How do you guys handle it?

[Datashocker]

Short answer: I didn't need to.

Long answer: thanks to balls of steel (snarf snarf), I didn't have any issues playing the game even in middle of the night in pitch black room. There was few moments where heartbeat rate went up slightly, few genuine startles and atleast one scare to the point it chilled my spine even for a split second, but nothing too special.

The scare:

Spoiler below!

the iron maiden in the huge hall that leads to torture chambers. I didn't see that one coming at all

(And yes, for some reason it takes seriously major effort\weird stuff to give me even a proper startle in a game, and those rare (horror) games that gave me some sort of startle - or even an actual brief scare - are limited down to five games in the past 10 years)

Expectations are key. If people go into this game thinking that they are going to be scared, and try to immerse themselves in the experience, they will be. I have a feeling you told yourself that this game, like all the other "horror" games in the past, wouldn't scare you. So, it didn't.