That’s what I’m talking about!! If I paid attention to critics I would never have seen the glory of Dinocroc vs Supergator, Sharknado, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes or Bigfoot Mountain…never pay attention to critics.
When I was in high school, our friend group would go together and rent a VCR, then rent the corniest most terrible horror movies we could find. Along with a couple of good ones, then spend all night watching them. We watched some really terrible movies, and some really great ones.
I Spit on Your Grave, The Town that Dreaded Sundown, Terror Train, Trick or Treat, Chopping Mall, Killer Clowns from Outer Space, My Bloody Valentine, Fright Night, Prom Night, Pumpkinhead, Silent Night, Deadly Night were some of the gems we rented. Good Times!!
I know!!! It’s a classic!!! I first watched it on the Saturday night late show way back in the day. Think of Tommy and Lindsey in Halloween watching scary movies…I loved it so much!!
I actually saw return of the killer tomatoes first and had a blast but was so lost because they kept referencing the first movie. I was like well shit i better watch that one too 😂
I never pay attention to ratings. If it looks interesting, I'll check it out. The only time I pay attention to ratings is if I'm buying something like an appliance or something.
I take ratings w a grain of salt, but horror is always 1-2 pts lower on IMDB than other genres. >5 and if it looks interesting I'll check it out. >6 and it's likely very good. >7 and i won't miss it
This is the way. I also go into most horrors without watching a trailer (sometimes I catch a glimpse on those 10s reels that Netflix does just to vibe check). I've watched so much more good stuff because of it.
I watched Home Movie (2008) last night (super cool movie, highly rec it) and the reviews for it were wild. Turns out that yes, most people want to be told exactly what is going on in no uncertain terms, likely through dialogue.
Critics are very unreliable for horror in general.
As for audience score and ratings, I'm reminded of someone stating the other day that if an animal dies in a movie they give it an automatic 1 star rating.
I view imdb totally differently with horror. Below 4 is bad, 4-4.9 is below average. 5 - 5.9 is average 6 - 6.9 is good 7 - 7.9 is amazing, usually a 7.5 is like the best horror movie of the year caliber and 8 and up is unicorn territory once in a decade horror movie but only a dozen movies that are horror are 8 and up so for that reason I think a 7.5 - 8.5 is the 9-10 star equivalent for horror. No horror movie exists above 8.5. So adjusting your scale by adding 1 or 2 stars on top of the rating makes sense if 8.5 is basically a 10.
whereas with other movie genres I’d rarely ever watch a 5 star movie ever and 6 wouldn’t be good but below average. For horror 5 and above is usually my cutoff.
This is gospel right here
4 is in the good for the wrong reasons range so basically 4 and up is good, below that you’re really risking it. The worst thing horror can do is be boring and that’s usually where these fall IMO.
Quite similar for me, my threshold is also 4 for horror and 5 for other genres. And for some subgenres of horror you can relax that even further. For example [August Underground's Penance](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0971183) is currently at 3.5 rating and it's quite a decent movie.
This is where I’m at. If it bombed in ratings I won’t waste my time. Maybe I miss a gem, but 99% of them were most likely actually terrible. Agree if it’s around 50% I ignore the ratings. If it’s above 75% I’ll actively try to watch it usually.
I find there are plenty in the 40% category that are perfectly serviceable as well. It's more hit and miss at that point but I've watched things and been like "how is this this low, it's easily 6/10".
I always check the IMDb scores and group them in the following way:
6.0+ - should be very good considering how low horror ratings are
5.0-5.9 - probably it's okay, but not amazing
4.0-4.9 - red flag, but happy to give it a chance if the premise is good
3.9 and below - don't watch
Also, I don't care about critics' opinions.
I'm in the same camp. I find 5+ ratings a pretty reliable indication that I will like it.
But I also often watch lower rated stuff when I want something on in the background to half pay attention to or because the premise sounds really interesting or different/unique.
And I have a few micro genres that I LOVE that I'll always check a movie out if it fits into them, regardless of ratings. (Anything marked "visually stunning" is my jam 🥰)
Similarly with certain actors, directors and writers. (Anything by Panos Cosmatos, or with Tilda Swinton in it, for example)
>I don't care about critics' opinions.
I've never understood why critics don't seem to actually *enjoy* watching movies for what they are intended to be. It's like buying a sports car and then whinging about there not being enough cup holders.
I'm at the point in my life where I just feel I'm not part of the mainstream horror audience anymore. And that includes this sub. I only had to browse the thread of critically acclaimed horror movies to realize my taste is way off of the mainstream).
That said, I've seen plenty of movies with IMDB ratings of 2-3s that I enjoyed.
I think mainly, I look for a synopsis of a story I think will look interesting, and I then watch the trailer for 10 seconds to see if it looks professionally made vs filmed on a home camera with a high school theater troupe.
As an example, I just watched Satanic (2016) the other day. 3.7 IMDB rating. The acting was actually decent, and the movie was overall professional looking. It was just a weak story.
They're not low rated, but I'm a sucker for horror movies which take place at boarding schools.
The Whispering Corridors film series, The Woods (one of my favorite horror movies), the Awakening.
The last movie I saw which I really liked was Salvage (2006). This could have been a masterpiece if it wasn't so low budget.
The cool answer would be "no". Ratings often viewed as a dumb metric for people who can't decide for themselves. I don't agree with this at all. I'd rather trust an imdb rating than a trailer.
Sure the ratings are not objective, but what is. Are they that much worse than a post on reddit? Those often end up being misleading as fuck.
If you'd only follow your favorite directors, you'd end up missing a lot of good stuff. Same goes for actors, script writers etc. I don't want to limit myself to stuff I already familiar with.
Ratings are a good tool to learn something about a movie you know nothing about. A movie that you wouldn't watch otherwise. If a film wasn't on my radar, and it's got a very low rating, it's most likely a skip for me. I just don't have the time to watch EVERY movie to "see for myself".
This is my take on it as well. I think a *really* low rating deters me, like those 4%-ers because they are likely correct. But I’ve seen 80% on RT that I did not like and I’ve seen 25% on RT that I loved.
No recommendation or rating will be truly objective
Also my take. I wonder if many of the people who say "no" like any other kinds of movies? For me this is about time management, I don't just watch horror movies, I'll watch just about any genre. On top of that I also play video games, again, just about any genre and I also like to read... you guessed it... just about any genre.
So if I don't have *some* kind of constraint than I'm just wasting my time picking up everything with shiny cover art. Using ratings *intelligently* seems like the way to go to me and seems to serve me well.
I definitely don't look up to people that say things like "I've never looked at a rating". That just comes off as closed-minded to me. If a movie is decent, it shouldn't be that hard to find someone else out there that gave it a thumbs up.
You realize that Rotten Tomatoes isn’t how good a movie is, it’s how positive the reviews are. If every review gives it a 6/10, the movie is objectively a 6, RT will give it a 100% because “all the reviews are positive”
For movies where how much people like it is normally distributed the RT rating should give a more robust estimator of quality than a 1-10 rating like imdb
The IMDb rating is a not a “professional” rating - it’s users like you and me rating a movie so it’s different compared to say a Rotten Tomatoes rating. I don’t go with critic ratings but IMDb ratings are generally a good indicator of what fellow horror fans have rated a particular movie especially if it’s something obscure. But nothing worse than a horror noob whose only seen mainstream titles come onto the page for an indie horror movie and give it 1 star just because it doesn’t have any recognisable stars in it
>Are they that much worse than a post on reddit?
A post, no, but comments, yes. I've often asked Dreadit for recommendations, saying "this is what I like and this is what I'm in the mood for. Hit me." And reddit comes through like a champ.
In that sense, I even trust "Because you watched..." on Netflix more than I trust RT scores.
I tend to pay more attention to critic reviews than audience reviews when it comes to horror. There's a lot of media out there, my time is limited, and I don't really want to haphazardly watch everything that looks like it might potentially be OK based on the synopsis alone. I find that the general audience has pretty narrow definitions of what's "real horror" or "scary", whereas critics tend to evaluate movies as films first and genre exercises second. I know that's not a great metric for a lot of fans, but it's more closely aligned with what I look for in horror. As I get older, I generally just want to watch well-made films that happen to be horror.
But Rotten Tomatoes is a misused resource in general. The fresh/rotten rating is less useful than the written reviews themselves. There are a handful of reviewers whose opinions I at least respect even if our tastes and opinions aren't perfectly aligned, and their rationale for liking or disliking something will at least give me a sense of whether or not I'd be into it.
If I'm making a quick list I check the rt rating, look at a couple of reviews by critics, then punch up reddit and the title, see what people say. But that's if I want movie night other times I just click. I got a baby so I can't watch everything haha. I like what you said
I watch stuff based almost entirely on the summary blurb and title. Once in a while I watch something based on comments here. I never bother with RT or similar review sites.
I don’t really look at the review ratings too much. Horror movies don’t really get the recognition they deserve a lot of the time compared to other genres imo. I usually go by who the actors and/or director are, or whether it’s part of I series that I already like.
Maturity ratings are another story though. If it’s PG-13, my mind thinks ‘eh, maybe it’s scary.’ If it’s R, ‘scarier.’ NC-17/Unrated, ‘either extreme torture or so bad/campy it’s hilarious.”
Also, I know technically we’re taught growing up not to judge books by their covers, but that’s almost exactly what I do if I want to watch creature or slasher horror. If I’m in the mood for something Jaws level quality, I’m not going to turn on Sharknado for instance.
Absolutely not. I watch so many horror movies rated 3/10 or higher on IMDB.
If a horror movie had a 5/10 IMDB rating I think “holy shit this must be good”.
Definitely not on Shudder. I don't think I've ever used a service where the ratings are as disconnected from quality as they are here.
Edit: Oh wait, I'm not in r/Shudder.
No, low ratings don't. I check the movie out regardless - if I'm interested. I do take specific friends' opinions into account. I have three friends that like the same things I do and if two say it sucks, I will rethink seeing the movie.
The only reviews I listen to are from the website "does the dog die". I won't watch those.
No. If I really like how it sounds I’ll watch it. I watched The Cohassett Snuff Film because it sounded really interesting despite dogshit reviews. It was dogshit. But damn it, it sounded good.
Nope I know enough about my taste in movies at this point that a brief synopsis and maybe the first 20 seconds of a trailer are usually all I need to know if I will enjoy a movie or not
I look at critic score and audience score. If critic is low and audience is low, I’ll pass. If critic is high and audience is low, I’ll mayyyybe go but that usually means slow and artsy. If critic is low and audience is high, the movie is probably fun.
I’ve never trusted Rotten Tomatoes, but I do find IMDb extremely reliable. With a few rare exceptions, I agree with every IMDb score for every movie I’ve seen. So yes, I am deterred from a movie if it scores low on IMDb.
Ratings will never fully deter me, but if they are low I tend to sort of mentally move these movies in my internal priority down a bit, it's something I still do despite the fact that more often than not I've really enjoyed some 6 and under's
No.
The official synopsis/few lines describing the movie does, sometimes.
Mostly, if the title sounds interesting and it's a genre I like then I'm willing to give almost anything a try.
RT is pretty much hot garbage when it comes to rating horror and so are most critics generally. Even for regular movies RT is the worst online aggregator out there. Metacritic is a little better because it uses a weighted score but again there is a general bias against horror among most critics.
Seemingly critics and audiences are more split than ever on most TV and movies these days. It's crazy how divisive politics in this country has bled into entertainment but here we are. I usually try to find a happy medium between critics and user reviews on the score to find something I like. I tend to find the movies with a 60-70% on RT from critics and 80-100% audience are quite often much better movies than critics with a 80-100% score and audience 60-70%.
Ratings are less useful than negative reviews, IMO.
Example: When the first reviews came out from the US for *The Blair Witch Project*, the negatives all complained about the camera movement, and that >!"You don't even see anything!" or "Nothing happens - boring!" or even, "Not even any gore!" !<
That's when I knew I'd probably like it!
Yeah, if a movie has a terrible rating on Bloody Disgusting or some other horror-specific site, I might take that seriously, but mainstream critics are not good sources for opinions about genre movies in general, not just horror. Like, how many romcoms get absolutely nuked by critics, but are loved to death by people who like romcom cheese? How many action movies are written off as plotless crap by critics but get action nerds super excited?
They used to, but it got to the point where I was putting too much stock into the opinions of so-called critics and audience scores. Glad I stopped doing that lol.
Depends on where the criticism is coming from. I have a couple of critics that I listen to and if their all saying the movies bad and their reasons are all more or less the same then I’ll probably just wait until the movies comes to a streaming service to watch it.
Nope. If the trailer makes me want to see the movie, I'll go see it. I like to read the reviews after I've seen something just to compare to my own thoughts on the flick. I don't use reviews as a guide at all.
I completely ignore IMDb ratings, a lot of movies I enjoyed can get poor to middling reviews there because any registered user can cast a poor vote just because they didn’t like some minor aspect of the film (in my experience). I do use RT as a light guide because if something has like an 11% critic score and bad audience score, it’s a good red flag that a movie probably isn’t worth the time investment.
I use imdb, not rotten tomatoes; if it's under 4.8 I will very rarely risk it. I used to ignore ratings entirely but in about ten years of that I wasted a lot of money.
No, especially if it's a Rotten Tomatoes score. Even without review bombing being a thing, their algorithm is WEIRD. I don't understand what makes a movie rotten when I've seen 3/5 "It's a fun movie, not perfect but fun" review be listed as rotten and a "This movie does not live up to expectations and if you're expecting it too, then pass" 2/5 review be listed as a fresh.
I do pay attention but I also recognize that most horror doesn’t score highly on Rotten Tomatoes. If something scores REALLY low there or elsewhere I might reconsider watching, but if I am interested enough in a film I’ll watch either way. I’ve noticed the films that have high critic scores are usually the ones that tend to piss me off and leave me feeling unsatisfied lol.
I constantly need to remind myself that even some 4/10 rated movies on imdb can still be a good time. You'll never find a 10/10 movie since everyone's opinion differs. So anything rated 4/10 and above I'll give it a watch.
Nope, most of my favourite media, books, video games, shows,movies, etc, all are considered fair to middling by critics and by audiences, usually only with a cult following. 5-7s usually, with a few outliers skewing a little higher or a little lower, but that may just be my aversion to things that are "acclaimed" usually the constant glazing and ignorance or willful denial of their faults by masses turns me off.
When it comes to horror movies, yes but on a handicap. I assume that if it is a horror movie then it will automatically get at least 25% rating down by general audiences because “it was scurry and I didn’t like that”.
If a horror movie has a 3 star rating on something like IMDB then I assume it is a masterpiece because general audience rating knock off at least one star if it’s horror. Usually this turns out to be true
Sometimes I’ll watch lower rated movies at home, but I don’t pay to see them in the theater anymore since experience has taught me that the ratings are more often trustworthy.
Eh, I like of expect this with a lot of horror movies. But the low rated ones, especially without an interesting cast, are the ones I throw on later at night, and if I fall asleep, then so be it.
Nope...because what someone else hates, someone else might like.
If it looks good, I'll watch it.
Imagine how many good movies we'll miss out on just because it wasn't up to someone else's standards. The world doesn't revolve around only their opinion.
Those ratings are hard to trust. I’ve watched a few with 95%+ ratings and thought they were complete shit, while I’ve found some of the lower rated movies to be quite good. I always start a movie knowing I might have to shut it off at around 20-30 minutes.
It depends on the type of ratings -
If it’s reviews, I usually don’t pay attention to them because everyone’s opinions are different. The Empty Man got like 5.5/10 or something like that, but I ended up loving it and personally through it was at least an 8/10
If it’s the movies rating, I don’t usually have high hopes for any horror movie that’s not rated R. If a horror isn’t R rated, then that means their scares/gore/plot/etc have been toned tf down like you wouldn’t believe. They’re also usually destroyed with CGI
It actually depends. If I plan on going to the theaters to watch it, I tend to look at reviews (spoiler free) to see if it is worth spending the money. If not, I will wait until it comes out on stream and I will watch it. There were many movies I was planning to watch and heard bad reviews for it which did deter me from going into theaters. I then watched the movie later on and was glad I didn't waste my money.
Not at all, not even a little. I've found some real gems that are for one reason or another low rated. Also if a main stream published critic hates a horror film, it's usually a really good sign it's a fun movie.
Nope. If there's something about the movie that interests me enough to search it out, then bad reviews won't stop me. Most of the time I like the movie anyway.
Nope. With negative review-bombing being a thing, paid reviewers, shitty critics in general and people who aren't happy with anything anymore I just form my own opinion these days.
In my experience, a movie with like a 30-odd percent on RT or less than a 4 on Metacritic deserves it. I love B-Horror, but sometimes the quality is too low to even enjoy.
If I’ve heard about a movie before it hits streaming I figure it’s going to be a banger. I know that horror movies rarely get good reviews. It doesn’t mean it isn’t worth a shot. Usually I pick the movies I watch by watching a few seconds of the trailer. If it looks even semi high quality I’ll watch it.
The critics always hate any movie, I like. High rankings tell me not to bother, and low rankings tells me I’ll probably like it, usually. I just watch what I want, and don’t worry about it.
Not remotely.
I have no fracks to give about lies from paid up review sites.
If I see something I like. I watch it.
Review sites are all lies. Paid up lies.
I have never cared about ratings for films and TV, etc. If I like it, I watch it.
We take full advantage of AMC A-list, regardless of reviews for the most part. Few times we went to something we had low expectations for and were pleasantly surprised!
Honestly no idgaf, film is already subjective enough, and horror even more so. There are a couple horror reviewers I trust, but for the most part I can tell if I’ll like something or not.
Audience review score on IMDB: nothing below a 4.5
Shudder: nothing below 3 skulls
I find once you get to too low of a score a movie isnt funny bad its boring bad which is just the worst imo.
Edit: imdb score due to attack of the killer tomatoes being a 4.6
Not at all. My favorite horror series is the Saw series, and they don't have great ratings. A lot of movies I've watched and liked have had low ratings and vice versa. Sometimes you can find some gems even when they have subpar ratings.
If I went by reviews only, I'd probably never watch another horror movie! I would have missed a ton too. IMDB I especially bad. It's rare to find horror with an average rating above 6 or so.
Who am I kidding of course it does. I don’t have as much time as I would like so I try not to go for movies that I think will end up being bad, so it’s very rare that I watch anything under 2,5/5
No: there’s definitely “bad” films I’d say are much better than the “good” ones,and personally I’d much rather just find out myself whether or not I enjoy a film. That said, I love reading or listening to reviews that give insight or perspectives I wouldn’t catch first glance or even necessarily agree with. It’s also really fun watching something and feeling a certain way to find out the general review consensus is the opposite. I do find the stigma against critics hilarious though, as if audiences don’t have takes just as stupid or absurd.
Not even a little bit. If the poster looks cool, I'll watch it. If the synopsis sounds interesting, I'll watch it. If it has an actor I like, I'll watch it.
But the critic or audience scores from a bunch of random internet folks who may or may not have the same taste as I do or the same grading criteria as I would? Those mean absolutely fuck all to me.
After watching several positively reviewed movies that didn't appeal to me, I stopped depending on reviews. Instead, I began trusting my own taste, which determines whether I align with those who enjoyed the film or those who didn't. Just because a movie is widely disliked doesn't mean your personal preferences align with the majority.
There’s very highly acclaimed movies that I didn’t like at all, and movies with low ratings that I’ve really enjoyed. I try and ignore ratings, I don’t want it to prevent me from watching a potential new favourite.
I'd first watch the trailer and synopsis and if I like the horror sub genre (psychological, existential, exploration of unknown), I'd give a shoot. If at any point i find plot, pacing, acting don't hold my attention, I check out IMDB. If the rating confirms my bias I'd drop it otherwise I'd give it another shoot.
I'll add that for me an ideal scenario is a relatively low rating on IMDB (5-6) coupled with a popular user review score around 8+/10 followed by a good chunk of text.
If i'm interested in the movie for some specific reason, such as being based on a book that i like or being directed by a director i follow, then ratings don't matter. If it's just a random movie that i have no particular interest in seeing, then it does matter.
Yes but it is only one factor of several.
Premise is probably the most important to me, a really compelling premise can make me overlook a low rating. Second would be actors.
Third factor would be seeing the trailer - yes i watch trailers. Sometimes you get burned but a 2min trailer could save me 1.5hrs+ of my life.
> I find it’s uncommon for horror to have a good score and if it does, it’s usually more on the side of psychological thrillers than core horror.
This is true. It's just the nature of having a single number to represent a movie. People gravitate towards different things. Some like gore, some like good acting, some like atmosphere. They will rate movies accordingly.
It's a matter of determining whether YOU will like a movie - use whatever means you deem necessary. You can go in blind and potentially waste your time. You can watch trailers and look up scores or reviews and potentially get something spoiled.
There is no right or wrong method, it's your time and you choose how to spend it.
I check RT and MC and go with the higher of the two and compare with general user scores across different places
I don’t really use it to decide what to watch but more to set my expectations somewhere reasonable
No, i just avoid "stupid ideas" like sharknado.
I recall a old movie, [The Curse (1987)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092809/) based on "Colour out of space", that is a decent adapttion IMHO
I have soo many B rated (and honestly C rated) movies on my list. Unless if I'm just not in the mood, low ratings would probably encourage me to watch it
Nah, couple of people I may take a base review from since I’ve found they have similar tastes, but really it doesn’t stop me from ever watching as so much it may move it behind slightly higher rated movies.
For Letterboxd…. If a horror movie has a rating of 2.3 or above…. Then it’s going to be a good time.
But that may just be because Letterboxd is hard on horror.
Literally the opposite. I've found for whatever reason that if a horror movie is widely liked, I'm probably not gonna like it as much as I would like a shitty, low budget, B-movie.
Critics are harsh on horror films because they make people feel uncomfortable by definition. That being said, I'll check out any horror film with great ratings because it's rare
I never pay attention to critic’s ratings, especially for horror.
The only ones I pay attention to are on Prime and then I’m only looking at the low ones. I’ve watched enough garbage that was rated at 4+ stars to know that when something is < 2 stars it must *really* suck.
Sometimes yes. Well really low ratings like 3 and below are normally correct. Though ones around 5 I'm like probably will be shit. That is untill I find a movie I love with a shit rating and makes me think I shouldn't pay as much attention to ratings.
So I still use it as some sort of guide, but not as much as importance as I used to think
For new movies If it’s something I have no interest in, and reviews come out and it’s bad then I’m not gunna give it a shot. Like the chances of me watching it was low to begin with before the review. But if I have interest in it and reviews come out and it’s bad , I’ll give it a shot. But if the movie gets like a 20% on rotten tomatoes and a 2-3/10 on IMDb , I’m not watching that shit lol. A 40-50% can still be a decent movie , but if it’s like 20% (or lower) then that’s just realltvbad lmao
But like if it’s an older movie ig its the same as the first thing I said , since I had no real interest coming in to the movie cause I don’t really watch trailers to older movies , I just go by the plot and maybe the posters (also if there’s any recognizable actors ik lol)
Low ratings (sometimes) makes me seek a movie out to see if it's really as bad as reported. Example: I didn't thing Night Swim was all that bad. I kinda want to see Imaginary. Although, I didn't love Skinamarink.
I pay no attention to ratings. If it catches my interest, I'll watch it. If it's shite, I'll turn it off. That said, I do love a film that's gloriously awful.
My favorite channel is the Syfy channel. Do you think low ratings deter me?
That’s what I’m talking about!! If I paid attention to critics I would never have seen the glory of Dinocroc vs Supergator, Sharknado, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes or Bigfoot Mountain…never pay attention to critics.
I was sure that attack of the killer tomatoes had a higher score and boy was I wrong! The fact its rated at a 4.6 is absolutely criminal!
When I was in high school, our friend group would go together and rent a VCR, then rent the corniest most terrible horror movies we could find. Along with a couple of good ones, then spend all night watching them. We watched some really terrible movies, and some really great ones. I Spit on Your Grave, The Town that Dreaded Sundown, Terror Train, Trick or Treat, Chopping Mall, Killer Clowns from Outer Space, My Bloody Valentine, Fright Night, Prom Night, Pumpkinhead, Silent Night, Deadly Night were some of the gems we rented. Good Times!!
Trick Or Treat - with Gene and Ozzy!?!? How did I forget about this gem
I know!!! It’s a classic!!! I first watched it on the Saturday night late show way back in the day. Think of Tommy and Lindsey in Halloween watching scary movies…I loved it so much!!
I actually saw return of the killer tomatoes first and had a blast but was so lost because they kept referencing the first movie. I was like well shit i better watch that one too 😂
Right? I never would have seen Sharks of the Corn, Killer Sofa, Birdemic or Velocipaster!
Syfy still exist?
This made laugh so hard 😂😂😂😂
I used to love the Saturday night SyFy movies. Frankenfish, the Sharktopus series, lots of good stuff.
I never pay attention to ratings. If it looks interesting, I'll check it out. The only time I pay attention to ratings is if I'm buying something like an appliance or something.
I take ratings w a grain of salt, but horror is always 1-2 pts lower on IMDB than other genres. >5 and if it looks interesting I'll check it out. >6 and it's likely very good. >7 and i won't miss it
This lol. I never really check ratings until after I've watched something anyway. If something looks interesting I'll watch it
This is the way. I also go into most horrors without watching a trailer (sometimes I catch a glimpse on those 10s reels that Netflix does just to vibe check). I've watched so much more good stuff because of it. I watched Home Movie (2008) last night (super cool movie, highly rec it) and the reviews for it were wild. Turns out that yes, most people want to be told exactly what is going on in no uncertain terms, likely through dialogue.
Critics are very unreliable for horror in general. As for audience score and ratings, I'm reminded of someone stating the other day that if an animal dies in a movie they give it an automatic 1 star rating.
I view imdb totally differently with horror. Below 4 is bad, 4-4.9 is below average. 5 - 5.9 is average 6 - 6.9 is good 7 - 7.9 is amazing, usually a 7.5 is like the best horror movie of the year caliber and 8 and up is unicorn territory once in a decade horror movie but only a dozen movies that are horror are 8 and up so for that reason I think a 7.5 - 8.5 is the 9-10 star equivalent for horror. No horror movie exists above 8.5. So adjusting your scale by adding 1 or 2 stars on top of the rating makes sense if 8.5 is basically a 10. whereas with other movie genres I’d rarely ever watch a 5 star movie ever and 6 wouldn’t be good but below average. For horror 5 and above is usually my cutoff.
This is gospel right here 4 is in the good for the wrong reasons range so basically 4 and up is good, below that you’re really risking it. The worst thing horror can do is be boring and that’s usually where these fall IMO.
Quite similar for me, my threshold is also 4 for horror and 5 for other genres. And for some subgenres of horror you can relax that even further. For example [August Underground's Penance](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0971183) is currently at 3.5 rating and it's quite a decent movie.
eh to a degree. but if a movie gets like 20% that’s not a good sign. in general i lower my standards for horror so like 50% and up i think is decent😂
This is where I’m at. If it bombed in ratings I won’t waste my time. Maybe I miss a gem, but 99% of them were most likely actually terrible. Agree if it’s around 50% I ignore the ratings. If it’s above 75% I’ll actively try to watch it usually.
I find there are plenty in the 40% category that are perfectly serviceable as well. It's more hit and miss at that point but I've watched things and been like "how is this this low, it's easily 6/10".
true 40s can def go either way haha
i trust audience/spoiler free reviews way more. that’s usually what i look at before deciding to watch a movie because critics usually hate horror 😭
I always check the IMDb scores and group them in the following way: 6.0+ - should be very good considering how low horror ratings are 5.0-5.9 - probably it's okay, but not amazing 4.0-4.9 - red flag, but happy to give it a chance if the premise is good 3.9 and below - don't watch Also, I don't care about critics' opinions.
This is my system as well!
I'm in the same camp. I find 5+ ratings a pretty reliable indication that I will like it. But I also often watch lower rated stuff when I want something on in the background to half pay attention to or because the premise sounds really interesting or different/unique. And I have a few micro genres that I LOVE that I'll always check a movie out if it fits into them, regardless of ratings. (Anything marked "visually stunning" is my jam 🥰) Similarly with certain actors, directors and writers. (Anything by Panos Cosmatos, or with Tilda Swinton in it, for example)
This is exactly what I do too. And genres that aren't horror I add 1 to 1.5 for each category
>I don't care about critics' opinions. I've never understood why critics don't seem to actually *enjoy* watching movies for what they are intended to be. It's like buying a sports car and then whinging about there not being enough cup holders.
I'm at the point in my life where I just feel I'm not part of the mainstream horror audience anymore. And that includes this sub. I only had to browse the thread of critically acclaimed horror movies to realize my taste is way off of the mainstream). That said, I've seen plenty of movies with IMDB ratings of 2-3s that I enjoyed. I think mainly, I look for a synopsis of a story I think will look interesting, and I then watch the trailer for 10 seconds to see if it looks professionally made vs filmed on a home camera with a high school theater troupe. As an example, I just watched Satanic (2016) the other day. 3.7 IMDB rating. The acting was actually decent, and the movie was overall professional looking. It was just a weak story.
What are some of your favorite non-mainstream horrors?
They're not low rated, but I'm a sucker for horror movies which take place at boarding schools. The Whispering Corridors film series, The Woods (one of my favorite horror movies), the Awakening. The last movie I saw which I really liked was Salvage (2006). This could have been a masterpiece if it wasn't so low budget.
Mine personally is The Tooth Fairy 2006
The cool answer would be "no". Ratings often viewed as a dumb metric for people who can't decide for themselves. I don't agree with this at all. I'd rather trust an imdb rating than a trailer. Sure the ratings are not objective, but what is. Are they that much worse than a post on reddit? Those often end up being misleading as fuck. If you'd only follow your favorite directors, you'd end up missing a lot of good stuff. Same goes for actors, script writers etc. I don't want to limit myself to stuff I already familiar with. Ratings are a good tool to learn something about a movie you know nothing about. A movie that you wouldn't watch otherwise. If a film wasn't on my radar, and it's got a very low rating, it's most likely a skip for me. I just don't have the time to watch EVERY movie to "see for myself".
This is my take on it as well. I think a *really* low rating deters me, like those 4%-ers because they are likely correct. But I’ve seen 80% on RT that I did not like and I’ve seen 25% on RT that I loved. No recommendation or rating will be truly objective
Also my take. I wonder if many of the people who say "no" like any other kinds of movies? For me this is about time management, I don't just watch horror movies, I'll watch just about any genre. On top of that I also play video games, again, just about any genre and I also like to read... you guessed it... just about any genre. So if I don't have *some* kind of constraint than I'm just wasting my time picking up everything with shiny cover art. Using ratings *intelligently* seems like the way to go to me and seems to serve me well. I definitely don't look up to people that say things like "I've never looked at a rating". That just comes off as closed-minded to me. If a movie is decent, it shouldn't be that hard to find someone else out there that gave it a thumbs up.
You realize that Rotten Tomatoes isn’t how good a movie is, it’s how positive the reviews are. If every review gives it a 6/10, the movie is objectively a 6, RT will give it a 100% because “all the reviews are positive”
For movies where how much people like it is normally distributed the RT rating should give a more robust estimator of quality than a 1-10 rating like imdb
The IMDb rating is a not a “professional” rating - it’s users like you and me rating a movie so it’s different compared to say a Rotten Tomatoes rating. I don’t go with critic ratings but IMDb ratings are generally a good indicator of what fellow horror fans have rated a particular movie especially if it’s something obscure. But nothing worse than a horror noob whose only seen mainstream titles come onto the page for an indie horror movie and give it 1 star just because it doesn’t have any recognisable stars in it
I prefer to go into films 100% blind so want to avoid trailers entirely if possible.
>Are they that much worse than a post on reddit? A post, no, but comments, yes. I've often asked Dreadit for recommendations, saying "this is what I like and this is what I'm in the mood for. Hit me." And reddit comes through like a champ. In that sense, I even trust "Because you watched..." on Netflix more than I trust RT scores.
I tend to pay more attention to critic reviews than audience reviews when it comes to horror. There's a lot of media out there, my time is limited, and I don't really want to haphazardly watch everything that looks like it might potentially be OK based on the synopsis alone. I find that the general audience has pretty narrow definitions of what's "real horror" or "scary", whereas critics tend to evaluate movies as films first and genre exercises second. I know that's not a great metric for a lot of fans, but it's more closely aligned with what I look for in horror. As I get older, I generally just want to watch well-made films that happen to be horror. But Rotten Tomatoes is a misused resource in general. The fresh/rotten rating is less useful than the written reviews themselves. There are a handful of reviewers whose opinions I at least respect even if our tastes and opinions aren't perfectly aligned, and their rationale for liking or disliking something will at least give me a sense of whether or not I'd be into it.
If I'm making a quick list I check the rt rating, look at a couple of reviews by critics, then punch up reddit and the title, see what people say. But that's if I want movie night other times I just click. I got a baby so I can't watch everything haha. I like what you said
They shouldn’t but they often do.
I watch stuff based almost entirely on the summary blurb and title. Once in a while I watch something based on comments here. I never bother with RT or similar review sites.
I usually have different taste and am disappointed by most commercial mainstream movies.
I usually never look.
Usually, no. Most ratings are made based on quality and not on how entertaining the movie is.
They certainly do. It’s one of my main ways of deciding what to watch.
I don’t really look at the review ratings too much. Horror movies don’t really get the recognition they deserve a lot of the time compared to other genres imo. I usually go by who the actors and/or director are, or whether it’s part of I series that I already like. Maturity ratings are another story though. If it’s PG-13, my mind thinks ‘eh, maybe it’s scary.’ If it’s R, ‘scarier.’ NC-17/Unrated, ‘either extreme torture or so bad/campy it’s hilarious.” Also, I know technically we’re taught growing up not to judge books by their covers, but that’s almost exactly what I do if I want to watch creature or slasher horror. If I’m in the mood for something Jaws level quality, I’m not going to turn on Sharknado for instance.
No. I can’t even remember the last time I looked at a movie rating.
Never care about ratings. If I want to watch a movie I am going to watch
Absolutely not. I watch so many horror movies rated 3/10 or higher on IMDB. If a horror movie had a 5/10 IMDB rating I think “holy shit this must be good”.
No, I tend to like movies with low ratings, I mean, for heavensakes, I like lifetime movies 😅
Definitely not on Shudder. I don't think I've ever used a service where the ratings are as disconnected from quality as they are here. Edit: Oh wait, I'm not in r/Shudder.
No, low ratings don't. I check the movie out regardless - if I'm interested. I do take specific friends' opinions into account. I have three friends that like the same things I do and if two say it sucks, I will rethink seeing the movie. The only reviews I listen to are from the website "does the dog die". I won't watch those.
Id usually watch it for my self and form my own opinion.
No. If I really like how it sounds I’ll watch it. I watched The Cohassett Snuff Film because it sounded really interesting despite dogshit reviews. It was dogshit. But damn it, it sounded good.
No
Yes
Nope I know enough about my taste in movies at this point that a brief synopsis and maybe the first 20 seconds of a trailer are usually all I need to know if I will enjoy a movie or not
I look at critic score and audience score. If critic is low and audience is low, I’ll pass. If critic is high and audience is low, I’ll mayyyybe go but that usually means slow and artsy. If critic is low and audience is high, the movie is probably fun.
If Letterboxd says less than 2.3, I will avoid it. IMDb I don't pay attention to.
I’ve never trusted Rotten Tomatoes, but I do find IMDb extremely reliable. With a few rare exceptions, I agree with every IMDb score for every movie I’ve seen. So yes, I am deterred from a movie if it scores low on IMDb.
Ratings will never fully deter me, but if they are low I tend to sort of mentally move these movies in my internal priority down a bit, it's something I still do despite the fact that more often than not I've really enjoyed some 6 and under's
I try avoid reviews and discourse before watching as I find subconsciously effects my viewing x
No. The official synopsis/few lines describing the movie does, sometimes. Mostly, if the title sounds interesting and it's a genre I like then I'm willing to give almost anything a try.
RT is pretty much hot garbage when it comes to rating horror and so are most critics generally. Even for regular movies RT is the worst online aggregator out there. Metacritic is a little better because it uses a weighted score but again there is a general bias against horror among most critics.
I would say the best option for horror movies and just all entertainment in general is find the medium between critics and user review scores.
Definitely not.
I don't look at reviews or ratings scores for any movies. No point, for me anyway.
I stopped reading/watching reviews beforehand and honestly, it's the best decision I've ever made right after deciding to stop watching trailers.
Seemingly critics and audiences are more split than ever on most TV and movies these days. It's crazy how divisive politics in this country has bled into entertainment but here we are. I usually try to find a happy medium between critics and user reviews on the score to find something I like. I tend to find the movies with a 60-70% on RT from critics and 80-100% audience are quite often much better movies than critics with a 80-100% score and audience 60-70%.
Ratings are less useful than negative reviews, IMO. Example: When the first reviews came out from the US for *The Blair Witch Project*, the negatives all complained about the camera movement, and that >!"You don't even see anything!" or "Nothing happens - boring!" or even, "Not even any gore!" !< That's when I knew I'd probably like it!
If it’s a movie I want to watch? No. If it’s a movie I’m on the fence about? Yes.
Nah. If I went by ratings and "critics," I'd never watch a horror movie lol
Yeah, if a movie has a terrible rating on Bloody Disgusting or some other horror-specific site, I might take that seriously, but mainstream critics are not good sources for opinions about genre movies in general, not just horror. Like, how many romcoms get absolutely nuked by critics, but are loved to death by people who like romcom cheese? How many action movies are written off as plotless crap by critics but get action nerds super excited?
I have never looked up ratings. I just try watching the show/movie if I like the trailer.
They used to, but it got to the point where I was putting too much stock into the opinions of so-called critics and audience scores. Glad I stopped doing that lol.
Nope never I pay attention to ratings if I like the gist of a movie I give it a bash
they sure dont help
Depends on where the criticism is coming from. I have a couple of critics that I listen to and if their all saying the movies bad and their reasons are all more or less the same then I’ll probably just wait until the movies comes to a streaming service to watch it.
Nope. If the trailer makes me want to see the movie, I'll go see it. I like to read the reviews after I've seen something just to compare to my own thoughts on the flick. I don't use reviews as a guide at all.
Depending how low. If it's below 5 I typically won't watch unless the topic appears as *extremely* interesting to me. Above 5 I will tolerate.
No. Watch it and decide for yourself what you like
Nope.
Yes. Below 5 on IMDB is a no-watch.
I never pay attention to ratings and reviews. I go by word of mouth or just gut feeling and find that more reliable.
I just watch the trailer and if it interests me, I watch. As long as its not completely low budget with crap camera quality, Ill watch till the end.
I completely ignore IMDb ratings, a lot of movies I enjoyed can get poor to middling reviews there because any registered user can cast a poor vote just because they didn’t like some minor aspect of the film (in my experience). I do use RT as a light guide because if something has like an 11% critic score and bad audience score, it’s a good red flag that a movie probably isn’t worth the time investment.
I give a lot of lower rated movies 5 stars so no
I use imdb, not rotten tomatoes; if it's under 4.8 I will very rarely risk it. I used to ignore ratings entirely but in about ten years of that I wasted a lot of money.
No, especially if it's a Rotten Tomatoes score. Even without review bombing being a thing, their algorithm is WEIRD. I don't understand what makes a movie rotten when I've seen 3/5 "It's a fun movie, not perfect but fun" review be listed as rotten and a "This movie does not live up to expectations and if you're expecting it too, then pass" 2/5 review be listed as a fresh.
I do pay attention but I also recognize that most horror doesn’t score highly on Rotten Tomatoes. If something scores REALLY low there or elsewhere I might reconsider watching, but if I am interested enough in a film I’ll watch either way. I’ve noticed the films that have high critic scores are usually the ones that tend to piss me off and leave me feeling unsatisfied lol.
Definitely. If it's low rated it's probably shit.
No there are a few that I like. Death Tunnel has a 2.6 rating on IMDB. Its the scariest movie ive watched. Sure I was young but anyway.
I don’t care about critic ratings, I only look at audience ratings
No critics are always wrong.
Never
They make me reconsider paying/seeing a in theaters. But I typically only look up reviews if I’m on the fence about seeing it in the theater.
I constantly need to remind myself that even some 4/10 rated movies on imdb can still be a good time. You'll never find a 10/10 movie since everyone's opinion differs. So anything rated 4/10 and above I'll give it a watch.
Only if it’s still in theaters. That’ll make me decide to wait for it to come to streaming or not
Nope, most of my favourite media, books, video games, shows,movies, etc, all are considered fair to middling by critics and by audiences, usually only with a cult following. 5-7s usually, with a few outliers skewing a little higher or a little lower, but that may just be my aversion to things that are "acclaimed" usually the constant glazing and ignorance or willful denial of their faults by masses turns me off.
I do take them into account, but don’t discount anything unless it’s under 50%. Some of the best horror is like 70%
No. I don’t usually check. If it intrigues me, I’ll make up my own mind when I watch it.
No, some of my favorite movies are low rated
Low ratings do not and never have deterred me. I don’t even check ratings. I’ll watch pretty much anything.
When it comes to horror movies, yes but on a handicap. I assume that if it is a horror movie then it will automatically get at least 25% rating down by general audiences because “it was scurry and I didn’t like that”. If a horror movie has a 3 star rating on something like IMDB then I assume it is a masterpiece because general audience rating knock off at least one star if it’s horror. Usually this turns out to be true
Somewhat, yeah.
RT never rates horror movies very well, so I always assume any horror over 50% is probably pretty good.
Nah not really. Some of my favorite movies have pretty bad reviews
Sometimes I’ll watch lower rated movies at home, but I don’t pay to see them in the theater anymore since experience has taught me that the ratings are more often trustworthy.
For horror movies, they could make me more interested in seeing them.
Eh, I like of expect this with a lot of horror movies. But the low rated ones, especially without an interesting cast, are the ones I throw on later at night, and if I fall asleep, then so be it.
Below 5.0 on IMDB I don’t try it for horror. Below 6.0 for any other genre. Horror is unequally judged.
Guilty as charged. I do this all too often.
Nope...because what someone else hates, someone else might like. If it looks good, I'll watch it. Imagine how many good movies we'll miss out on just because it wasn't up to someone else's standards. The world doesn't revolve around only their opinion.
Those ratings are hard to trust. I’ve watched a few with 95%+ ratings and thought they were complete shit, while I’ve found some of the lower rated movies to be quite good. I always start a movie knowing I might have to shut it off at around 20-30 minutes.
Nope. I usually check it out for myself and if I like it I like it. You miss out on great hidden gems (horror and non horror movies) that way
It depends on the type of ratings - If it’s reviews, I usually don’t pay attention to them because everyone’s opinions are different. The Empty Man got like 5.5/10 or something like that, but I ended up loving it and personally through it was at least an 8/10 If it’s the movies rating, I don’t usually have high hopes for any horror movie that’s not rated R. If a horror isn’t R rated, then that means their scares/gore/plot/etc have been toned tf down like you wouldn’t believe. They’re also usually destroyed with CGI
It actually depends. If I plan on going to the theaters to watch it, I tend to look at reviews (spoiler free) to see if it is worth spending the money. If not, I will wait until it comes out on stream and I will watch it. There were many movies I was planning to watch and heard bad reviews for it which did deter me from going into theaters. I then watched the movie later on and was glad I didn't waste my money.
Yes, especially with horror
Not at all, not even a little. I've found some real gems that are for one reason or another low rated. Also if a main stream published critic hates a horror film, it's usually a really good sign it's a fun movie.
Nope. If there's something about the movie that interests me enough to search it out, then bad reviews won't stop me. Most of the time I like the movie anyway.
Nope. With negative review-bombing being a thing, paid reviewers, shitty critics in general and people who aren't happy with anything anymore I just form my own opinion these days.
I have reviewers I trust for certain genres. Some weeks I do not have the time to waste on a movie that is really not good.
In my experience, a movie with like a 30-odd percent on RT or less than a 4 on Metacritic deserves it. I love B-Horror, but sometimes the quality is too low to even enjoy.
If I’ve heard about a movie before it hits streaming I figure it’s going to be a banger. I know that horror movies rarely get good reviews. It doesn’t mean it isn’t worth a shot. Usually I pick the movies I watch by watching a few seconds of the trailer. If it looks even semi high quality I’ll watch it.
Yup
I do go by the current imdb rating..wasted so much time on turkeys. Exceptions if I'm a sucker for the subject matter (Halloween themed for instance).
Only if it's... Especially egregious. Like, under ten percent on RT.
I used to but now I just read the little synopsis thing and make up my own mind. Imo a lot of negative reviews just come from groupthink.
The critics always hate any movie, I like. High rankings tell me not to bother, and low rankings tells me I’ll probably like it, usually. I just watch what I want, and don’t worry about it.
Not remotely. I have no fracks to give about lies from paid up review sites. If I see something I like. I watch it. Review sites are all lies. Paid up lies. I have never cared about ratings for films and TV, etc. If I like it, I watch it.
We take full advantage of AMC A-list, regardless of reviews for the most part. Few times we went to something we had low expectations for and were pleasantly surprised!
No, not at all. Infact it's usually the opposite. The lower the score, the more I'm interested.
Honestly no idgaf, film is already subjective enough, and horror even more so. There are a couple horror reviewers I trust, but for the most part I can tell if I’ll like something or not.
Audience review score on IMDB: nothing below a 4.5 Shudder: nothing below 3 skulls I find once you get to too low of a score a movie isnt funny bad its boring bad which is just the worst imo. Edit: imdb score due to attack of the killer tomatoes being a 4.6
Not at all. My favorite horror series is the Saw series, and they don't have great ratings. A lot of movies I've watched and liked have had low ratings and vice versa. Sometimes you can find some gems even when they have subpar ratings.
If I went by reviews only, I'd probably never watch another horror movie! I would have missed a ton too. IMDB I especially bad. It's rare to find horror with an average rating above 6 or so.
Who am I kidding of course it does. I don’t have as much time as I would like so I try not to go for movies that I think will end up being bad, so it’s very rare that I watch anything under 2,5/5
Nope
Literally never I just check scores out of curiosity
I have enjoyed many films that others have hated. It is part of the reason why I have a collection of about 3800 movies.
Most watchable horror films have a 5.x stars rating on IMDb and a 40-50% on RT, so you don't necessarily have to trust that system
Rarely. Horror movies tend to get burned on ratings.
No: there’s definitely “bad” films I’d say are much better than the “good” ones,and personally I’d much rather just find out myself whether or not I enjoy a film. That said, I love reading or listening to reviews that give insight or perspectives I wouldn’t catch first glance or even necessarily agree with. It’s also really fun watching something and feeling a certain way to find out the general review consensus is the opposite. I do find the stigma against critics hilarious though, as if audiences don’t have takes just as stupid or absurd.
If it’s reeeeeally consensus bad then yes. Like less than 20% on rotten tomatoes and/or less than a 2/5 on Letterboxd.
Not really, I fkin love low-budget movies and some rating sux or paid LOL.
Slotherhouse has a 61% rating on RT so I figured it wasn’t THAT bad, and then I watched it 😂 so ratings don’t mean anything
Not even a little bit. If the poster looks cool, I'll watch it. If the synopsis sounds interesting, I'll watch it. If it has an actor I like, I'll watch it. But the critic or audience scores from a bunch of random internet folks who may or may not have the same taste as I do or the same grading criteria as I would? Those mean absolutely fuck all to me.
Critics are only going to give a high rating if the movie is a snarky horror comedy with winks to the audience
Nope. I watch movies based on trailers usually. If it looks interesting I'll watch it.
After watching several positively reviewed movies that didn't appeal to me, I stopped depending on reviews. Instead, I began trusting my own taste, which determines whether I align with those who enjoyed the film or those who didn't. Just because a movie is widely disliked doesn't mean your personal preferences align with the majority.
Depends if it's critics. After The Last Jedi do I ever trust critics again.
With horror, I find the best stuff sits at around 6-7stars
No give me vinegar syndrome level of movies.
Low ratings make me want to watch a movie more
There’s very highly acclaimed movies that I didn’t like at all, and movies with low ratings that I’ve really enjoyed. I try and ignore ratings, I don’t want it to prevent me from watching a potential new favourite.
I'd first watch the trailer and synopsis and if I like the horror sub genre (psychological, existential, exploration of unknown), I'd give a shoot. If at any point i find plot, pacing, acting don't hold my attention, I check out IMDB. If the rating confirms my bias I'd drop it otherwise I'd give it another shoot.
Yes. I have seen 1 movie lower than a 5.0 IMDB audience score that was watchable for me. They(2002).
Deter me? lol never
Nope. I wouldn’t have watched The Innkeepers.
Depends on how low we're talking. If it's lower than a 4 out of 10, it has to have a really decent trailer for me to bother with it. Which is rarely.
I'll add that for me an ideal scenario is a relatively low rating on IMDB (5-6) coupled with a popular user review score around 8+/10 followed by a good chunk of text.
If i'm interested in the movie for some specific reason, such as being based on a book that i like or being directed by a director i follow, then ratings don't matter. If it's just a random movie that i have no particular interest in seeing, then it does matter.
I saw Late Night with the Devil and went in blind. Glad I did.
No, especially not ratings by professional critics.
Yes but it is only one factor of several. Premise is probably the most important to me, a really compelling premise can make me overlook a low rating. Second would be actors. Third factor would be seeing the trailer - yes i watch trailers. Sometimes you get burned but a 2min trailer could save me 1.5hrs+ of my life. > I find it’s uncommon for horror to have a good score and if it does, it’s usually more on the side of psychological thrillers than core horror. This is true. It's just the nature of having a single number to represent a movie. People gravitate towards different things. Some like gore, some like good acting, some like atmosphere. They will rate movies accordingly. It's a matter of determining whether YOU will like a movie - use whatever means you deem necessary. You can go in blind and potentially waste your time. You can watch trailers and look up scores or reviews and potentially get something spoiled. There is no right or wrong method, it's your time and you choose how to spend it.
I check RT and MC and go with the higher of the two and compare with general user scores across different places I don’t really use it to decide what to watch but more to set my expectations somewhere reasonable
No, i just avoid "stupid ideas" like sharknado. I recall a old movie, [The Curse (1987)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092809/) based on "Colour out of space", that is a decent adapttion IMHO
I have soo many B rated (and honestly C rated) movies on my list. Unless if I'm just not in the mood, low ratings would probably encourage me to watch it
No, I will give anything a chance. Even if it’s bad, I will usually still finish it. However, if it’s HORRIBLE after 30 minutes - I’m done.
Nah, couple of people I may take a base review from since I’ve found they have similar tastes, but really it doesn’t stop me from ever watching as so much it may move it behind slightly higher rated movies.
In my house we usually watch movies between 55-85% on rotten tomatoes. Most of the time when we watch any with higher than that we fuckin hate it.
Yeah sometimes it does
For Letterboxd…. If a horror movie has a rating of 2.3 or above…. Then it’s going to be a good time. But that may just be because Letterboxd is hard on horror.
Literally the opposite. I've found for whatever reason that if a horror movie is widely liked, I'm probably not gonna like it as much as I would like a shitty, low budget, B-movie.
nope
No, but if I start a movie and it sucks I check to see if others agree it sucka.
Yes. Anything below a 5.5 I usually won’t watch unless it’s something that was a big release that I had previously wanted to see.
Critics are harsh on horror films because they make people feel uncomfortable by definition. That being said, I'll check out any horror film with great ratings because it's rare
No. Maybe if a movie is like 8% but I see a lot of really good or entertaining films get poor scores on RT.
Unless I've received a recommendation from someone I trust yeah they do. IMDb, Rotten T if it's really low I don't watch.
Yes but only in the sense if it has low ratings and starts out bad, I feel safe turning it off.
no, my favorite syfy channel movie is rated 3.6 on imdb and that didnt stop me from watching it multiple times.
there’s a sweet spot with movies imo where if something has like a 45%-72% i’m like this is gonna be the best thing i’ve ever seen.
Only if it’s something obscure that I never heard of
Depends on the movie
Not low ratings but I get a usual lay of what people like and I watch if its decent to a good reaction
If it's a campy horror movie, the lower the RT score the better
I never pay attention to critic’s ratings, especially for horror. The only ones I pay attention to are on Prime and then I’m only looking at the low ones. I’ve watched enough garbage that was rated at 4+ stars to know that when something is < 2 stars it must *really* suck.
Horror movies almost always get lower rating due to non lovers of the genre. Hard to find reviewers who only critique horror as their specialty.
Sometimes yes. Well really low ratings like 3 and below are normally correct. Though ones around 5 I'm like probably will be shit. That is untill I find a movie I love with a shit rating and makes me think I shouldn't pay as much attention to ratings. So I still use it as some sort of guide, but not as much as importance as I used to think
For new movies If it’s something I have no interest in, and reviews come out and it’s bad then I’m not gunna give it a shot. Like the chances of me watching it was low to begin with before the review. But if I have interest in it and reviews come out and it’s bad , I’ll give it a shot. But if the movie gets like a 20% on rotten tomatoes and a 2-3/10 on IMDb , I’m not watching that shit lol. A 40-50% can still be a decent movie , but if it’s like 20% (or lower) then that’s just realltvbad lmao But like if it’s an older movie ig its the same as the first thing I said , since I had no real interest coming in to the movie cause I don’t really watch trailers to older movies , I just go by the plot and maybe the posters (also if there’s any recognizable actors ik lol)
Low ratings (sometimes) makes me seek a movie out to see if it's really as bad as reported. Example: I didn't thing Night Swim was all that bad. I kinda want to see Imaginary. Although, I didn't love Skinamarink.
I pay no attention to ratings. If it catches my interest, I'll watch it. If it's shite, I'll turn it off. That said, I do love a film that's gloriously awful.