most people use the word horror very sparingly, only for media that's very in your face about wanting to scare you, jumpscares, gory visuals, anticipation, etc are all very effective means of scaring or at the very least unsettling someone, but i can't help but feel like that's a small part of all the possible triggers of horror? i'll be the pussy to say it, sometimes all you need to do is put someone in a haunted mansion infinitely bigger than them with no clarification of when or why, make their perspective of the environment move about constantly with a sense of urgency, play music that lures them into raising their volume just to sloooowly escalate the same, almost headache-inducing melody, give them a title that makes them feel incredibly fragile, give the whole environment muddy colors and an extremely messy, unwelcoming appearance, and end the whole experience with what feels like, dare i say, trying to hide, then escape something, and that's sure to fuck them up.
i haven't beaten this level, but i have grinded it extensively, and still, not even that level of familiarity with it is enough to stop me from feeling a little uneasy when i think about it. maybe it's just a very personal flavor of fear that no one else will get, maybe it's some kind of vaguely connected trauma i've yet to dig up, but this level is fucking SCARY man. i love it. thanks koko