Hi everyone, thanks for your input. The main response is that it's important to know your stats but also that they don't get in the way. The solution I chose is a nearly fully transparent horizontal bar at the bottom of the screen (4 / 255 opaqueness) which is clear enough to see but doesn't steal the attention. The bar goes invisible when at full health.
It is hard to see on itch.io due to the white background, try clicking "open image in new tab". The current health is 57%.
Hopefully this can help any other horror developers decide.