A contemporary writer who succeeds at creating chills without gore is Susan Hill. I love her Man in the Portrait (you can read my review of it on Goodreads here), and I'm looking forward to the new movie version of her novel The Woman in Black which stars Daniel Radcliffe. On her website, Ms. Hill notes that when she sat down to write The Woman in Black, she felt it was essential that the ghost have "a purpose...There has to be a motive for the hauntings." Today, I think many horror stories and movies lack a villain with purpose.
Some have argued that the "Random Slasher" of contemporary horror is a personification of the contemporary fear that the world is chaotic and random, and anyone's life can be visited with disaster and tragedy. I do get this, but to me the Gothic tales and English ghost stories where the past purposefully comes back to haunt the present are far more compelling.
Do you have a favorite ghost story? Ever told, or listened to, a ghost story around a camp fire up North? I once made a student of mine (who loved zombie movies) write a horror story without one drop of blood. Have you ever tried to write a scary/ghost story without any gore? Is it essential that the ghost (or creature/villain/etc) have a purpose or motive? Are writers and movie makers who rely on gore talentless hacks?