@undeadpool: My wife can't even be in the same room as me when I play Subnautica for exactly the same reason. I think specifically for her she feels the urge to hold her breath, and then when I'm in a cave or something she literally starts to panic thinking she will never get out. It's wild, because she also loves swimming and even some mild scuba diving.
For me, when I was a child it was that classic asshole sun enemy in Mario 3, as well as Phanto in Mario 2. Pretty boilerplate answers, I know, but I was like, 6 at the time.
When I was a little older, it's not a specific enemy per se, but the segment on the Floating Island in FFVI where you have a time limit to get to your airship, and you have to leave yourself enough time to wait for Shadow or else lose him for the second part of the game, always filled me with anxiety (there is a boss fight in there, Atma Weapon, I think, so I'll say it counts).
More modern, the Haunt enemies in Thief scared the fucking bejesus out of me and one time my tension level was so high while playing late at night that the resulting scream literally woke up my family who thought I was being murdered.
Finally, very modern day: Breath of the Wild, the guardians. Instant panic and sweats for a large portion of that game, especially while performing certain tasks. Cannot remember how many times I would just found my self serpentining in random directions just hoping I don't get nailed. They lose a little of their suspense once you learn how to parry them because the window is very forgiving, but there are still parts later around Ganon's castle that are intense.
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