What Truley makes a game scary?

[swolf]

Preoccupying the player with something else while you quietly set the scene for the horror.

Example: The corridor in the original Unreal game. You had to go down it to push a button or summit. Button push = Lights out + aliens everywhere!

This scares me each time.

That was more than the usual "jump scare", it had the psychological effect of feeling safe and then bam! The body you thought was dead is actually alive (or is hallucinating again?) And then the scene right after? WOW!!! Scared me the way nothing has in quite a while. Genius!!! Also, you never really feel overpowered. You can get firearms but the ammo is scarce and once it's out you are left swinging it like a club which is practically useless.