I've been pondering gore in horror lately.

Most of my short stories, and a novella, are steeped in 80's horror and other classic trope-y stuff like Tales from The Crypt. This means there is plentiful gore. I've managed to get some of these published and cobble together a small following.

But lately on the reading front I've been way more intrigued by stuff like Lovecraft, Ligotti, and authors like Kathe Koja who are much lighter on the gore and a bit more "literary".

Has anyone else who writes horror transitioned away from writing really gory stuff into more "dread and suspense" type horror? Did your readers get upset about it? Kind of a weird question, but horror fans can be picky and authors can occasionally get pigeon-holed by sub-genre and style.

I'm hoping a good story with fear and tension will always be appreciated, but I'm curious as to anyone else's experiences with this.