01
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
- Atmosphere
- 9.1
- Fear
- 8.0
- Gore
- 2.1
- Overall
- 7.5
A young couple, Rosemary and Guy, moves into an infamous New York apartment building, known by frightening legends and mysterious events, with the purpose of starting a family.
Jump Scares
Supernatural Horror With No Jump Scares
Dread without the jolts, ranked by atmosphere
By Alan Willey
Supernatural Horror that build their fear from atmosphere and dread rather than sudden jolts. Every film here has at most one counted jump scare, and a film we have not counted yet stays off the list rather than being guessed.
02
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
- Atmosphere
- 8.0
- Fear
- 7.5
- Gore
- 1.0
- Overall
- 7.0
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.
03
Frailty (2001)
- Atmosphere
- 7.5
- Fear
- 2.0
- Gore
- 5.0
- Overall
- 8.1
A mysterious man arrives at the offices of an FBI agent and recounts his childhood: how his religious fanatic father received visions telling him to kill people who were in fact "demons."
04
Carnival of Souls (1962)
- Atmosphere
- —
- Fear
- —
- Gore
- —
- Overall
- —
Mary Henry ends up the sole survivor of a fatal car accident through mysterious circumstances. Trying to put the incident behind her, she moves to Utah and takes a job as a church organist. But her fresh start is interrupted by visions of a fiendish man. As the visions begin to occur more frequently, Mary finds herself drawn to the deserted carnival on the outskirts of town. The strangely alluring carnival may hold the secret to her tragic past.
05
The Omen (1976)
- Atmosphere
- —
- Fear
- —
- Gore
- —
- Overall
- —
Immediately after their miscarriage, the US diplomat Robert Thorn adopts the newborn Damien without the knowledge of his wife. Yet what he doesn’t know is that their new son is the son of the devil.
06
Creepshow (1982)
- Atmosphere
- —
- Fear
- —
- Gore
- —
- Overall
- —
Five grisly tales from a 1950s-style comic, including a murdered father rising from beyond, a bizarre meteor, a vengeful husband, a mysterious crate's occupant, and a plague of cockroaches.
07
In a Violent Nature (2024)
- Atmosphere
- —
- Fear
- —
- Gore
- —
- Overall
- —
The enigmatic resurrection, rampage, and retribution of an undead monster in a remote wilderness unleashes an iconic new killer after a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower that entombed its rotting corpse.
08
Lake Mungo (2008)
- Atmosphere
- —
- Fear
- —
- Gore
- —
- Overall
- —
After 16-year-old Alice Palmer drowns at a local dam, her family experiences a series of strange, inexplicable events centered in and around their home. Unsettled, the Palmers seek the help of a psychic and parapsychologist, who discovers that Alice led a secret, double life. At Lake Mungo, Alice's secret past emerges.
09
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
- Atmosphere
- —
- Fear
- —
- Gore
- —
- Overall
- —
Skeptical young detective Ichabod Crane gets transferred to the hamlet of Sleepy Hollow, New York, where he is tasked with investigating the decapitations of three people – murders the townsfolk attribute to a legendary specter, The Headless Horseman.
10
Carrie (1976)
- Atmosphere
- —
- Fear
- —
- Gore
- —
- Overall
- —
Withdrawn and sensitive teenager Carrie White faces bullying from her classmates and abuse from her fanatically pious mother. When she begins to suspect that she has supernatural powers, things take a dark and violent turn.
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Common questions about supernatural horror with no jump scares
- Are there supernatural horror with no jump scares?
- Yes. Every film on this list has at most one counted jump scare, so you get the subgenre without being startled out of your seat.
- How are jump scares counted?
- Counts come from editorial curation cross-referenced with jump-scare timestamp catalogs, not an algorithm. A film we have not counted yet is left off rather than estimated.