When one thinks of horror movies, the natural inclination is to remember all the gory kills and buckets of blood that painted the screen red. However, there's a lot more that goes into crafting genuine scares than annoying MPAA censors and showcasing gut-wrenching visuals to gross out an audience.
Some of the most terrifying films ever made relied on little, or no gore at all. Directors were forced to forego cheap jump scares and other easy-avenue methods in favor of genuine tension, dread, and paranoia. When it comes to genuine horror, these films really got it right.
The Woman In Black (1989)
Director Herbert Wise understood the power of camera angles and slow pacing when it came to building up dread, fear, and tension in a film, and it's a skill that has been put to use in horror movies such as the incredibly frightening 2010 film Insidious. His 1989 adaptation of The Woman In Black stands the test of time as one of the most frightening films without buckets of blood thrown in to help sell the premise.
The movie is especially memorable for a wickedly disturbing and frightening scene of the titular woman in black looming over a man's bed and screeching horrifically as her face descends ever closer to the camera. This is a scare that money simply cannot buy.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Found footage movies became all the rage at the end of the millennium thanks to The Blair Witch Project. The film reaped an enormous $248 million dollars at the box office versus a $500,000 budget, which proved that horror movies were not only evolving but going back to their roots, as well.
Blair Witch works entirely due to the sheer amount of creep factor it manages to slow-burn throughout its 80 minute running time. Ominous noises, dim camcorder shots, and some spectacular performances by the three leads help ratchet up the fright to unbearable levels before that final scene.
Cujo (1983)
This adaptation of the Stephen King novel traded the supernatural for the biological and gave everyone a new reason to fear the horrors of our real world. The story centers around a mother and her child who are held hostage by a St. Bernard infected with rabies on a remote farm.
The performances by Dee Wallace and Danny Pintauro are incredible—the latter especially—as they struggle to stay alive across several days while the titular Cujo waits for his next opportunity to strike. To date, he's still one of the most recognizable animal killers in movie history.
The Exorcist (1973)
While some might view The Exorcist as the scariest horror film ever made, it didn't gain that reputation through the use of copious blood and gore. In fact, the film is practically gore-free and relies far more on nail-biting, heart-pounding tension and incredibly disturbing subject matter.
It's true that the film does feature scenes of bloodletting, but these center mostly around medical procedures and Regan MacNeil's self-inflicted trauma. The only full-blown murder happens off-screen which keeps the focus on the unsettling use of bodily fluids and vulgar language spewed by the demonic entity in question.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
It's still amazing to think of how relatively bloodless the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre film is. Master horror film director Tobe Hooper once again took a page from the horror films of old and layered his work with a punishing dose of tension and disturbing imagery to help push the fear factor.
Even the chainsaw deaths are tame by every standard, which means more time spent on the psychological trauma inflicted on the innocent victims of Leatherface and his deranged excuse for a family. The final act is one of the most white-knuckle horror experiences ever committed to cinema.
One Dark Night (1982)
Though the use of practical effects aren't particularly convincing by today's standards, that doesn't change the sheer horror of this underrated gem. Meg Tilly plays Julie Wells, a girl who finds herself locked in a mausoleum overnight as part of a cruel initiation ritual by two other girls.
Julie's fear of the dead becomes justified when a recently diseased telekinetic comes back to life and uses his powers to begin reanimating the various corpses in the mausoleum. It's a horrifying premise for anyone who fears venturing into so much as a graveyard at night, let alone being locked in a crypt with the reanimated dead.
Miracle Mile (1988)
The latter half of the 1980s still saw the possibility of a nuclear exchange as one of our most prominent threats. The Cold War was still two years away from ending, and several nations were still ready for a nuclear conflict. Miracle Mile tells the story of a plausible—for the time, at least—premise centering around this scenario.
After bumping into what could be the love of his life, a normal guy named Harry learns that a third world war has kicked off, and Los Angeles is the target. With less than an hour to escape the city before a nuclear strike, everything that can go wrong does go wrong. The film ends on a terrifying note with some unnerving imagery to go along with it.
Halloween (1978)
Slasher flicks were shedding some blood even during the 1970s, which makes Halloween something of an anomaly. Widely regarded as one of the most infamous horror franchises in movie history, the original was rather tame when it came blood and guts. Most of the killing takes place offscreen, which puts more emphasis on the stalking premise.
This was a stark contrast to the slasher killer films that followed, most notably Friday the 13th, which went straight for the jugular and wasn't afraid to showcase graphic violence of the highest order. Halloween is all about dread as opposed to disgust, with an ultra-mysterious slasher killer that has become a part of pop culture iconography.
Duel (1971)
Road rage became synonymous with the YouTube era, but director Steven Spielberg saw it coming as far back as 1971 with Duel, his very first feature-length directorial job. It would serve as inspiration for other horror-themed flicks involving big rigs on lone stretches of highway, not to mention other films in the director's career.
The premise is simple; a businessman named David somehow manages to tick off the driver of a large and ominous looking tanker truck on a stretch of California desert. Not willing to let it go, the mysterious driver torments David for nearly 80 minutes in one of the most terrifying depictions of road rage ever put to film.
The Ring (2002)
2002's The Ring went a long way towards making grown people terrified of creepy little girls, and it kicked off an entire sub-genre of horror flicks. It's one of the few to tackle such frightening subject matter and imagery under the banner of a PG-13 rating, which means less blood and more tension.
Part of the film's terror factor could have something to do with the character of Samara, who mirrors the classic depiction of a demonized Regan MacNeil in the original Exorcist film. Regardless, watching her climb through a television screen and attack victims was enough to scare audiences half to death.