Be Excellent To Each Other

So, uh, I like horror, but I don't really like gore or blood and guts that much (with a few exceptions, usually because they're funny).

I'm in the mood for some tense horror, stuff I've liked off the top of my head Hitchcock, Sixth Sense, The Thing, The Fog, Misery.

Any ideas? Ideally stuff that doesn't go too far into the realm of the supernatural.

I'd have said The Thing was quite gory. I enjoyed Paranormal Activity, no gore it's just things that go bump in the night.

hmm, it's a while since I've seen it. I seem to remember that most of the gore was implied rather than on screen, but I could just be remembering all wrong.

Watership Down.

Seriously, it's hyper violence in a dystopian future.

For ultra-tense horror there's 'The Mist', which is an astonishing film. Probably the most frightening horror film I've seen for a while and to my mind the best of the last ten years. There is gore in it, but not too much - I can think of three scenes that would make me wince. It's got some of the best characterisation I've seen in a horror film, and some of the best acting. Toby Jones as the humble store clerk is utterly brilliant. Though you may be thinking of this one when you said 'The Fog', I'm not sure.

If you haven't seen the 1970's remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers starring Donald Sutherland then that's seriously worth a look. Barely any gore at all (I can think of one - maybe two scenes at a pinch) and very, very frightening. It's a tense one too.

Don't Look Now also starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie is a fine psychological horror which is based on the novella by Daphne DuMaurier. It's an apocalyptic film that doesn't have any action. Killer ending.

If you're into good old sci-fi horror then Nigel Kneale's stuff such as The Stone Tapes and Quatermass and the Pit are well worth a look. No longer quite so scary, they still work well and have some brilliant writing and ideas.

I shall look into the others though, cheers.

The two that leapt to my mind were the previously-recommended Don't Look Now and The Wicker Man. Oh - and Freaks.

The original Wicker Man, of course, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES WHATSOEVER watch the remake with Nicolas Cage.

The 70s Wicker Man is brilliant, good call by Rev there.

Cronenberg's horror/sci-fi films are all pretty good, and none of them too mental on the gore. My favourite of his is The Fly but that might be a bit icky for you in places.

30 Days of Night is a great vampire flick and not too gory (it was a 15 at the cinema).

The Ring is pretty creepy without resorting to blood and guts.

Was Freaks meant to be a horror? It seemed more like a slightly demented Disney film. It is brilliant though.

First two (original) Halloween films are dead scary without copious gore. I'm the same as you, gore makes me feel quite queasy and ill. I love being scared shitless though, and the first two original Halloweens do that fo sho.

And don't forget The hand that rocks the cradle.

Carrie

Norman Bates

Cape Fear

Blair Witch Project

Yup, it was MGM's attempt to do a horror in the then-popular Universal style.

I hate that you needed to say that, but yes.

The Shining - not too much in the way of blood and guts really, except for a lift with copious amounts of blood gushing from it and a brief flash of two dead girls covered in blood. On the whole it's more of a psychological horror.

Hitchcock's 'The Birds' - worst bit of horror is seeing a guy with his eyes pecked out, but again it's mostly psychological.

Rosemary's Baby and The Shining are mostly non-gore. There's some older awesome stuff - Psycho, obviously. Also Peeping Tom is excellent. Poltergeist is suprisingly good and I really liked Paranormal activity, although obviously these are supernatural.

Hammer did some fantastic stuff. The original (For Hammer) Curse of Frankenstein is very good, Devil Rides Out and Horror Express are probably my favourites although these are supernatural again (sorry). Also, if you can count it as horror, Quatermass and the Pit (the hammer movie) is excellent.

I also concur with the whole Wicker Man thing.

I never appreciated the birds. With the exception of some really beautiful background paintings, it's pretty weak and doesn't really have a proper ending.

I suppose this will count, and I would like to recommend The Others.

I would have to politely disagree with that. I loved the ending, since it was left hanging and open to interpretation as to what may have happened next. This doesn't happen so much these days as modern films tend to be resolved, since modern audiences are thick and can't be trusted to use their imaginations. Or something.

I'd say so too, for Carpenter's 1982 version. The 1950s version wasn't, as I recall, gory at all.

Agreed on all points.

Also, as others have mentioned, the movie version of Quatermass and the Pit - very good film, although one bad special effect makes one (brief) scene rather laughable.

I'd also recommend the 2009 film 'Triangle' - there's no excess gore, but it's a nice brain twister.

I was going to say exactly these two, you swine.

Particularly the Body Snatchers remake. It is a chilling film, and unusually, vastly better than the original.

The Mist is excelent, too. I've always found that Stephen King films come in either brilliant or unutterably dire flavours, and kind of expected the Mist to be the latter. Glad I was wrong, though. There's a woman in it whose acting is so good I fear that if I ever meet her I will punch her in the face becaue the character was so hateful.

Creepy Spanish film The Orphanage is well worth a watch (if only to discover that Spanish ghosthunters apparently run their kit off a Spectrum +2)

If you can handle a trickle of blood then I recommend Cronos (dir. Guillermo del Toro) and The Hunger (starring David Bowie).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cronos_%28film%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunger_%28film%29

The Hunger looks impossibly cool and 'now', what with it being incredibly 80s gothic and all.

Thanks a lot guys, lots of good recommendations and films that I have already seen and liked and are spot on to what I'm after.

Session 9 is good I hear.

RARRRGH KILL DEATH POUNDING DEATH DIE DIE STAB "Oh! It looks like a bratwust!" DIE!

I keep meaning to try to track down "The Kingdom" - Danish TV series, and see if it was as cool / funny / creepy as I remember.

I have the box set on VHS. It is indeed utterly batty.

Also, has Grim... just had a funny turn?

Paranormal Activity
The Orphanage
The Ring
Orphan

Dark Water.

Should I see a Doctor?

Was the the one with the ?

Dark Water is excellent - the original Japanese version, at least. American remake isn't terrible, but isn't that great.

Of course.

The Ring's the only horror movie I can think of where the Americans did a better job than the Japanese.

I didn't enjoy it as much myself. I suppose knowing the story beforehand scuppered it slightly though.

I just remembered Hard Candy -- not gory, and maybe more of a thriller than a horror film, but definitely worth seeing nonetheless.

The cinematography in that was pretty great. I can't remember much of the script or the plot, but certain images really leap out at me. Pun not intended.

I would love to think that that is a version of Die Hard with John Candy as the lead.

Closely followed by terrible but fairly amusing Van Damme pointless violence-o-thon Hard Target, also starring Candy. Possibly offing his foes with golf balls.

Hard TArget is a fucking brilliant film.

I haven't seen it since I was about 13. Naturally, I thought it was terrific then. Kind of assumed that if I saw it now, I'd enjoy it a bit but mainly cringe at what an idiot teenager I was.


I'd definitely watch it with Candy as the lead, though. Just imagine those roundhouses!

Yes. Though maybe the movie wasn't as scary when not viewed through my crippling fear of children.

I have a childlike fear of cripples.