Things that would have made Amnesia scarier

[Alardem]

Spoiler below!

More harlem shake.

I actually agree that I'd be more scared in familiar environments - it's one reason why Condemned: Criminal Origins worked so well.

Also, perhaps the presence of inexplicable or explicitly supernatural things would make things scarier. The problem with Amnesia and Penumbra's monsters is that they all have a rational logic behind their origin stories - games like Silent Hill, on the other hand, have far more abstract scares and monstrosities. Doom 3 also managed to be surprisingly effective with its use of invisible ghosts/voices that carry bodies and lead you into traps, becoming far creepier than the demons thanks to the total lack of explanation behind their presence.

There are no ghosts in Amnesia as far as I recall (bar the girl in the first game and Mandus' zombie sons in Amnesia 2), so perhaps the game could have benefited from implementing spectral horrors in addition to the monstrosities. To be utterly frank, the Gatherers/Pigs don't frighten me too much because

1. They're stupid and incapable of communication
2. They're living, material beings, with all the limitations that brings and the possibility that they can be killed
3. They look distinctly inhuman enough to comfortably dismiss as monsters

Ghosts in the vein of Silent Hill 4 or FEAR would be more frightening to me, doubly so in the context of a game where you have no weapons.