Anything Goes : SciFi, Horror & Imagination by Sten Ryason

I watch a lot of horror and scifi movies. While I appreciate the craft of special effects and CG (where it doesn't look like a video game), I also appreciate a director who can sell something as otherworldly without using anything. Case in point is Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker. This is a nearly three-hour movie, set in some crappy old buildings, a railway yard and a large meadow, three main characters, well before CG was invented, and the only special effect (besides some cheap camera trickery) is a glass moving across a tabletop, apparently through telekinesis. And yet the film works as a scifi movie, because the actors sell it so well. You come to believe by the first few minutes that when Stalker, Writer and Professor are in the Zone, their lives are in danger. I'm not suggesting no stunt work, either - the original Road Warrior had some very visceral-looking stunts that were completely practical, and also managed to get people hurt. But I guess I'd rather know about movies that don't include massive set-pieces. Can anyone think of other films that manage to avoid any special effects to make them either scary or believably scifi - or both? Before anyone says it, The Blair Witch Project is kind of what started me thinking along these lines. (and yes, I realize the bar is set pretty high with anything by Tarkovsky)