All the horror anime I've watched have been sadly pretty lacking; being either not scary at all or purely shock value. I'm looking for something that's neither of those, I want a genuinely scary narrative that doesn't rely on jumpscares or gore to be scary (I'm fine with them as long as that's not the main element of the show.) Any recommendations welcome!
Psycho-Pass is maybe more of an action-sci-fi, but the whole show, and doubly the first series, has significant horror elements that are focused around a dystopian future where slavery and violent murder is widely supported and done because institutions do it (pretty wild right), and as peoples' mental stability goes down (how stability is judged is a big plot point), they must submit to increasing punishment/rehabiliation.
To be honest, I find it very horrifying largely because it's scarily plausible. Nobody (again, at least first series) is like implausibly innately villanous just for plot, and the ambivalence with which the ruling class and cop characters kill is amazingly shown, while the 'criminals' are largely just reacting to an insane societal system. It's too close to reality for me to feel.. comfortable, at any stage.
In addition, never watched it, but I heard good stuff of Serial Experiments Lain.
I've seen Lain, one of my all time favorites. Ill check out Psycho Pass, thanks!