Praise and Condemnation as Tools for Writers' Self-Appraisal

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,”