Almost from the beginning, I was submitting Short Screenplays along with my Features to Shriekfest.
It allowed me to experiment with styles and voices, and since I felt their judges were a solid arbiter of "Horror" as a definition, to see what the parameters of that actually might be.

Over the years I've tried EC-styled horror and of course some pretty brutal twists, but I've also offered tales without blood and  stories without violence of any sort. I've done heady philosophical  turns and simple conversations. I did an entire screenplay in rhyme, one time, and one year did a walk in the woods along a dark road, where I only allowed the two characters to say sweet and endearing things.

- Turns out Horror has a lot of faces, since I was never turned away and have won with those efforts. -

The last year of their 21-year run was the first time I ever wrote with a theme in mind, and explored  whether a person can actually have Free Will if one refuses to take in new information.  Sounded like Horror, to me, and Finaled once again.  Waiting to see if they return from hiatus to eagerly trek further.