Here at Rotund Reviews, we tend to do things a little different and our rating system might need a little explaining. Do you find yourself thinking, “I want to laugh and definitely don’t want to cry, but I wouldn’t mind if the movie scared me a little” while browsing your favourite streaming service? These late night debates are the source of our rating system. While the overall rating will reflect our opinion of the movie, just as reviews always do, we will provide additional ratings. Need a good cry? You might want something that ranks higher in our Cry Factor category. Don’t want to be scared? Look for something without the Nightlight Required category because missing categories means a 0-star rating.
Nightlight Required: How scary is the movie, this will typically be higher on horror movies.
Cry Factor: A Cry Factor of 2-stars may leave you a little misty eyed, but if you see a 5-star Cry Factor, make sure you have tissues on hand.
Self Checkout: Movies that are just mindless fun. Here at Rotund Reviews, we tend to consider this to be where many late night comedies and 80s action movies are found.
Cerebral Cinema: The exact opposite of Self Checkout, this is where you’ll find those thought-provoking, make you think movies.
Giggles & Grins: Comedy, Comedy, Comedy! If it makes you laugh, it fits in here.
White Knuckle Flick: This is the movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat, wondering who did it, who’s next, and who let dogs out… maybe not that last one. This is your thriller, your high anxiety drama, and film masterpieces like A Quiet Place.
Jump Scare Usage: This is less a category and more a measure, a measure of how lazy the film’s writer and director are. If, like some of us, you love horror movies but hate jump scares, you’ll want to pay attention to this rating.
While you’ll find us adding other categories to movies over time, we’ll try to rate every movie based on these criteria. Keep in mind that a missing category simply means 0-stars, not that we forgot to score it.