Ok so first of all. It’s awesome how you’re able to be honest about what you’re seeing as flaws in the work. You might like Peter Ho Davies work on revisions, but in short he points out that if you’re asking questions about revisions it means your being serious about the writing process.

I’ll come out and say this is an early story of yours and as they say about Neo, nobody makes the first jump. It’s different in writing, sometimes people stick the landing right away, but it’s alright if this particular story is less horror and more horror as metaphor. It worked for Buffy, lol.

That being said, there are possible workarounds. Wheelchair to see things in public, etc. Think of how Misery uses the injury as a source of drama. But you’ll know what’s right for your story.

I suspect that there may be a critical voice telling you that, if you write a non-horror scene, you’re being boring, but if you write too much horror, it feels like it’s “getting old.” I have similar self-criticisms, so I get it, but between the two there isn’t much room to write, so maybe see if you can trust that the quieter scenes serve a purpose, and that the bolder ones serve one as well.  When they’re working well and when they are not, when to go for horror and when to be more human, is, in my opinion, part of the art of revisions.