Highest Rotten Tomatoes Audience Rated Horror Movies

[Sculpt]

RT (rottentomatoes.com) receives an enormous sample of ratings from audiences. Of course it's just a "like" or "don't like", which they call fresh or rotten. It doesn't measure amount of how good, but it does measure mass appeal. And I do find a correlation -- in that the highest rated in a 1-5 stars type of scale most often matches to the highest liked percent on RT.

I looked at the most well known highest rated general horror movies, and listed them by highest percentage of liked by audiences. I tried to be more inclusive on the horror type.

Thought I might see a preference for modern movies, but I didn't. Personally, I liked Evil Dead 2, but don't see why Evil Dead is rated so highly. I get the exuberant love for Shawn of the Dead, Rosemary's Baby, Bride of Frankenstein, The Shining and Dawn of the Dead. To me Night of the Living Dead, Frankenstein 31, Evil Dead 2, Poltergeist, Alien, The Exorcist and Jaws are far superior.

You think the RT Audience Like Percentage is fairly accurate? Any films see way out of place compared to another movie?

94% Se7en 95
93% The Silence of the Lambs 91
91% The Shining 80
91% Shawn of the Dead 04
90% Psycho 60
90% Alien 79
90% Aliens 86
90% Pan's Labyrinth 06
90% The Night of the Hunter 55
89% Let the Right One In 08
88% The Thing 82
88% Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari. (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) 20
87% The Devil's Backbone 00
87% Zombieland 09
86% Evil Dead II 87
86% Gojira 54
86% Repulsion 65
86% Eyes Without a Face 60
86% Saw 04
85% Halloween 78
85% Nosferatu 22
85% Night of the Living Dead 68
85% El Orfanato (The Orphanage) 07
85% Dead of Night 45
84% The Innocents 61
84% Dawn of the Dead 78
84% Deep Red (Profondo rosso) 75
83% The Exorcist 73
83% Rosemary's Baby 68
83% Pepping Tom 60
83% Bride of Frankenstein 35
82% Frankenstein 31
82% Invasion of the Body Snatchers 56
82% Suspiria 77
81% Jaws 75
81% The Evil Dead 81
80% The Birds
80% Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey 31
79% King Kong 33
79% Bram Stoker's Dracula 82
79% The Invisible Man 33
79% Ringu 98
78% A Nightmare on Elm Street 84
78% Texas Chainsaw Massacre 74
78% Re-animator 85
78% The Omen 76
78% REC 07
78% Planet Terror 07
77% Dracula 31
77% Don't Look Now 73
76% An American Werewolf in London 81
76% Cabin in the Woods 12
75% The Fly 86
75% The Mummy 99
75% Hellraiser 87
75% The Others 01
74% Poltergeist 82
73% Invasion of the Body Snatchers 78
72% Godzilla king of the Monsters 56
71% The Thing from Another World 51
70% Carrie 76
70% Scream 96
68% The Mummy 32
66% Friday the 13th 80
66% Phantasm 79
64% The Fly 58
64% The Myst 07
61% Scanners 81
50% The Ring 02

[neverending]

The only one I'd bother arguing with you on is Bride of Frankenstein. It's widely regarded as one of the greatest horror films ever, and one of the few instances where the sequel surpasses the original. It's a more subversive film than Frankenstein, the directing is tighter, it features more content from the novel. In addition to Karloff, Frye and Clive, it's got Elsa Lanchester and Ernest Thesigner. It's also my favorite horror film.

Meh, I guess I'll dispute your opinion of Rosemary's Baby too. It's a bonafide masterpiece. It's got more atmosphere and creeping dread than ten other films.

As for the rest of the list- it is what it is. A list of a website's members votes.

[Giganticface]

I agree about Rosemary's Baby being a masterpiece. My only beef has always been that the final crib scene is underwhelming in that they don't really show the baby. But overall, exceptional, and I'm not surprised at all by the high ranking.

I'm also not surprised by Evil Dead's ranking. 81% seems about right. It's a classic in so many ways, a genre launcher, and being very cult relative to ED2, most of the people who watch it are people who are likely to like it.

[Sculpt]

I saw Evil Dead 2 first, and saw Evil Dead later on. I didn't think it was even close as good. I don't think it had the heart ED2 did. It wasn't as creative, and it wasn't even in the same ballpark for humor. That's just my opinion. I would have thought I'd like it, since I loved ED2 so much, but what can I say.

I respect you appreciation for Bride. But as far as royal critics crowning certain movies as masterpieces... I've agreed with most, but some are very undeserving. Like some 'classics of literature' that nobody enjoys reading.

I wasn't able to see Bride of Frankenstein as a kid, just one of those I always missed. I saw it for the first time just a few years ago. Oh my... It wasn't a horror movie, it was satire. The original Frankenstein was completely believable and engrossing. Bride had no believability to me. Case in point -- we enter a room where eight inch tall elephants are under a one foot diameter glass cake cover (or whatever you want to call it). It had nothing to do with the main plot. Yanked me out of the movie. And then the Frankenstein monster is a philosopher. It was whimsical. And I hated it. I admit it -- I loved reality, seriousness, and cold gloom of the original Frankenstein, and when Bride was whimsical satire spoofing the original movie, and I wanted to barf. So maybe I partly couldn't get past my expectations.

Rosemary's Baby was OK to me. I'm a patient viewer, and appreciate depth and mood, which one reason I love Alien, but I thought Rose wasn't quite sharp enough, and felt a bit diffuse and mundane for large periods of time. The acting was good, but strangely at the same time I thought the characters were a bit flat, underdeveloped.

[neverending]

When somebody's so far off the mark, it's not even worth discussing.

[Straker]

I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking at in terms of the list.... Is this a selection of horror movies that you (sculpt) pulled together or the most popular horror movies according to RT?

In terms of just taking the list at face value all I can really say is each to their own..... If I had to put that selection of movies in some sort of order it would look very different, if I had to do a top 50 horror movies list, half the movies would be gone.

Seven isn't even a horror movie is it? :confused:

[Sculpt]

Originally Posted by Straker

I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking at in terms of the list.... Is this a selection of horror movies that you (sculpt) pulled together or the most popular horror movies according to RT?

In terms of just taking the list at face value all I can really say is each to their own..... If I had to put that selection of movies in some sort of order it would look very different, if I had to do a top 50 horror movies list, half the movies would be gone.

Seven isn't even a horror movie is it? :confused:

I was curious how the vast number of RT members rated the best known horror movies. That's the Audience Rating, as opposed to their Critics Rating. I wanted to see if the Audience Rating made sense, was pretty close to what I might rate my best movies.

I looked at a bunch of 'best horror movies of all-time' lists, and then went to RT and acquired the Audience percentage, and listed the movies in percentage order. I'm sure I've missed some. Horror movies not generally considered good by general movie standards I didn't seek out (like Halloween 3).

As I mentioned in my original post, I tried to be more inclusive for the horror genre, so people could exclude movies they don't consider horror, rather than have people say, 'why didn't you include such-&-such!!!!'.

It's a good question: are these horror movies? Shawn of the Dead, Pan's Labyrinth, Zombieland, Jaws, The Invisible Man, Alien, Se7en, Silence of the Lambs, etc?

As far as Se7en goes... how can one say Psycho is a horror film, but Se7en isn't? (If you think this, I really would find your reasoning interesting to read.) They both deal with a crazy serial killer. Both are filled with what I would call horror.

And what if a movie is mainly a comedy, but just uses the horror genre as a setting? Are these horror movies? Shawn of the Dead, Zombieland, Evil Dead 2, Young Frankenstein, Dawn of the Dead, etc? I don't consider Young Frankenstein a horror movie, but I do Dawn. But all the rest are scattered between the two poles. I don't know if one can draw a line except by one's subjective opinion. How would you draw the line?

[Sculpt]

Originally Posted by neverending

When somebody's so far off the mark, it's not even worth discussing.

I see I've offended you. I apologize. Maybe I am way off. It's just my opinion. When I was a kid, looking in the television guide that came with our news paper, I always saw Bride had four stars. I've always known it was considered one of the best horror movies of all-time. I was so excited to see it. I'm a lifelong horror movie fan. But when I finally saw it, I didn't like it. I'm totally in the minority, but I was willing to explain why I didn't like it.

You know eventually two people will disagree with their assessment of art. It's a guarantee in life. I hope you don't let that bother you. I agree with you, there's no point in arguing about Bride. I'm not interested in you refuting my assessment. Really, I'd like to appreciate Bride. The more music and movies I can appreciate the better. I'm only interested in what you liked about it. I can watch it again and get a better appreciation of it. Thanks!

[MichaelMyers]

Originally Posted by Sculpt

I see I've offended you. I apologize. Maybe I am way off. It's just my opinion. When I was a kid, looking in the television guide that came with our news paper, I always saw Bride had four stars. I've always known it was considered one of the best horror movies of all-time. I was so excited to see it. I'm a lifelong horror movie fan. But when I finally saw it, I didn't like it. I'm totally in the minority, but I was willing to explain why I didn't like it.

You know eventually two people will disagree with their assessment of art. It's a guarantee in life. I hope you don't let that bother you. I agree with you, there's no point in arguing about Bride. I'm not interested in you refuting my assessment. Really, I'd like to appreciate Bride. The more music and movies I can appreciate the better. I'm only interested in what you liked about it. I can watch it again and get a better appreciation of it. Thanks!

I am disturbed to learn that Frankenstein was turned into a philosopher in that film. I will have to take a look at it. That is an act of creative license that will not stand, if true.

[Straker]

Originally Posted by Sculpt

As far as Se7en goes... how can one say Psycho is a horror film, but Se7en isn't? (If you think this, I really would find your reasoning interesting to read.) They both deal with a crazy serial killer. Both are filled with what I would call horror.

Well, of course, its a personal opinion and I don't want to get drawn too far down the rabbit hole because everyone has to draw their own line. That said, the fact that it has horror elements no more qualify it as a horror than Casper, theres a ghost and a haunted mansion, right? Horror elements don't make a horror movie.

Seven follows a very obvious crime drama/ thriller structure and throws in a few elements of horror to disturb the audiance, but for me that isnt enough. Its about the detectives, their drives, their lives their ability to uncover a crime. We are following those guys on a journey as they try to keep pace with a criminal mastermind. That's a crime drama, not a horror movie. Now, if you switch the focus to Spacey and make a movie that follows his motivations, his actions, his crimes (Think Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer) then you are starting to bridge the gap to horror.

It's largely a gut feeling and instinct for me rather than some set of rules I refer to and all the above probably happens in movies I would happily class as horror. But for me, Seven really doesnt 'deal with a crazy serial killer' in the same way Psycho does.