I'm trying not to ask r/HorrorMovies because, no offense, I love that there's a subgenre for horror and occult themed films, but the way the genre became saturated with a kind of "correct" way to make Horror movies, but where everything is B-movie slop, turned me off from the horror movie scene.

But I'm still interested in just horror, and want to see it through both horror movies and non-horror movies. To me it's not about dark visuals and jumpscares, or being like "oooh there is a GHOST" or some shit -- the thing that makes the category irritating to navigate is that its lowest common, and most popular, denominator just loves things that appear visceral and movies tonemapped to this kind of boring greyscale "Insidious" look, where there is "a monster" and some clichéd cast of victimizable characters.

There are genuinely haunting horror movies too, like The Shining or Jacob's Ladder, movies where the filmmaking and visuals stick with you just as much in a "WTF" or "AAH what is THAT EW!?" at the same time as they hit you on an emotional level.

I'm a sucker for movies that follow an intelligent narrative with believable characters, written like good books are written, but I think it's very hard to find genuinely frightening movies that are those things.

So what are your favorite and most haunting horror movies? Feel free to rebutt my take on the "Insidious" subgenre of film, but don't expect to rock my boat with it. Most of us know what we like.