Game horror is something I've always wanted to get into but never really could pull it off. I guess it may have to do with my life already being pretty high-strung as it is. No time for MORE paranoia and jump scares when I'm trying to chill the hell out on the couch. ;P
This goes back to the original Resident Evil on PS1. Once those few zombie dogs burst through the hallway windows very early in the game, I was done. It was nice to see that first cut scene of a zombie gnawing on a body then noticing my presence. Still, I couldn't get past the jumps to get any deeper in. I think the voice acting might have had a role too.
The closest I got after that might have been a PC demo of F.E.A.R. I remember it being incredibly immersive, and with headphones on it was kind of trippy. I remember walking down a dark alleyway and my comms dropping with static. Then out of nowhere was this kid's face flashing before me and her voice on my radio. GREAT rush, but still too much for me at the time. I never purchased the game to play through. I did really enjoy watching the rats scurry away from my flash light. The environments were gorgeous and unheard of, at least for me. You have to realize the last shooter that I had played before that was probably the original Unreal campaign in the late 90s.
Around the same time I tried to pick up (now don't laugh), Bioshock. I downloaded a PC demo after a coworker recommended it. It looked good, but having no idea what the game was about, everything kind of made me jumpy. My first encounter with a splicer was it for me, what with how she was crawling through the walls taunting me, cackling, and screwing around with the lights. Yeah, no. It wasn't until years later, after picking up a PS3, did I even attempt to try that again. and I loved it!
That's sort of the problem here for me. I'm missing out on an entire genre of potentially lovable games for my over-hyped sense of paranoia. Gosh. I am a bit jealous, to be honest