Ironically one of the best horrors I saw recently was a form of "nostalgia horror" - I Saw the TV Glow, so I don't think it HAS to be bad but it just... usually is. It's usually so lazy specifically because it's all laid out for you since all you're doing is taking something kids like and making it SCKAWEY!!! And the "scary" thing about it is that the characters that once wanted to be your friend NOW WANT TO KILL YOU!!! I think your average similar-genre creepypasta like squidwards suicide is more creative than that lol. you can just... take anything and turn it into these horror games... dora the KILLER, roblox but ITS FUCKED UP!!!!! It's not like in horror there isn't always something trying to KILL YOU but I dunno, I guess it's that the story in all these is the same? In that it's... um that thing you like as a kid but its FUCKED UP because some KIDS DIED ONCE and now their GHOST MAKES EVERYTHING FUCKED UP!!! or whatever i havent actually played stuff like poppy playtime but i assume something like that is going on lol. And you don't have to make a creative movie monster or anything bc you're essentially just ripping existing things off. I think that's what bothers me more than it's tropeyness bc all horror is tropey to an extent - but when you're just ripping an existing thing off to make it horror you don't have to be creative at all. And I think you can parody existing things but my hope is that you would do it because you had something to say about it - like ISTTVG does about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But there's usually nothing to say, it's just an easy format for quick cash. What if Bluey wanted to KILL YOU Steam 19.99 boom a grillion dollars.

Buuuut I don't play horror games bc even outside of the nostalgia horror they're p tropey but I also just can't they give me too much anxiety lol. Idk why bc horror movies don't scare me, people screaming in my face in haunted houses don't scare me, but when it's a horror game and i have to make split second decisions while something's chasing after me my heart rate goes crazy. :'D It's unpleasant so I don't play these games unless I'm with a friend which makes the situation funny enough to ease my anxiety. I didn't know it when I played it that "Mouthwashing" was considered a horror game but I enjoyed it a lot for the plot and characters and some of the jump scares got me!

I'm hard to impress when it comes to horror films bc most things simply don't scare me, I can enjoy horror for the camp of it but I usually don't consider them to be what I would call a "good movie". I don't make much effort to keep up with it for that reason so I haven't seen a lot of recent things that have come out. The horror genre I like tends to psychological horror I guess? I won't lie, there's a high likelihood you won't find the movies I find scary enjoyable since my tastes sort of rely on what the films make me think about rather than jump scares or gore (some are still gorey though). Some ones with wider appeal - I really love older classics like The Others (one of my fav films), In the Mouth of Madness, Candyman, The Ring, and The Shining - more niche: Martyrs is probably the most a films ever scared me (specifically its first half), A24's Men and Lamb both really freaked me out and I generally like what A24's been releasing (though I have gripes with Hereditary & Midsommar despite those being ppl's favs), analog pseudo-snuff/disturbing stuff like hostel 2 & the Guinea Pig series, and I have a soft spot for well made monster movies and zombie flicks.

sorry this is probably a tl;dr answer and as always im likely forgetting some stuff i rly love.