Scariest contemporary film

I’ve seen similar posts, and most of the responses are like ‘I don’t actually get ‘scared’ watching films because I’m a grown up’ etc, which I do understand.

And I suspect that this is the problem I’m facing here.

However, I know that deep down I do still have it in me to be scared by horror films. I’m just struggling to scratch that itch.

I don’t need to be haunted afterwards, in fact I wouldn’t really want that anyway.

But I want something that puts me on the edge of my seat for nearly the entire film, using masterful suspense, tension and mystery. That feeling that makes your heart sink, and makes you feel unsafe, or threatened. Something that builds and builds without ruining it all with tacky reveals, CGI, or too many jump scares.

I’m trying to avoid films that rely too much on being mean spirited, sadistic or plain upsetting, because being ‘disturbed’ by certain themes or gratuitous torture etc is not a fun time. It doesn’t necessarily make a film scary, or make me impressed by the filmmaking.

Eg, I did think Speak No Evil was very good, but it was more distressing than scary. I’ll watch Martyrs at some point (probably) and I’ll definitely watch Eden Lake, but I’m not looking for a massive downer.

For reference, I felt pretty on edge for the first third of Smile, but that feeling soon wore off. Oddity had a few very good jumpscares and creepy moments but I couldn’t take it seriously as a whole. Korean films are great but I’m yet to see one that I’d say is ‘scary.’

The Dark and The Wicked had some quite ‘scary’ moments, and that breakfast table seen was 👌🏻

I found Terrified (Aterrados) and Sinister pretty lame.

What’s the actual scariest (contemporary) film you can recommend? (And don’t say Hereditary 🙄)