The experience of horror games still doesn't come close to movies like Alien, Silence of the lambs and The shining. (neither do modern horror films unfortunately)
My wife still gets the creeps when she sees Anthony Hopkins on tv and just mentioning "Here's Johny" freaks her out. What video game has that kind of effect?
The power of a good horror movie is that you have no other control then to close your eyes, which doesn't help since your imagination and the sound keep going. You still want to know what happens against better judgement. In a video game you can go the other way, fight back, die and reload etc.
The scariest parts in Silent hill 2 for me were not the chases or things creeping in the dark but when the game asks you if you want to stick your hand through a hole to try to retrieve something. Hell no. But need to do it to continue. The scariest part in Siren for me was when you're playing the little girl who can't fight back and when you see one of the zombies closing in on your hiding spot in sight jack mode. Finding a way to cut off your own finger in Heavy rain is a very immersive sequence as well. Just imagining what would hurt less, pliers or a knife, yuck.
