But isn't that the real horror?
To not being able to defend yourself?
No guns, clubs or knives, no crucifixes, no holy water,...nothing that keeps the evil at bay.
I mean, if you could simply shoot everything...then what's the point in making up supernatural enemies?
Simply go with a gang of everyday thugs.

If we are talking about a video game with actual gameplay, then no, the the player being unable to defend themself does not amount to horror at all whatsoever.

Rather, it amounts to ludicrously aggravating trial & error gameplay wherein the player has to repeat the same exact segment dozens or hundreds of times in a row until they happen to stumble upon the correct path or the correct timing to move to a certain place or push or pull a certain object, etc.

The practical effect of this endless trial & error-based repetition is that the player sees themselves die in the game in the exact same way dozens or hundreds of times in a row, which 100% desensitizes the player to, and also at the same time negates, any possible scariness or horror elements that might otherwise have been present if not for that terrible gameplay design of the player not being able to defend themself.

As for the particular game that this thread is about: I agree with Alexim on that. If the game consists solely of tables and fluorescent lights and no monsters or ghouls or zombies or anything like then, then it's not enough to make it an interesting horror game. Creepy rooms may be one legit element of horror, but they are not sufficient on their own to make for a compelling horror experience.

I'll point you to my very post you're answering. Can you tell me Silent Hill series is NOT scary? Because you have guns, melee weapons, health potions and even some small swords in the fourth one to "stab" ghost and pinning them in place so they don't follow you.

Horror comes from sound and our mind going crazy with what we cannot see. Hiding from something and not being able to defend yourself CAN be scary, sure... but eventually becomes frustrating (unless you like stealth I guess...). I'll put this as another question: Would Metal Gear Solid be a horror game if you had no guns and had to rely on stealth only?

The whole premisse of horror is not 'not having a way to defend yourself' but 'having little chance to win'.

Survival Horror genre deals not with player only running (no way to defend himself/herself), but with the player being forced to run when he did not planned well his resources, having to deal with little resources in dire situations or even to decide to not engage on combat, therefore, to run/escape, to save resources for a possible worser encounter that might happen later.
The objective here is to create stress.

This principle together with the natural psychological feeling that every human does have:
Fear of the unknown; is what makes a good horror or survival horror game.

This principle is normally used in games using very dark places - not because we fear dark places - but because we fear the unknown, that is, what we can't see - therefore our senses cannot understand.
This idea is also used in games as weird and unknown noises or noises with frequencies that are psychologically associated with pain or despair.

Games like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Fear Effect, and other horror classics work well because of this.
When 'Survival Horror' games fail in producing fear, normally the cause is that the developers failed in understanding how players may have fun in situations like this and what causes fear in human brains.
Thus, developers should understand what Fear is, and how the feeling of Overcoming Fears produces a Fun experience.

"Only running" is indeed not fun.
Turning back and shoting what did scared you before is fun. Overcoming previously known fears.

This is why Resident Evil 1, 2, 7 are acclaimed as good survival horror experiences and Resident Evil 3, 5, 6 are considered bad Resident Evil games by many players. (4 is another story and should be analyzed differently I think. Don't make me talk about the remakes, please. :P)

This is what made Dead Space an instant classic when the first game released, and also why Dead Space 2 is considered by many the definitive Dead Space experience, while 3 was not so well received.
(...and also why Dead Space remake fails in areas where Dead Space classic did not In my humble opinion, as it changed many things that made precision dismemberment and resource management essential, albeit it is still a good game.)

This is also why Silent Hill 1 is considered by many the best Survival Horror game, as it deals exactly with that, psychological fears overall. It does not apply the principles on gameplay, but also on its story as themes.
Thats why it works so well.

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Now talking about the game of the thread.
I'd say the trailer is good enough to make a Survival Horror fan buy this game.
The gameplay in itself is another story though.

But, as I have not played this game, I can't say how the principles of horror explained above are applied to the player experience.

I don't know whether this particular game has "actual gameplay" or not (though I would assume it has - else it would be a movie)...but my remark was in regard to the supernarural "it" in this game (why should you be able to fight something supernatural with normal weapons?) AND to the nature of horror in general (tell me what's more horrifying than not being able to defend yourself against whatever is coming after you?)
I wasn't talking about a comparison with other video games.
I was talking about real life, respectively about this particular game "Backrooms 1998" with its supernatural "it" following you around.

Tell me something more horrifying than not being able to fight off, what's coming after you.

Well, in REAL LIFE is another story. A lot of things are scary in real life and not in gaming. Roller coasters can be scary in real life. And my whole comment was basically on the "survival horror" genre used in the description. This could very well be a good horror game, but survival horror is a whole different genre that requires resource management and actual means of defense, making the player face what would be preferable to run from.