What is the perfect eerieness?

[Akong]

You would find a corpse in the middle of the street scary because someone or something necessarily must have caused the death of this person and it could very well cause your death too. In fact if you were to see a corpse in the city, in the middle of day, you would be more than "a little scared", you would probably be quite terrified.

My example stated you were shown a corpse in a morgue. It has been dead for some time and the cause of death has been found. You likely wouldn't be scared at all, because you would know that you are not in any immediate danger.

Playing Penumbra in the company of people would be less scary, because if something was to happen, even though there is no chance of the game coming alive, there would be people there to help you.

I'm not saying that corpses can't be scary. They can. But there are other more effective ways of creating a scary atmosphere, such as sound, light, unpredictability etc. We are somewhat in agreement here, I'm just trying to explain why corpses aren't necessary for a good horror experience, and can even detract from it, if not done well.

Edit: Again, I very much agree with you about the guns. The feeling of helplessness is very important in any horror game.