted house film. It isn't doing anything particularly innovative. It's certainly derivative from a lot of very good haunted house films before, The Innocence, The Haunting, all of those sorts of ones before. You can see where the influence has come through and it just takes the best elements of that and gives you a perfectly good and genuinely frightening story. There's wonderful moments where the camera becomes the ghost that is mo moving through the house and is sort of creeping up on people. And it's such a simple shot.

[00:31:32]It's been done before, but it does so well in The Changeling. You have the bouncing red bull turning up. The bath chair, the wheelchair moving around.

[00:31:40]That shouldn't be scary. And yet it is.

[00:31:42]And voices coming through. The voice of a child. Oh, it is chilling. It is nicely done. Many people have seen that film and are really affected by it. So many people message me about the changing and go, "Oh my god, that film when I first saw it." And yeah, I can totally see how impactful it is because it knows what it wants. It has moments of camp where I laughed and also moments where I was like, I don't like it. I don't like it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. But also really good mystery at the heart of it. The whole story behind the house, I was fully invested. In fact, I did wonder.

[00:32:15]Screw the guy's wife when she died at the beginning. Oh, we don't care about them. I know he's yet to show he has some grief. No, get to that bit cuz a story gets juicy. A film that I included in the original short that I did about these classic low gore horror films.

[00:32:28]This one is horror adjacent because it is pure psychological horror. There is no supernatural element to it, but I still would recommend it. I still think it is underhyped if you want to use that word. A great film that had a terrible American remake. It is The Vanishing 1988. Now, this is a Dutch film. It's Dutch French film and it is about a young man whose girlfriend vanishes without a trace. We see the couple at the beginning. They're doing their travels and she disappears without a trace and it's him being affected by her disappearance trying to move on with his life years later trying to figure out what's happened while also trying to move on. But at the same time, you get the perspective of the person who was responsible for her disappearance. It is a psychological horror looking at the effects of losing someone of not knowing what happened to them on the man, the person whose girlfriend is gone and him trying to move on with his life and how that can how it would consume you. But also the perspective of someone really truly evil and what that evil looks like and how simple evil can be of how plain and ordinary true evil can be. Another film that is very famous for its ending and possibly its ending is the thing that gives this film longevity.

[00:33:45]Sometimes you watch a horror film and you go, "Wow, that twist or that ending.

[00:33:49]Does that make it a better film? Does it change how you feel about it?" In all, I think that The Vanishing is a good film.

[00:33:54]It's really, really horrifying. And it is real life horror in this case. It is not supernatural. That's not a spoiler or anything to give that away because it never sets itself up to be supernatural.

[00:34:04]But it is a truly unsettling film and one that I would say yeah without the gore for reasons that is a film that will stay with you. Yes, it was remade by the same director. He decided to make an American version of it which had Kefir Sutherland in it and uh Jeff Bridges and they ruined it because the American version of it changed the ending changed the ending that was so impactful and it was just such a shame.

[00:34:27]But even though we've come quite far in the timeline as it were of these films, I've mentioned The Vanishing. So I should mention a film that goes way back to 1955, The Night of the Hunter, a psychological thriller. It is not a supernatural story starring Robert Mitchum. This story of a criminal, of a serial killer, of him trying to infiltrate into different people's lives and just doing all of his horrible crimes and the battles, the people battling against him, trying to get away from him. It's very of its time, so it's dated to an extent, but I still think it packs a punch. And I think a lot of people mention The Night of the Hunter when I did my short about classic films with no gore in them. Maybe it is down purely to the masterful performance by Robert Mitchum in there, but it speaks to how different films can impact you and they can become a horror story to you. It's very cute and twe in some 1950s kind of ways, and there's other bits in it you're like, whoa, this is difficult. And it was based on a true story. It was truly frightening to a generation, but it still has an impact now if you watch it and a very well- constructed film and a really good performance. And it feels, yes, a little dated in parts, but still has the ability to unsettle you. There are three films that a lot of my subscribers, my followers mentioned in this kind of genre that we're doing when I did my short, and these are films that I've not seen, but one of them is Let's Scare Jessica to Death, 1971. a woman who believes that another woman she has let into her home is a vampire. And this film when I was looking up was inspired allegedly by the turn of the screw by the haunting. It is taking a lot of inspiration from those early films. I have not seen it to the best of my memory. I don't know about the gore level on that film. So if people want to weigh in yes to low gore, high scares, let me know. The Legend of Hell House, 1973, which is based on the book Hell House by Richard Mason. And I must say that that book is the one book more than any other that I am asked by people, have you read it? Have you read it? Have you read it? I am going to read it this summer because I have a plan to read the scariest books of all time and that top all of the list, the most popular ones on there. I need to read the book before I have seen the film version. Channeling that vibe of Haunting of Hill House.

[00:36:39]Investigators turn up in a haunted house and they try to see if it's haunted and then terrible things happen. How is the gore level on that one? Would people recommend? Wouldn't they? The film that people mentioned that I think I may need to take substances for to watch is Burnt Offerings 1973. I think I'd heard of this film and then I went to watch the trailer of it before making this video cuz I thought, well, so many people talk about it. Oh, I must check that out.

[00:37:02]What the what the what is happening in that film? Allstar cast. Oliver Reed, Betty Davis is in it. Burgess Meredith who loads of other people. Loads of other people are in there. Some sort of chauffeur from hell. And I the trailer makes no sense. The trailer makes no sense. They've gone to a house and just horror and chaos and vines and a swimming pool and there's a big door that no one's allowed behind and they keep talking about what's behind the door. What's behind the door? What the hell is that film? What is that film? I think I need to watch it, but I'm not sure I should do it sober. So, Burnt Offering, is it worth it, people? Is it gory? Is it good atmospheric kind of creeping gets under your skin? Or is it just mad? Maybe the trailer didn't sell it well. All it was saying was, "Behind this door lies a horror." Well, okay.

[00:37:47]What is it? A cupboard? Is there are there expired products in there? Is it like my nan's fridge? Now, those are the classic movies that are close to my heart that I think are worth recommending and some honorable mentions in there as well. And you may have recommendations of similar classic movies that have that high atmospheric scare and low gore element to them. But I did promise you some modern films that also channel that ghostly atmosphere, that sense of the uncanny. But keep the gore on the lowdown. If you know this film, it should come as no surprise that I am recommending The Others. 2001, starring Nicole Kidman. This is the story of a woman who is living in her isolated mansion of sorts. Some new servants turn up to come and tend to the house. And she lives there with her two children, her two children who are sensitive to sunlight. So, they cannot be exposed to sunlight. They must constantly live in this house with curtains drawn behind locked doors.

[00:38:40]Everything has to be locked in order to protect the children. And soon scary things start happening in the house. The others owes a great deal to the likes of the innocence, to the haunting, to the changeling, to the to points, to the great horror films that have gone in the past, those ghost stories, but it is its own movie and I think it is done very well. It has a lovely sense of creeping dread, really atmospheric scares, some genuinely jump out of your skin scenes and it has a reverence and respect for Gothic storytelling. That is the key thing in there. This feeling of isolation, this feeling of your past haunting you, of the different manifestations of what horror and your own fears and your own issues can take on, what that looks like. I really do think The Others is a great ghost story.

[00:39:24]I would love to see more films like it.

[00:39:26]Gothic supernatural horror from 2007, The Orphanage. The Orphanage is in the Spanish language. And this film is utterly devastating, utterly terrifying.

[00:39:38]It is a brilliant, brilliant Gothic horror film. It is a story of a woman who returns to the orphanage that she was once a member of where she once lived. She has bought it as a home and she wants to turn it into a hospital for disabled children. She lives there with her partner with her young son and there are secrets and there are things that are going on right from the start of this film which unfold in this manner to suggest that the orphanage is haunted. I really don't want to say much about the plot of this film because it is one to go into blind. It's a very beautiful film. It's a very heartbreaking film in many respects. It is dreadfully creepy.

[00:40:15]The time when Laura is playing a game where she's sort of doing a combination of I guess it would be hide-and-seek and what's time Mr. Wolf where she's doing this one two three knock on wood.

[00:40:27]So quiet so brilliantly done. One to go into blind but an absolutely brilliant piece of atmospheric horror. When it comes to modern films that channel that, let's do a psychic investigation. There may be creepy kids in this old abandoned school/orphanage/hosp and who's really haunted and what's going on here. The awakening in 2011 starring Rebecca Hall. You've got Dominick West. You've got Alda Stuntton in there. That is a perfectly good Gothic horror ghost story in there. It has all of those elements again from some of the ghost story films and books that we love in the past. This young woman played by Rebecca Hall is working with the police because she helps them find fraudulent psychics and spiritualists who are conning people.

[00:41:13]But she has her own motivations for wanting to get involved in these investigations cuz she's experienced some loss in herself as well. And she is called in to investigate some ghostly goings on at a big old boarding school.

[00:41:27]A creepy old big huge school with big empty corridors and scary grounds. I don't think this film did anything particularly new in this genre, but again, much like The Changeling, it knows exactly what it wanted to do. It wanted to deliver a good ghost story, the similar style that people have liked before. And it does deliver. It does have really good atmosphere. It looks good as well. Not a bad film and underrated, I would say. I don't think you can mention really terrifying, supernatural, atmospheric heavy films with no gore without mentioning paranormal activity. It's not the sort of thing that most people go to when I'm sort of talking about classic ghostly stories because you're expecting, oh, the big mansion and there's secrets and lies and there's history and everything, but Paranormal Activity is a prime example of how you can do horror on a low budget. You can get the atmosphere, you can get a sense of creeping dread, without a huge amount of special effects, without all the blood and the gore, and still deliver something truly terrifying. So, don't sleep on paranormal activity. Particularly if you're talking about ghost stories and of a modern version of a ghost story.

[00:42:29]Paranormal activity absolutely delivered. That is my collection of classic horror movies with low gore, high atmospheric dread. Most of them supernatural, a few psychological horrors in there, but let me know the sort of films in this kind of genre, in this field, in the sphere, in this horror world that you would recommend.

[00:42:47]We are going low gore for this, but gore isn't a problem. If it is your thing, you might want to put a gore warning on it. But drop it in the comments. Let me know the films that you would recommend.

[00:42:56]Films that I need to add to my list. And let me know, is Burnt Offerings as mental as it looked in its trailer. Is it? Is it? Subscribe to my channel so I can keep bringing you more of this. And drop in suggestions of more horror recommendations you'd like for me in the future. Stay spooky. Bye-bye.