Horror movies that are actually scary?

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I've been searching for horror films that are actually scary, or at least disturbing or shocking. It's surprisingly difficult, as every list I find online is inevitably filled with movies that aren't actually scary.

I can only think of two horror films that have actually scared me, Martyrs and Imprint, and I'll post trailers to those below. But even those made me feel more disgusted and disturbed than scared... but at least they made me feel something.


Note that I post those as examples of movies that are actually disturbing or scary, though I actually find the first one morally problematic on some levels.

So, any recommendations?

Not a movie, but the series "American Horror Story" is one of the few things that really freaks me out.
I think they're doing a great job of both psychological horror and gruesome imagery.
Every season has a new theme, and which one is scarier seems to be really personal.
Personally I really liked the freakshow-season, and the latest one that's dealing a lot with phobias. Just the intro creeps me out.

Mother and the remake of IT both were scary movies that didn't have a lot of gore, but relied on genuine scares that kept me {and others in the theater with me} on edge.

Horror is one of those things that can really be up to the person, and you are going to have a lot of different tastes, even of what people would consider "scary". I for one do not find gore scary, I tend to find it uncomfortable and something that makes me feel sick, it might count as fear in some ways, but not what I normally consider scary. I do otherwise watch quite a bit of horror movies, and there are some that I think that work as scary for me.

One recent example would be the latest in the Conjuring series with Anabelle Creation. Sounds like it would be bad as a prequel to a prequel that did not really do amazing, but turned out quite good with how it handled horror, making you feel like a little kid again who would jump at the creaks they hear at night.


For reference in seeing horror movies, I thought that IT was not scarier, IT feeling more like something teens could get into as opposed to more of the Conjuring franchise. Although IT was still a pretty good movie, and had some pretty strong scenes that could make you jump. Which I might go off to talk about jump scares, which are often a lazy tool of movies to make a movie scary, especially if false scares, but an actual good use of them can actually improve something.

Sometimes I just pick a movie that looks interesting and can be surprised. One example may be Last Shift, which turned out surprisingly good with its claustaphobic environment.

A more psychological horror movie, along the lines Oculus and The Babadook.

Last year I watched a movie on Netflix called Babadook. In some ways it is old fashion. Not really any gore or the Val Lewton sudden starling NOISE. I think films have traded in scary for start by surprising the audience with a loud sound. It is a bit of a psychological horror movie. It makes use of some classic imagery, reminisent of Nosferatu and Lon Chaney in London After Midnight. There is a scene where Georges Melies is used. I've watched about 6 six times and each time I come away with something new. It is about a mother and her hyperactive (?) son. The father/husband died while taking his wife to the hospital, and that is what the movie centers around.

Not everyone is going to find the film scary or maybe even good. I think for a low budget first film, it is brilliant.

edit -
I just saw Bradleigh posted the clip from Babadook, and a film with Karen Gillian. I've seen the Karen Gillian film too, and found it good.

I cannot forget one of my favorite horror movies, The Haunting (1963), directed by Robert Wise. I watched the remake with Liam Neeson, both based on the Shirley Jackson book The Haunting of Hill House. Good story. Anyway, the 1999 film was okay, and there are parts I really liked, but it relied a lot on special effects/CGI. It didn't have the same effect as Robert Wise's film. Director Wise, like Val Lewton, who made films for Val Lewton, never shows us the ghosts or spirits. We hear them, and sometimes see their affect on things. But the sound and the photography is what makes it scary.

The Woman in Black with Daniel Radcliff was very good too. The Woman is mostly shown in a vague way, and my only gripe is there is a shot where her face is crystal clear. For me it took some of the mystery away, but I'm not going to pan the whole film because of one scene.

While today the Lon Chaney Jr The Wolf Man movies might seem tame to me, back when I was a little kid, it scared the living $hit out of me!

Thanks for your input! You guys mentioned some great movies.

Bumping since Halloween is coming up...

Yes as has been said what terrifies a person is highly subjective. I don't find anything inherently creepy but there are other people who can't watch a horror movie without being creeped out. It all depends on the person.

We are too aware of the tricks used to scare us. When the original Halloween came out in 1978 I was in college. It was a sensation and many people were saying it was the scariest movie the had ever seen. I went to the flick with the attitude of I am a big boy, a college student, this movie is not going to scare me. It did. But all the techniques quickly became cliched yet they are still used.

I really do not watch them much anymore. At my age I feel kind of perverted and misogynistic watching yet another teen girl getting "punished" for having sex.

After years and years of being into horror and stuff, I don't find a lot truly scary anymore, although I still enjoy horror. I don't know how scary these may or may not be since I've become so inured to it, but here are my favorites...

Hellraiser (movies 1-4) - for some reason, I'm just completely fascinated by the Cenobites

The Void - for some reason, I really like things featuring the transformation of a human into something inhuman, although I'm less interested in things like werewolves (which this is very much not) because I see them everywhere.


I also liked Last Shift, which was mentioned earlier in this thread. I didn't think it was amazing, but it was a decent watch.

I found The Descent to be an extremely frightening film. Not so much because of the monsters, but because the sets trigger my claustrophobia.

I have a very high tolerance for horror movies and just watch them out of intrigue, but the ONLY movie that ever actually affected me and deeply might I add, was Apollo 18. That movie scared more than I had ever been scared before, by anything(as I said before, I watch horror movies like the average person watches Shrek). I couldn’t look at the moon without crippling anxiety for a few days afterwards. It just made me uncomfortable to look at for the next month. I watched 2 years ago and it still has a place in my mind, although the moon and I are on good terms again
I don’t know what anyone else’s opinion is for this movie or if would even affect anyone else the way it did me, but I would recommend it for someone looking for a scare.