Often, I’m in the same boat as you. For example, Skinamarink is one of the worst offenders I’ve seen in recent years. If a movie does it once or twice, I don’t mind it, as it can soften you up to allow more clever scares to get further under your skin, or have you on edge whenever the score cuts out. But doing it too much ruins the effect.

There are ones I think are genuinely good, though. Ones without that loud audio stab, or where it comes slightly delayed such that the image already spooked me and the noise hits it home, work for me. I think of a moment in Hereditary when you all of a sudden see movement over a character’s shoulder in a darkened room that had appeared empty (avoiding details for spoilers). It’s more earned, because the terror spreads like a wave through the audience as people realize it at different times, as the movie doesn’t call attention to it, but if you’re watching the screen, you’ll see it eventually.

Shinya Tsukamoto’s 2018 film Killing is a great, tense story that both plays into and undermines some of the tropes of samurai films. It’s a bit brutal at times, and also amusing in that wry way that Tsukamoto is so good at.