Twelve writers named the non-horror films that scared them most, with picks ranging from Burning and Zodiac to 8mm, The Hunt and Requiem for a Dream.
Several choices centered on human menace rather than supernatural shocks: Burning was praised for its simmering male rage, Zodiac for daylight dread, and The Sniper for a 1952 portrait of misogynistic violence.
Others drew fear from social cruelty or vulnerability, including The Hunchback of Notre Dame, How to Have Sex and The Hunt, where humiliation, coercion and false accusation drive the tension.
A final group leaned on existential or institutional terror, with 2001: A Space Odyssey warning about technology, Dark Waters about corporate poisoning, and Awake exploiting surgical paralysis.
The list argues that thrillers, dramas and even family films can unsettle as deeply as horror when they tap recognizable real-world fears.