Some picks surprise me a bit, others are not surprising at all.
Swery definitely went the most niche, but that also makes it probably the most interesting. Nanashi No Game is the best handheld horror game I've played, but it's so woefully underlooked. It's basically a J-horror film in game form, but about a cursed game. Not perfect and I wouldn't put it on a list of my top five favorite horror games, but definitely a title that deserves more attention. It's controls take some getting used too, though.
The Last of Us creative directors must have had discussions with each other before about how great Fatal Frame 2 is or something, there's no way it was both their number 1 pick by coincidence. I mean, it is a great horror game (Even if it scares me less than it scares others and I think it is a tad on the easy side), but that suggests it was fresh in their mind/they must have discussed how good a horror game it is before, for them both to place it number one.
While I personally love Shadows of the Damned, pft Suda51. I'm also guessing he got an early copy of Evil Within because because Mikami and him have worked on a few games together and several ex-employees from Grasshopper Manufacturer have been working on Evil Within.
I find Dan Pinchbeck's and Alex Tintor's lists interesting as well.
