Copyright 2020 by Gary L. :Pullman
Rotten Tomatoes, a
website devoted to reviews, both professional and amateur, is often
the go-to site for people, both in and out of the entertainment
industry, who want to see how their colleagues or their audiences
view their television or cinematic productions.
Ida Lupino
The website provides
percentages for the consensus of both professional reviewers and
their amateur counterparts. For professional reviewers, the
percentage of the consensus of professional opinion regarding the
quality, or “freshness,” of a television series or movie is
reflected by the “Tomatometer” reading, while the consensus of
amateur opinion regarding the quality, or “freshness,” of a
television series or movie is the “Audience Score.”
Jemmifer Kent
Of the female directors of
horror movies listed in the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) website's
Scary Good feature's “36
Horror Movies Directed by Women,” four score 92 percent or higher
on Rotten Tomatoes's
“Tomatometer,” percentages which would equate, on an academic
scale, to an “A-,” an “A,” or an “A+”: typically,
academic grade scales consider 90 percent through 92 percent an “A-,”
93 percent through 96 percent an “A,” and 97 percent through 100
percent an “A+.”
Ana Lily Amirpour
These
films, by these directors, receive Tomatometer readings equivalent to
a grade in the “A-” through “A+” range:
- The Hitch-Hiker (1953) (Ida Lupino): 100% A+
- The Babadook (2014) (Jennifer Kent): 98% A+
- A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour): 96% A+
- Raw (2016) (Julia Ducournau): 92% A-
Julia Ducournau
Of
the thirty-six directors, two earn a “B+”; one earns a “C-,”
and one earns a “C”; three earned a “D-”; one earns a “D”;
and two earn a “D+”; and 11 earn an “F.”
None
of the movies directed by the remaining eleven female directors on
the list has established a consensus of expert opinion.
Converting
these results into percentages, we determine that, of the 25 female
directors whose works have attained a consensus of professional
opinion, 16% earn “A” grades, 8% earn “B” grades; 8% earn “C”
grades, and a whopping 44% earn “F” grades.
All
in all, with a few exceptions, these female directors do not earn
many accolades from professional critics.
We
need not wonder why; the critical opinion compiled by Rotten
Tomatoes gives us answers in the
form of quotations by the critics themselves. Concerning Lupino's
flick, which earned 100% (“A+”), the critics cite such pluses as:
“flawless pacing” (J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader),
“first-class performances” (Geoff Andrew, Time Out),
and “atmospheric direction” (Matt Brunson, Film
Frenzy).
The
lowest grade (12%) goes to Cindy Sherman, the director of Office
Killer
(1997). Manohla Dargis (L. A. Weekly)
finds the film “insulting” at times and altogether “tedious.”
Edward Guthmann (San Francisco
Chronicle)
sees it as a mishmash, due to the director's inability to decide
whether she is filming a “slasher fest, social satire or revenge
comedy.” For Stephen Holden of The
New York Times,
the movie lacks “electricity,” whatever that means. Greg
Muskewitz (eFilmCritic.com) finds the film “trashy, stupid,
schlock-y, and completely dull.” The motion picture lacks “terror
. . . suspense . . . wit” and “humor,” Dale Winogura (Boxoffice
Magazine)
says.
Besides
the “flawless pacing,” “first-class performances,” and
“atmospheric direction” that Lupino's 1953 The
HitchHiker
offers its audience, what do the other “A”-grade films on the “36
Horror Movies Directed by Women” list provide for their viewers?
In The Babadook
(2014), Jennifer Kent delivers an “intense and disturbing”
picture “of maternal exhaustion” (M. Faust, The
Public [Buffalo]);
memorable villains (Charlotte O'Sullivan, London
Evening Standard);
a study of motherhood as potentially monstrous (Allison Willmore,
BuzzFeed News),
a blurring of “reality and terrifying fantasy” (John
Semley, Globe and Mail);
and “layers of rich meaning” and “two spectacular performances”
(Ryan Syrek, The Reader
[Omaha, Nebraska]).
For
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
(2014), Ana Lily Amirpour receives praise for breathing “new life
in[to] the vampire genre” (M. Faust, The
Public
[Buffalo]); combining the genres of “horror, film noir, and
westerns” (Kiva Reardon, Globe and
Mail);
creating an appropriately eerie “mood” (Alexa Dalby, Dog
and Wolf);
and being, in general, just plain “cool” (Peter Bradshaw,
Guardian;
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer).
Another
“A”-lister, Julia Ducournau, merits the mark of excellence for
Raw
(2016) for revealing the true “dread” associated with
affiliation, the loss of one's virginity, and “living up to family
expectations” (Peter Howell, Toronto
Star); for
its memorable horror (Kate Muir, Times
[United
Kingdom]); for its revelation of the “darker side” of humanity
(Anton Bitel, Little White Lies);
for a grotesque, if “gorgeous” portrait of “fear and adolescence”
(Josephine Livingstone, The New
Republic);
for its “visceral pleasures” (Ashlee Blackwell, Graveyard
Shift Sisters);
and for its sociological (Leslie Combemale, Cinema
Siren) and
psychological (Chris McCoy, Memphis
Flyer)
insights.
Now
that the critics have had their say, aspiring writers know what they,
at least, are looking for in a grade-”A” horror movie (as the
critics themselves define it). By perusing the Rotten
Tomatoes “Audience
Score” for these movies (and others), writers can also gain
insights into what ordinary moviegoers like and dislike concerning
various films in the horror genre (or any other genre, for that
matter).
Amazon's
customers also let film directors and novelists know what they like
(and don't like) in horror movies and novels. Check out their
reviews, too, but, at the end of the day, take a writer's advice:
“unto thine own self be true,”