Fallen Through the Cracks

[rynling]

Certified Forgotten
https://certifiedforgotten.com/

With hundreds of horror films released each year, what happens to the movies that fail to earn attention from the ‘accredited’ RottenTomatoes sites? And what does it say about the industry that some mainstream horror sites have historically been left on the outside looking in?

I read through some of the articles on this site, and they're fairly interesting and well-written. The site only seems to publish about one article a month, which I definitely appreciate.

Maybe this is just me getting older, but I've found that these days I'm less interested in actually watching movies than I am in listening to people talk about them. To give an example, Asteroid City made me hate everyone and everything, but I could imagine enjoying an essay about it. To give a more concrete example, I remember enjoying Last Shift back in 2014, but I have no desire to rewatch it, and I'm much happier reading (this) lovely and insightful essay.

Comments

[lagertha_the_warrior]

I absolutely love horror so will definitely be checking out that link. I mainly use IMDB for movie scores, but I also decided to branch out a while ago and watch low scored movies anyway. Some are actually very good. People judging movies can be really harsh.

[rynling]

People judging movies can be really harsh.

This is true! I also think there's not much awareness in professional film critics that there's a difference between "this movie isn't good" and "this movie isn't good for me." Even with female critics, I think this bias can be especially strong against movies that tackle issues related to race, class, and gender in unexpected and unusual ways.

To give an example, I remember being blown away when Guillermo del Toro released Crimson Peak in 2015. As with any horror movie, there were elements that didn't work for me, but it was one of the best movies I saw in a year filled with amazing movies. So imagine my surprise when I went online and found that almost every single review written by a professional critic said the movie was garbage.

So if nothing else, it's good to hear different voices. I hope you enjoy the essays on the site as much as I did!

[renegadefolkhero]

Oh god Crimson Peak. Exquisite.

I think horror gets a particularly bad rap, I feel like there's often a gulf between what any given film offers and what the critical expectation is. The personal nature of horror sometimes gets glossed over or taken for granted, I guess.

[lagertha_the_warrior]

I loved crimson peak too! I really don't pay attention to critic's reviews. I feel like their standards are too high and they criticise everything. Movies are too subjective for that.

[rynling]

I completely agree, and that's a good philosophy. 🥂✨

[rynling]

> I feel like there's often a gulf between what any given film offers and what the critical expectation is.

That's exactly it. I haven't gone out of my way to read a review on the site of a newspaper or magazine since 2020, so things may have changed, but that was my exact impression throughout the 2010s. The major disconnect seemed to be that critics were disappointed that what they watched wasn't "scary."

Now that I have more experience receiving rejection letters for my short fiction, I've come to realize that the designation of "scary" has a concrete meaning for many horror fans. It's difficult to pin down a definition, but there seems to be a substantial overlap with "contains extended scenes of violence and torture."

I'm not interested in writing something like Saw or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, so I suspect that my own stories will never be "scary." I'm therefore leaning away from categorizing my work as "horror." I'm experimenting with the label of "dark fantasy," which might be a better fit, but we'll see.