Dramas like
The Frog

A cheap building, a young man with nowhere else to go, and neighbours who are extremely interested in him. The closest match on the site for the specific feeling of being trapped somewhere you paid to be, and it is better than this at making the walls do the work. Ten episodes, no romance, no relief. Difference: the pressure is claustrophobic rather than pastoral, so swap the woods for a corridor.

Hooks early Episode 2, once the other tenants start knocking on his door.

An ordinary life that curdles, told with total commitment to how ugly it gets. Same interest in people who make one bad decision and then keep protecting it, and the same willingness to sit inside consequences. Three actresses hand one woman down across twenty years. Difference: it spans decades and switches perspective, where this stays in two summers and one house.

Slow start Episode 3, when the lead is recast and the show reveals it is a relay race across three actresses rather than one story.

Six episodes, no filler, and everybody involved is somebody's problem. Both are built on the idea that a small cover-up is a machine you cannot switch off, and both are much more interested in behaviour than in detection. Difference: it is a tight interlocking ensemble, so the dread is structural rather than atmospheric.

Slow start Episode 3, once the separate timelines start colliding and the structure becomes the point of the whole thing.

A village, a disappearance and two men each convinced the other is lying. The same trick of setting horror in somewhere green and quiet, played over sixteen hours by two of the best performances Korean television has. Difference: it is a real investigation with a real answer, so you get resolution rather than atmosphere.

Slow start Episode 3, the point at which you stop trusting both leads at once.

People being polite to each other while the situation rots. Shares the appetite for watching ordinary manners hold while everything underneath gets worse, and Go Min Si is doing related work in both. Difference: the setting is a rigged game with rules on the wall, so the horror is designed rather than accidental.

Hooks early Episode 2, once the time for money rule is understood and the floors start turning on each other.

Beautifully shot, immaculately scored, deliberately withholding. If the slowness was the appeal here and not the obstacle, this is the same register at eight episodes, and the compositions are worth the ticket on their own. Difference: it is nearly inert, and the marriage at its centre gives you far less to be afraid of.

Slow start Episode 4, where the trunk plot finally moves. The three hours in front of it are mood with almost no story.