A Glean movie guide
Chills Without the Spills
Pure suspense, zero splatter.
Masterful horror films that prioritize psychological dread and atmosphere over gore.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
The Others
A masterclass in Victorian atmosphere where the shadows are far scarier than any monster.
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 Sixth Sense
A chilling supernatural mystery that relies on quiet tension and a legendary emotional core.
Following an unexpected tragedy, child psychologist Malcolm Crowe meets a nine year old boy named Cole Sear, who is hiding a dark secret.
- 03
A Quiet Place
A high-concept survival thriller that uses silence to build unbearable levels of suspense.
A family is forced to live in silence while hiding from creatures that hunt by sound.
- 04
The Blair Witch Project
This found-footage pioneer proves that what you don't see is infinitely more terrifying.
In October of 1994 three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, while shooting a documentary. A year later their footage was found.
- 05
The Haunting
A definitive haunted house classic that creates pure terror through sound and clever camera work.
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…
- 06
The Ring
An unsettling investigative horror that builds a sense of inescapable doom through haunting imagery.
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.
- 07
The Babadook
A deeply personal psychological horror that uses a storybook monster to explore the weight of 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
The Conjuring
A modern supernatural staple that delivers world-class jump scares without relying on graphic 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.
- 09
Paranormal Activity
A minimalist experiment in tension that turns a quiet suburban home into a site of invisible dread.
After a young, middle-class couple moves into what seems like a typical suburban house, they become increasingly disturbed by a presence that may or may not be demonic but is certainly the most active in the middle of the night.
- 10
Signs
A slow-burn alien encounter that focuses on the psychological toll of a family under siege.
A family living on a farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields which suggests something more frightening to come.
- 11
The Orphanage
A beautiful and eerie Spanish ghost story that balances gothic chills with a powerful emotional mystery.
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
10 Cloverfield Lane
A claustrophobic thriller that keeps you guessing whether the threat inside or outside is more dangerous.
After a catastrophic car crash, a young woman wakes up in a survivalist's underground bunker, where he claims to have saved her from an apocalyptic attack that has left the outside world uninhabitable.