A Glean movie guide
Atmospheric Horror: Scares Without the Gore
All the chills, none of the spills.
Masterpieces of suspense and supernatural dread that skip the graphic violence.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
The Others
A masterclass in Victorian dread that proves what you don't see is far scarier than what you do.
Grace is a religious woman who lives in an old house kept dark because her two children, Anne and Nicholas, have a rare sensitivity to light. When the family begins to suspect the house is haunted, Grace fights to protect her children at any cost in the face of strange events and disturbing visions.
- 02
The Conjuring
Relentless supernatural tension and expert jump scares delivered with almost no on-screen blood.
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse. Forced to confront a powerful entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most terrifying case of their lives.
- 03
A Quiet Place
A high-stakes survival thriller that uses silence to build unbearable levels of environmental suspense.
A family is forced to live in silence while hiding from creatures that hunt by sound.
- 04
The Sixth Sense
A hauntingly quiet mystery that relies on character depth and a legendary twist rather than shocks.
Following an unexpected tragedy, child psychologist Malcolm Crowe meets a nine year old boy named Cole Sear, who is hiding a dark secret.
- 05
The Ring
A chilling supernatural mystery built on disturbing imagery and a constant sense of impending doom.
Rachel Keller is a journalist investigating a videotape that may have killed four teenagers. There is an urban legend about this tape: the viewer will die seven days after watching it. Rachel tracks down the video... and watches it. Now she has just seven days to unravel the mystery of the Ring so she can save herself and her son.
- 06
Poltergeist
This Spielberg-produced classic remains the gold standard for high-budget, bloodless supernatural thrills.
The Freelings' suburban home becomes the center of paranormal activity that opens a portal to the 'other side'. With help, they must cross over to get their daughter back.
- 07
The Babadook
A deeply unsettling psychological horror film that uses shadows and sound to manifest internal grief.
A grieving single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book manifests in their home.
- 08
Insidious
A creative haunted house story that prioritizes eerie creature design and sudden, effective scares.
A family discovers that dark spirits have invaded their home after their son inexplicably falls into an endless sleep. When they reach out to a professional for help, they learn things are a lot more personal than they thought.
- 09
The Haunting
A legendary ghost story that creates absolute terror using nothing but sound and clever camera angles.
Dr. John Markway recruits three strangers for a sleep-disorder study at the eerie and isolated Hill House. It soon becomes clear his real interest lies in the mansion itself and its sinister history, as they are forced to confront the nature of its horror…
- 10
Signs
A slow-burn invasion thriller that masterfully builds dread through isolation and the fear of the unknown.
A family living on a farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields which suggests something more frightening to come.
- 11
The Orphanage
A beautifully shot Gothic mystery that balances genuine scares with a heavy sense of melancholy.
A woman brings her family back to her childhood home, which used to be an orphanage, intent on reopening it. Before long, her son starts to communicate with a new invisible friend.
- 12
Wait Until Dark
A classic suspense thriller that turns a simple apartment into a high-tension trap.
After a flight back home, Sam Hendrix returns with a doll he innocently acquired along the way. As it turns out, the doll is actually stuffed with heroin, and a group of criminals led by the ruthless Roat has followed Hendrix back to his place to retrieve it. When Hendrix leaves for business, the crooks make their move -- and find his blind wife, Susy, alone in the apartment. Soon, a life-threatening game begins between Susy and the thugs.