Maybe it’s just me, but I think there is often a fine line between dark comedies and romcoms. So I sampled HollyShorts Film Festival sections of each and will report here and see if you can tell which is which.

It’s OK, Johnny (7 minutes), directed by Deniz Akyurek, is about things that happened long ago. Johnny calls up an old middle school classmate to apologize for bullying him years ago. It is essentially a monologue as he recounts the pain he was dealing with that he then took out on his victim. But then the other man has his own monologue that turns everything upside down.

Tadpole (18 minutes), directed by Ethan Lader, is about a girl and her new pet. Val is an outsider bullied by other girls—and abused by her grandmother. When she finds a large tadpole, she catches it and takes it home. She discovers it has a taste for blood. Think of it as an amphibian version of The Little Shop of Horrors. The new sheriff in town has a son, who is just as much an outsider as Val.

Death of a Parrot (13 minutes), directed by Katie Graham and Andrew Matthews, takes us behind the scenes of a new age retreat. The leader is all smiles and gentleness with the clients, but with staff she is cruel and manipulative. This weekend there is a journalist who has come to write about her, so everything needs to be perfect. It’s not.

Day in the Death (11 minutes), directed by Emil Stern, is a story of repressed feelings. A young medical examiner meets her favorite musician—on her table. She even had plans to go to his show that night, but he obviously won’t be doing it. Her calm efficiency hides all the things about death that she bottles up. But this may break the dam.

In the Flesh (16 minutes), directed by Emily Frances Kaplan, plays around with the visual aspects of sensuality. The spark seems to have left the seemingly perfect housewife. But she does have a thing about good cuts of meat—and the new butcher. When her husband’s cousin comes to dinner with a new friend, she makes an amazing discovery.

Are We Still Married? (12 minutes), directed by Kit Steinkellner, is a vampire story. Laura has to decide if she will invite her husband into their home—because he’s now a vampire. Through the night they talk—through doors or windows, as he tries to convince her that he loves her, and she knows that all this is what he’d say if he wanted to eat her. They seem like the same people they’ve always been, but there is an important difference.

The Portrait (5 minutes), directed by Julia Hogg, is a date that seem to be going very well. A girl and her date spend some time drawing and showing each other. Then he wants to draw her. Is that how he sees her? Is that how she looks?

Before Anything Happens (13 minutes), directed by Samantha Joia, is another date movie. A young couple have planned for their first time of intimacy. There is awkwardness, and then things go wrong. A trip to the ER and a returning mother makes this a date they will remember. Fondly?