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145-401: The Frozen Ground is a 2013 American thriller film directed and written by Scott Walker , in his directorial debut , starring Nicolas Cage , John Cusack , Vanessa Hudgens , Katherine LaNasa , Radha Mitchell , and 50 Cent . Based on the crimes of the real-life Alaskan serial killer Robert Hansen , the film depicts an Alaskan State Trooper seeking to apprehend Hansen by partnering with

290-471: A strip club , while she is trying to sell lap dances, she notices Hansen trawling for a new victim. Their eyes meet, a chase ensues, and Paulson barely escapes. The encounter makes Hansen nervous, and he hires Carl Galenski to find and kill Paulson. Carl approaches Paulson's erstwhile pimp Clate Johnson ( 50 Cent ) and offers to forgive his sizable debt if Clate turns Paulson over to him. Halcombe stakes out Hansen's house, causing Hansen to panic. Hansen gathers

435-426: A thriller that uses suspense to augment attention to abuses of power and instances of oppression in society. This new subgenre gained notoriety in 2017 with the release of Get Out . Other examples include The Tall Man , Dirty Pretty Things , Parasite , and The Constant Gardner . Spy film is a genre in which the protagonist is generally a government agent who must take violent action against agents of

580-411: A "Tomatometer" of 75% or better and at least 80 reviews (40 for limited release movies) from "Tomatometer" critics (including 5 Top Critics). Films earning this status will keep it unless the positive critical percentage drops below 70%. Films with 100% positive ratings that lack the required number of reviews may not receive the "Certified Fresh" seal. When a film or TV show reaches the requirements for

725-475: A Duckling , Tenebrae , Opera , and Sleepless . A subgenre involving horror . Legal thriller is a suspense film in which the major characters are lawyers and their employees. The system of justice itself is always a major part of these works, at times almost functioning as one of the characters. Examples include The Pelican Brief , Presumed Innocent , A Time to Kill , The Client , The Lincoln Lawyer , The Firm . Political thriller

870-488: A bad score, as this only reflects a poor reception among film critics. As one independent film distributor marketing executive noted, "To me, it's a ridiculous argument that Rotten Tomatoes is the problem ... make a good movie!". ComScore 's Paul Dergarabedian had similar comments, saying: "The best way for studios to combat the 'Rotten Tomatoes Effect' is to make better movies, plain and simple". Some studios have suggested embargoing or cancelling early critic screenings in

1015-464: A bomb that struggles to land in a snowstorm. Similar films about a group of survivors escape several locations, such as The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Towering Inferno (1974) and Earthquake (1974) about a group of troubled people in Los Angeles. The films often featured all-star casts and often had the disaster happening early or mid-way into the story rather than at the climax with

1160-719: A close relationship with horror films, both eliciting tension. In plots about crime, thriller films focus less on the criminal or the detective and more on generating suspense. Common themes include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit and romantic triangles leading to murder. In 2001, the American Film Institute (AFI) made its selection of the top 100 greatest American "heart-pounding" and "adrenaline-inducing" films of all time . The 400 nominated films had to be American-made films whose thrills have "enlivened and enriched America's film heritage". AFI also asked jurors to consider "the total adrenaline-inducing impact of

1305-423: A critic on the website, a critic's original reviews must garner a specific number of "likes" from users. Those classified as "Top Critics" generally write for major newspapers. The critics upload their reviews to the movie page on the website, and need to mark their review "fresh" if it is generally favorable or "rotten" otherwise. It is necessary for the critic to do so as some reviews are qualitative and do not grant

1450-612: A cutoff date at which new reviews are not counted toward the Golden Tomato awards is initiated each year, usually the first of the new year. Reviews without ratings are not counted toward the results of the Golden Tomato Awards. Each movie features a "user average", which calculates the percentage of registered users who have rated the film positively on a 5-star scale, similar to calculation of recognized critics' reviews. On May 24, 2019, Rotten Tomatoes introduced

1595-474: A dedicated team who monitors our platforms regularly and thoroughly investigates and resolves any suspicious activity." WIRED published an article in February 2024 written by Christopher Null, a former film critic, that argued such methods are standard activities performed by all PR agencies. In particular, Null points out that sponsoring legitimate, honest reviews has a long history in other industries and

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1740-527: A film's artistry and craft". In his book on the genre, Martin Rubin stated that the label "Thriller" was "highly problematic" declaring that "the very breadth and vagueness of the thriller category understandably discourage efforts to define it precisely.". This was echoed by Charles Derry in his book The Suspense Thriller , which found that the terms "suspense thriller", "thriller" and "suspense film" are used continuously in popular press, academic writings and

1885-413: A fresh vs. rotten dichotomy. It has also been criticized for being easy for studios to manipulate by limiting early screenings to critics inclined to be favorable, among other tactics. Rotten Tomatoes was launched on August 12, 1998, as a spare-time project by Senh Duong. His objective in creating Rotten Tomatoes was "to create a site where people can get access to reviews from a variety of critics in

2030-497: A genre in which the hero/heroine confronts a large, powerful group of enemies whose true extent only she/he recognizes. The Chancellor Manuscript and The Aquitaine Progression by Robert Ludlum fall into this category, as do films such as Awake , Snake Eyes , The Da Vinci Code , Edge of Darkness , Absolute Power , Marathon Man , In the Line of Fire , Capricorn One , and JFK . Crime thriller as an genre

2175-534: A harsher more conflict-riddled world closer to those of the anti-Bond spy films. These films were also harsher and more violent, mostly due to the demise of the Hays Code . The influence of the police thriller was long lasting, leading into the popular Die Hard and Lethal Weapon film series and attaching itself to other genres such as science fiction ( Mad Max , Blade Runner , RoboCop ), and comedy ( 48 Hrs. and Beverly Hills Cop ). Offshoots of

2320-476: A lawyer, but he is not yielding any new evidence. Halcombe arrests Hansen, but unless the police find new evidence, they will be unable to hold him. Halcombe orders a second search of Hansen's house, which turns up a hidden cache of guns, including the .223 caliber rifle used in many of the murders. Under police watch at a safe location, Paulson slips away and returns to her life of prostitution. Clate delivers her to Carl. When Clate attempts to rob Carl, Paulson uses

2465-611: A more paranoid edge to their plots. Police thrillers returned to popularity around the period of law-and-order issues between 1968 and 1972 presidential campaigns through a general swing towards the right in the United States due to the Vietnam War . The police-centered were much less critical in their treatment of their justice obsessed lawmen and were showcased fighting to protect society where official institutions have failed them. The police thriller returned in 1967 with

2610-416: A new "Audience Says" blurbs within it, to give users an at-a-glance summary of the general sentiments of a film as experienced by critics and audiences. Prior to February 2021, only the "Critics Consensus" blurb was posted for each entry, after enough certified critics had submitted reviews. When the "Audience Says" blurbs were added, Rotten Tomatoes initially included them only for newer films and those with

2755-415: A numeric score, making it impossible for the system to be automatic. The website keeps track of all the reviews counted for each film and calculates the percentage of positive reviews. If the positive reviews make up 60% or more, the film is considered "fresh". If the positive reviews are less than 60%, the film is considered "rotten". An average score on a 0 to 10 scale is also calculated. With each review,

2900-465: A panic through the woods before he shoots her with a .223 caliber rifle . He steals her necklace before finishing her off with a handgun. Halcombe has a very difficult time assembling a case against Hansen. Because the evidence is circumstantial and Paulson is afraid to testify, the district attorney refuses to issue a search warrant. Paulson keeps falling back into the world of stripping and prostitution, despite Halcombe's efforts to keep her safe. At

3045-483: A peak of character development and moral complexity in the film thriller that was closer to the psychology films of Alfred Hitchcock than the action or mystery-oriented forms of the police thriller. Syndicate gangster films of the era had similarities to the anti-communist spy films and alien-invasion science fiction films of the era with films like The Enforcer (1951) while The Phenix City Story (1955) and The Brothers Rico which contained borderline breakdowns of

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3190-579: A remake of Get Carter (1971), and Black Mama, White Mama (1973) a remake of The Defiant Ones (1958). The cycle generally slowed down by the mid 1970s. During the 1970s, contemporary situations such as the Watergate scandal and disillusionment about the Vietnam War led to conspiracy thrillers. A cycle of these films included Executive Action (1973) about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy , The Parallax View (1974) about

3335-522: A response to poor reviews prior to a film's release affecting pre-sales and opening weekend numbers. In July 2017, Sony embargoed critic reviews for The Emoji Movie until mid-day the Thursday before its release. The film ended up with a 9% rating (including 0% after the first 25 reviews), but still opened to $ 24 million, on par with projections. Josh Greenstein, Sony Pictures President of Worldwide Marketing and Distribution, said, " The Emoji Movie

3480-762: A rival government or (in recent years) terrorists. The subgenre often deals with the subject of espionage in a realistic way (as in the adaptations of John Le Carré 's novels). It is a significant aspect of British cinema , with leading British directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Carol Reed making notable contributions, and many films set in the British Secret Service . Thrillers within this subgenre include Berlin Express , Spy Game , Hanna , Traitor , Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy , The Tourist , The Parallax View , The Tailor of Panama , Mission Impossible , Unknown , The Recruit ,

3625-509: A serial killer was another popular motif in the 1990s. A famous example is Jonathan Demme 's Best Picture–winning crime thriller The Silence of the Lambs (1991)—in which young FBI agent Clarice Starling ( Jodie Foster ) engages in a psychological conflict with a cannibalistic psychiatrist named Hannibal Lecter ( Anthony Hopkins ) while tracking down serial killer Buffalo Bill—and David Fincher 's crime thriller Seven (1995), about

3770-436: A short excerpt of the review is quoted that also serves a hyperlink to the complete review essay for anyone interested to read the critic's full thoughts on the subject. "Top Critics", such as Roger Ebert , Desson Thomson , Stephen Hunter , Owen Gleiberman , Lisa Schwarzbaum , Peter Travers and Michael Phillips are identified in a sub-listing that calculates their reviews separately. Their opinions are also included in

3915-401: A significant audience rating, but suggested that they may later add them for older films as well. Each movie features a brief blurb summary of the critics' reviews, called the "Critical Consensus", used in that entry's Tomatometer aggregate score. These are written by Jeff Giles, a longtime author for the site. In February 2021, Rotten Tomatoes added an "Audience Says" section; similar to

4060-440: A sinister corporation linked to a series of political murders, and others like The Conversation (1974) and Winter Kills (1979). Unlike other films of the past, the paranoia of these films often focused on American institutions opposed to gangsterism or communists. A thriller-related movement in the 1970s was the disaster film , which came with the great financial success of Airport (1970), about an airplane crippled by

4205-533: A style coined by French critics in 1946 which arose in the mid-1940s. The film noir style was not acknowledge by American filmmakers, critics or audiences until the 1970s. Early films considered as harbingers of the movement include Fritz Lang's You Only Live Once (1937), the b-film Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) and I Wake Up Screaming (1941) and the first universally acknowledged major film noir : Billy Wilder 's Double Indemnity . During

4350-641: A subsection of the website. In February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcast's Fandango Media. Warner Bros retained a minority stake in the merged entities, including Fandango. In December 2016, Fandango and all its various websites moved to Fox Interactive Media's former headquarters in Beverly Hills, California . In July 2017, the website's editor-in-chief since 2007, Matt Atchity, left to join The Young Turks YouTube channel. On November 1, 2017,

4495-625: A substitute for assessment". Landon Palmer, a film and media historian and an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Creative Media director in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama agreed with White, stating that "[Rotten Tomatoes applies a] problematic algorithm to pretty much all avenues of modern media art and entertainment". Director and producer Brett Ratner has criticized

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4640-429: A verified rating system that would replace the earlier system where users were merely required to register to submit a rating. So, in addition to creating an account, users will have to verify their ticket purchase through ticketing company Fandango Media, parent company of Rotten Tomatoes. While users can still leave reviews without verifying, those reviews will not account for the average audience score displayed next to

4785-526: A way to escape the clutches of the villain—these devices influenced a number of thrillers in the following years. Rob Reiner 's Misery (1990), based on a book by Stephen King , featured Kathy Bates as an unbalanced fan who terrorizes an incapacitated author ( James Caan ) who is in her care. Other films include Curtis Hanson 's The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) and Unlawful Entry (1992), starring Ray Liotta . Detectives/FBI agents hunting down

4930-462: A world where everything seems to fit together as part of an ever-widening web of conspiracy". This type of editing was later applied to numerous film noirs such as Robert Siodmak 's The Killers (1946) and Stanley Kubrick 's The Killing (1956). It was also used in Oliver Stone 's JFK (1991) and Bryan Singer 's The Usual Suspects . During the silent era, German Expressionism

5075-430: A young woman who escaped from Hansen's clutches. The film was released in select theaters and directly to video on demand on August 23, 2013, and received mixed reviews from critics. Cage's performance was praised. In an Anchorage motel room in 1983, 17-year-old Cindy Paulson ( Vanessa Hudgens ) is handcuffed and screaming for help. She is rescued by an Anchorage Police Department patrol officer. He takes Paulson to

5220-725: Is a "common tactic employed by indie titles to get visibility." American director Martin Scorsese wrote a column in The Hollywood Reporter criticizing both Rotten Tomatoes and CinemaScore for promoting the idea that films like Mother! had to be "instantly liked" to be successful. Scorsese, in a dedication for the Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies at the University of Illinois later continued his criticism, voicing that Rotten Tomatoes and other review services "devalue cinema on streaming platforms to

5365-725: Is a hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers, which offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes. Such films often focus on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman . Central topics include serial killers/murders, robberies , chases, shootouts , heists , and double-crosses . Some examples of crime thrillers involving murderers are Seven , No Country for Old Men , The French Connection , The Silence Of The Lambs , Memento , To Live and Die in L.A. , Collateral , and Copycat . Examples of crime thrillers involving heists or robberies are The Asphalt Jungle , The Score , Rififi , Entrapment , Heat , and The Killing . Erotic thriller

5510-472: Is a psychological type of film (until the often violent resolution), the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional rather than physical. Characters, either by accident or their own curiousness, are dragged into a dangerous conflict or situation that they are not prepared to resolve. To overcome their brutish enemies characters are reliant not on physical strength but on their mental resources. This subgenre usually has elements of drama , as there

5655-467: Is a suspenseful film in which the manipulation of sophisticated technology plays a prominent part. Examples include WarGames , The Thirteenth Floor , I, Robot , Source Code , Eagle Eye , Supernova , Hackers , The Net , Futureworld , eXistenZ , and Virtuosity . Rotten Tomatoes This is an accepted version of this page Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company

5800-480: Is a thriller film that has an emphasis on eroticism and where a sexual relationship plays an important role in the plot. It has become popular since the 1980s and the rise of VCR market penetration. The genre includes such films as Body Heat , Sea of Love , Basic Instinct , Chloe , Disclosure , Dressed to Kill , Eyes Wide Shut , In the Cut , Lust, Caution , and Single White Female . Giallo

5945-598: Is a type of film in which the protagonist must ensure the stability of the government. The success of Seven Days in May (1962) by Fletcher Knebel , The Day of the Jackal (1971) by Frederick Forsyth , and The Manchurian Candidate (1959) by Richard Condon established this subgenre. Other examples include Topaz , Notorious , The Man Who Knew Too Much , The Interpreter , Proof of Life , State of Play , and The Ghost Writer. Psychological thriller film

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6090-509: Is an Italian thriller film that contains elements of mystery , crime fiction , slasher , psychological thriller , and psychological horror . It deals with an unknown killer murdering people, with the protagonist having to find out who the killer is. The genre was popular during the late 1960s-late 1970s and is still being produced today, albeit less commonly. Examples include The Girl Who Knew Too Much , Blood and Black Lace , Deep Red , The Red Queen Kills Seven Times , Don't Torture

6235-631: Is an in-depth development of realistic characters who must deal with emotional struggles. The Alfred Hitchcock films Suspicion , Shadow of a Doubt , Rear Window , and Strangers on a Train , as well as David Lynch 's bizarre and influential Blue Velvet , are notable examples of the type, as are The Talented Mr. Ripley , The Machinist , Shutter Island , Mirrors , Insomnia , Identity , Gone Girl , Red Eye , Phone Booth , Fatal Attraction , The River Wild , Panic Room , Misery , Cape Fear , 10 Cloverfield Lane , and Funny Games . Social thriller are

6380-404: Is chained to a post. She has urinated on the floor, and as she cleans up the mess with a towel, Hansen's neighbor enters the house to deliver a plate of food. Hansen warns Peters not to scream and leaves the trophy room to greet his neighbor. Hansen then takes Peters to the airport, where he orders her into his plane. After landing in a remote spot in the bush, Hansen frees Peters, letting her run in

6525-402: Is considered wide release. There are also two categories purely for British and Australian films. The "User"-category represents the highest rated film among users, and the "Mouldy"-award represents the worst-reviewed films of the year. A movie must have 40 (originally 20) or more rated reviews to be considered for domestic categories. It must have 500 or more user ratings to be considered for

6670-790: Is intended for use in the US only; permission is required for use elsewhere. As of 2022, API access is restricted to approved developers that must go through an application process. Major Hollywood studios have come to see Rotten Tomatoes as a potential threat to their marketing . In 2017, several blockbuster films like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales , Baywatch and The Mummy were projected to open with gross receipts of $ 90 million, $ 50 million and $ 45 million, respectively, but ended up debuting with $ 62.6 million, $ 23.1 million and $ 31.6 million. Rotten Tomatoes, which scored

6815-546: Is outraged that the detectives refuse to pursue Hansen. He surreptitiously photocopies information about the case and sends it to the Alaska State Troopers . Meanwhile, state trooper Jack Halcombe ( Nicolas Cage ) has been called to investigate a female body that was found in the bush, half eaten by bears. The police connect the case to other missing girls, who have disappeared after going to what they thought were legitimate photo shoots. With secret information from

6960-462: Is possibly no such thing as a pure "thriller thriller". Rubin further expanded on the problematic usage of the genre due to its wide usage in media, such as the American magazine TV Guide listing Basket Case (1982) as a thriller, while its sequel Basket Case 2 (1990) was a comedy and that films as diverse as the horror film Halloween (1978), the detective film The Big Sleep (1946),

7105-423: Is to include other services in the future for users who do not use Fandango. Upon its creation, the "Verified Hot" badge was installed retroactively on over 200 films which achieved a verified audience score of 90% or higher since the launch of Rotten Tomatoes' verified audience ratings in May 2019. In February 2021, a new "What to Know" section was created for each film entry, combining the "Critics Consensus" and

7250-469: Is unlikely to change". Other studios have commissioned a number of studies on the subject, with them finding that 7/10 people said they would be less interested in seeing a film if the Rotten Tomatoes score was below 25%, and that the site has the most influence on people 25 and younger. The scores have reached a level of online ubiquity which film companies have found threatening. For instance,

7395-632: Is usually set against a problem, such as an escape, a mission , or a mystery. Screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams identifies thriller films as one of eleven super-genres in his screenwriters' taxonomy , claiming that all feature length narrative films can be classified by these super-genres. The other ten super-genres are action , crime , fantasy , horror , romance , science fiction , slice of life, sports , war , and western . Thriller films are typically hybridized with other super-genres; hybrids commonly including: action thrillers, fantasy and science fiction thrillers. Thriller films also share

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7540-604: The Die Hard series, and the Bourne series. Comedy thriller is a genre that combines elements of humor with suspense. Such films include Silver Streak , Dr. Strangelove , Charade , Hera Pheri , Malamaal Weekly , Kiss Kiss Bang Bang , In Bruges , Mr. & Mrs. Smith , Grosse Point Blank , The Thin Man , The Big Fix , Pocket Listing , The Lady Vanishes , and Game Night . Conspiracy thriller

7685-553: The Harold Lloyd comedy film Safety Last! (1923), the Hitchcock spy film North by Northwest (1959), the disaster film The Poseidon Adventure (1972), and the science fiction monster movie Alien (1979) can all be considered thrillers. Due to what Rubin describe as a "wide, imprecise scope", it is unwieldy to attempt a comprehensive history of individual genres, including the thriller, and suggests it better to view

7830-694: The James Bond franchise, The Debt , The Good Shepherd , and Three Days of the Condor . Supernatural thriller films include an otherworldly element (such as fantasy or the supernatural ) mixed with tension, suspense, or plot twists. Sometimes the protagonist or villain has some psychic ability and superpowers . Examples include Fallen , Frequency , In Dreams , Flatliners , Jacob's Ladder , The Skeleton Key , What Lies Beneath , Unbreakable , The Sixth Sense , The Gift , The Dead Zone , and Horns . Techno-thriller

7975-462: The U.S ". As a fan of Jackie Chan , Duong was inspired to create the website after collecting all the reviews of Chan's Hong Kong action movies as they were being released in the United States. The catalyst for the creation of the website was Rush Hour (1998), Chan's first major Hollywood crossover, which was originally planned to release in August 1998. Duong coded the website in two weeks and

8120-468: The spy film , horror film and various sub-genres of crime films more so than Westerns , musicals , and war films . Derry also suggested this, stating that the film was an "umbrella genre" that cuts across several more clearly defined genres. Rubin went as far to suggest that there was possibly no such thing as a pure "thriller thriller" as it was easier to apply it as a quality as a spy thriller , detective thriller, horror thriller , and that there

8265-516: The "Certified Fresh", it is not automatically granted the seal; "the Tomatometer score must be consistent and unlikely to deviate significantly" before it is thus marked. Once certified, if a film's score drops and remains consistently below 70%, it loses its Certified Fresh designation. In 2000, Rotten Tomatoes announced the RT Awards honoring the best-reviewed films of the year according to

8410-406: The "Critics Consensus", it summarizes the reviews noted by registered users into a concise blurb. The Rotten Tomatoes staff noted that for any given film, if there were any external factors such as controversies or issues affecting the sentiments of a film, they may address it in the "Audience Says" section to give users the most relevant info regarding their viewing choices. Localized versions of

8555-467: The "User"-category. Films are further classified based on film genre . Each movie is eligible in only one genre, aside from non-English-language films, which can be included in both their genre and the respective "Foreign" category. Once a film is considered eligible, its "votes" are counted. Each critic from the website's list gets one vote (as determined by their review), all weighted equally. Because reviews are continually added, manually and otherwise,

8700-427: The 1940s, the influence of other foreign movements such as Italian neo-realism and American filmmaker's participation in making war documentaries and the audience's growing familiarity with these documentaries gritty and fact-based style led to Hollywood developing crime films that were shot in actual locations opposed to studio sets. These films included The House on 92nd Street and Call Northside 777 (1947) and

8845-457: The 1950s with I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951), The Red Menace (1949), and Samuel Fuller 's Pickup on South Street (1953). Crime was the significant focus of thrillers in the 1950s. The more realistic crime films of the 1940s and film noir merged into films about police detectives thrillers. Unlike the more clean-cut police officers of the 1940s realistic films, these films often had

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8990-467: The 1960s thrillers with their sordid atmosphere. Another cross-fertilization between American and European thrillers was the French New Wave , a movement which arose in the late 1950s. The style of these films were generally more self-conscious and intrusive than that of Hollywood films. When these films had thriller aspects, these aspects of their story had a throwaway quality. The influence of

9135-677: The 19th century at fairgrounds and amusements parks with thrill-oriented rides and attractions such as Ferris wheels , Shoot the Chutes , which Rubin described as offering a "departure from humdrum reality that is merely a heightened version of that same humdrum reality.". Fairgrounds were the earliest venues for film exhibitions in peep-show arcades, which film historian Tom Gunning described as "the cinema of attractions". Film exhibitions were composed of novelty-oriented shorts that provided surprise, amazement, laughter, or sexual stimulation with no narrative. The sensation of motion in these early films

9280-581: The APD officer, Halcombe connects the other cases to Paulson's and begins constructing a profile of Hansen. Paulson details how Hansen kept her captive and that she escaped from his car when he tried to transfer her to his bush plane . Meanwhile, in Anchorage, Debbie Peters gets picked up by a man in an RV for a photo shoot. Later, Hansen eats a quiet dinner at home. His wife and children are away, and Hansen relaxes in his trophy room, casually ignoring Peters who

9425-563: The Bond films, while still differentiating themselves from the patriotic and Anti-Nazi and anti-communist spy films of the past. These films deglamorized the nature of the Bond films while still remaining thrillers, such as The Ipcress File (1965), Funeral in Berlin (1966), The Defector (1966) and The Quiller Memorandum (1966). These films featured spies who seemed less invincible than James Bond and other super spies, and often featured

9570-476: The French New Wave was seen on American thrillers such as Mickey One (1965), Point Blank (1967) and Bonnie and Clyde (1967) as well as later films ( Sisters (1972), Blue Velvet (1986), Reservoir Dogs (1992)). The spy film had been what Rubin described as "stagnating" for several years due to the limitations of post-war anti-communist films. The genre was dramatically revitalized by

9715-481: The Left (2009), P2 (2007), Captivity (2007), Vacancy (2007), and A Quiet Place (2018). Action scenes have also gotten more elaborate in the thriller genre. Films such as Unknown (2011), Hostage (2005), and Cellular (2004) have crossed over into the action genre. The thriller film genre includes the following sub-genres: Action thriller is a blend of both action and thriller film in which

9860-475: The Tomatometer. On August 21, 2024, Rotten Tomatoes rebranded its audience score as the Popcornmeter and introduced a new "Verified Hot" badge. The designation is only given to films which have reached an audience score of 90 percent or higher among users whom Rotten Tomatoes has verified as having purchased a ticket to the film through Fandango. A representative for Rotten Tomatoes stated that their goal

10005-486: The actions. Film serials , featuring stories broken up into regularly scheduled episodes, expanded on the suspense-inducing devices of the earlier chase films. Originally published in newspapers as fictional story installments, the Chicago Tribune came upon the idea in 1913 by running serialized stories in both newspapers and film versions. This led to The Adventures of Kathlyn , a serial in 13 parts which

10150-402: The better-known Academy Awards or Golden Globes . When Flixster bought the company, they disbanded the groups. As of February 2011, new community features have been added and others removed. For example, users can no longer sort films by Fresh Ratings from Rotten Ratings, and vice versa. On September 17, 2013, a section devoted to scripted television series, called TV Zone, was created as

10295-446: The cityscapes of the thriller genre, they do not deploy the adventure nature of The Adventures of Kathlyn or The Spiders usually lacking in exaggerated methods of transport, such as parachute drops, safaris, submarines, or even high-speed chases. Like the spy film, another genre that grew popular due to the war-generated phenomena in the early to mid-1940s saw the rise of thrillers centered around various phases of crime films such as

10440-461: The cold war elements of the original novels and spy films of the past, locating their films in Jamaica, Istanbul and Miami over Cuba, Berlin or Israel. Rubin found that the Bond films important to the development of the thriller, but their own thriller dimensions was limited due to the Bond stories gravitating towards adventures, suspense sequences being moderate, and tensions kept simple compared to

10585-622: The concept of a thriller as an overarching, broad category is "traditionally unclear" due to the varied definitions between authors, with its "boundaries often blurred, overlapped, and hybridized with other genres." In his book The Suspense Thriller (1988), the genre-studies specialist Charles Derry found the "suspense thriller" to be crime films that lacked a traditional detective figure and featured non-professional criminals or innocent victims as protagonists and excluded films that are often labeled as thrillers such as hard-boiled detective stories, horror films, heist films and spy films. Derry found

10730-439: The criminal world and the lawful world. The gangsters of these films do not resemble conventional criminals of the past, they dressed casually while being non-confrontational with muted violence. The 1950s also saw the movement of the science fiction thriller, which previously was a relatively minor genre. The most prevalent was a hybrid of science fiction and horror in films like Them! (1954) and Tarantula (1955) while

10875-403: The development of the thriller with its "duplicitous, labyrinthine network of decadent nightspots and secret dens that are linked together by murky thoroughfares, twisting back alleys and subterranean passages." Lang's later film Spies (1928) extensively used crosscutting not only to enhance suspense and draw thematic parallels, but also to develop what Rubin described as a "paranoid vision of

11020-539: The doors on genres like the detective film, re-contextualizing genres like the neo-noir , and enhancing the popularity of some genres such as the spy film briefly and other genres like the police film for longer periods. The expansion of foreign-film exhibition in the United States of highly regarded thrillers was an influence on the American thriller film. Among the earliest of these was Henri-Georges Clouzot 's The Wages of Fear (1953) and Les Diaboliques (1955) and Jules Dassin 's Rififi (1955) which influenced

11165-491: The ease at which large companies are able to manipulate reviewer ratings. The article cited publicity company Bunker 15 as an example of how scores can be boosted by recruiting obscure, often self-published reviewers, using the example of 2018's Ophelia . Rotten Tomatoes responded by delisting several Bunker 15 films, including Ophelia . It told Vulture in a statement, "We take the integrity of our scores seriously and do not tolerate any attempts to manipulate them. We have

11310-423: The end of 26 days' filming there were 3 1/2 hours less daylight per day than when filming began. On Rotten Tomatoes , the film holds an approval rating of 61% based on 57 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Though this by-the-numbers true procedural seems basic, The Frozen Ground presents a welcome return for Nicolas Cage in a solid performance." Metacritic assigned

11455-514: The evidence of his crimes, including the keepsakes from his victims, and flees with his son to the airport. Despite dangerous flying conditions, he flies his plane to the bush and hides his keepsakes. Feeling that the chance to catch Hansen is slipping away, and with the victim count now at 17 girls, Halcombe forces the DA to issue a warrant. The search of Hansen's house yields no evidence, not even in his trophy room. Hansen agrees to be interrogated without

11600-501: The extended vulnerability of the enthralled protagonists and victims in the thriller anticipated the thriller genre, a statement echoed by Robert D. Hume's 1969 essay which asserts that the Gothic novel involved a reader in a new way, with increased emphasis on suspense, sensation and emotion opposed to moral and intellectual focuses. The gothics being considered thrillers is problematic as they are set in antiquated decaying worlds and fail

11745-570: The film a weighted average score of 37 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Cage won the Ischia Legend Award at Ischia Global Film & Music Festival . In August 2020, the film was added to Netflix and quickly became the number one most streamed movie the week of September 5, 2020, joining an emerging crop of other feature films which have received lukewarm receptions upon their initial release only to garner surprising new attention when added to

11890-831: The film industry with no clear agreement of what the definition is. Unlike other genres such as the Western which had recognizable iconography (cowboys, saloons, southwestern landscapes), the thriller lacks such unique iconography. Rubin went on to state that thrillers involve an excess of certain qualities beyond the narratives: they tend emphasize action, suspense and atmosphere and emphasize feelings of "suspense, fright, mystery, exhilaration, excitement, speed, movement" over more sensitive, cerebral, or emotionally heavy feelings. Rubin described thrillers as being both quantitative and qualitative as virtually all narrative films could be considered thrilling to some degree, while they could contain suspense to some degree, but at "a certain hazy point",

12035-433: The films at 30%, 19% and 16%, respectively, was blamed for undermining them. That same summer, films like Wonder Woman and Spider-Man: Homecoming (both 92%) received high scores and opened at or exceeded expectations with their $ 100+ million trackings. As a result of this concern, 20th Century Fox commissioned a 2015 study, titled "Rotten Tomatoes and Box Office", that stated the website combined with social media

12180-439: The films become thrilling enough to be considered part of the genre. For Alfred Hitchcock , a director very associated with the genre, he proclaimed that the whodunnit generated "the kind of curiosity that is void of emotion, and emotion is essential ingredient of suspense" and thus for Hitchcock, "mystery is seldom suspenseful" In their discussions on the political thriller, Pablo Castrillo and Pablo Echart stated in 2015 that

12325-716: The films more attuned to the thriller occasionally saw an alien invasion theme, such as in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) which Rubin described as being between "science-fiction mundaneness and film-noir moodiness". The science fiction thrillers of the era are not set on far off planets or but featured in present-day locales such as in It Came from Outer Space and The Incredible Shrinking Man . The 1950s also launched what Rubin called "a run of Hitchcock masterpieces", following an uneven part of experimentation in

12470-544: The films of Hitchcock or Lang. Following the success of the Bond films, the character became the standard which all other spy films of the era were defined by within their similarities or dissimilarities. These included having the spy being suave hero, colorful locations, attractive women and flamboyant decors. Many pre-1970s spy films were predominantly comedies with spy film elements, such as Our Man Flint (1966) and The Silencers (1966) and their sequels. Another style of spy films attempted to differentiate themselves from

12615-543: The first week of its launch; it attracted "600–1,000 daily unique visitors" as a result. Duong teamed up with University of California , Berkeley classmates Patrick Y. Lee and Stephen Wang, his former partners at the Berkeley, California -based web design firm Design Reactor, to pursue Rotten Tomatoes on a full-time basis. They officially launched it on April 1, 2000. In June 2004, IGN Entertainment acquired Rotten Tomatoes for an undisclosed sum. In September 2005, IGN

12760-788: The focus of a major reevaluation of Hitchcock's artistic stature, which included with the first full-length books study of his work: Hitchcock (1957), by Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol as well as the first English-language assessment, with Robin Wood 's Hitchcock's Films (1965). The plots and themes of these films would be re-worked into later directors such as Jonathan Demme ( Last Embrace (1979)), Brian de Palma ( Dressed to Kill (1980), Body Double (1984), Obsession (1976)) and Curtis Hanson ( The Bedroom Window (1987)). Around 1960, Rubin described that key thriller categories went through major overhauls. This led to closing what he described as "subversive debunking" that nearly closed

12905-407: The general rating. When there are sufficient reviews, the staff creates and posts a consensus statement to express the general reasons for the collective opinion of the film. This rating is indicated by an equivalent icon at the film listing, to give the reader a one-glance look at the general critical opinion about the work. The "Certified Fresh" seal is reserved for movies that satisfy two criteria:

13050-448: The genre by literary roots, ideology and sociological backgrounds and that thrillers could be reduced to just two components: a hero and a conspiracy. Palmer noted the hero in a thriller must be professional and competitive and not an amateur or an average citizen and suggested and declared characters such as spy James Bond or private eye Mike Hammer to be "quintessential thriller heroes". Palmer also noted that audiences must approve of

13195-457: The hero's actions and adopt their moral perspective. Palmer included styles such as detective films as part of the genre. Rubin argued against Palmer's definition, noting that it would include melodramas and courtroom dramas such as Meet John Doe (1941) into the genre and eliminate such films as Purple Noon (1960) and Psycho (1960) from the genre. Rubin borrowed from G. K. Chesterton 's "A Defence of Detective Stories", stating that

13340-503: The hospital, and her clothes are kept for a rape kit . At an APD station, she explains to detectives that she was abducted and raped. Because she is a prostitute and lying about her age, the detectives do not believe her story, refusing to even look into the man whom she named as her abductor, Robert Hansen ( John Cusack ). They claim Hansen is an upstanding member of society, a family man who owns his own restaurant, with alibis from three people. The APD patrol officer who rescued Paulson

13485-402: The late 1940s. Rubin noted as Hitchcock hitting his stride with Strangers on a Train (1951), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960). During this period, Anglo-American critics of the era preferred Hitchcock's lighter-hearted British classics of the 1930s, these films were declared as "more ambitious and mature works" by Rubin, which became

13630-662: The latter being more successful financially than any the previously mentioned thrillers. Like Bond, Bullitt featured much of the mystique as the James Bond series, with his stylish lifestyle and being an elite specialist working with a larger organization and is granted considerable autonomy on the course of his assignments. Bullitt ' s producer Philip D'Antoni featured even more elaborate variations in his later productions such as The French Connection (1971) and The Seven-Ups (1973) as car chases became staple to modern police thrillers. These police thrillers also featured

13775-445: The level of content". In 2015, while promoting the film Suffragette (which has a 73% approval rating) actress Meryl Streep accused Rotten Tomatoes of disproportionately representing the opinions of male film critics, resulting in a skewed ratio that adversely affected the commercial performances of female-driven films. "I submit to you that men and women are not the same, they like different things," she said. "Sometimes they like

13920-429: The massive streaming platform. Thriller film The cover-up of important information from the viewer, and fight and chase scenes are common methods. Life is typically threatened in a thriller film, such as when the protagonist does not realize that they are entering a dangerous situation. Thriller films' characters conflict with each other or with an outside force, which can sometimes be abstract. The protagonist

14065-524: The mid-1930s as when the thriller entered its "classical period" with the emergence of key genres that were previously either non-existent or minor. These included the spy film, detective film, the film noir , the police film and the science fiction thriller. The horror films of the early 1930s with their Europeanized settings and villains led to what Rubin described as a "growing uneasiness towards Europe" Such anxieties were directly registered with spy thriller films, that were previously marginalised but grew as

14210-404: The most acclaimed of these films, The Naked City (1948) which re-created a police manhunt for a brutal killer. These films eventually began toning down their factuality to be applied to more noir styles, such as with Kiss of Death (1947), The Street with No Name (1948), and He Walked by Night (1949). Rubin found that placing these films in actual locations increased the tension of

14355-516: The most significant European venue for serials was Germany, with Fritz Lang writing serials like The Mistress of the World (1919) and later directing films like The Spiders (1919). Lang would make films similar to those of Feuillade, with his films based on Dr. Mabuse that were set in a contemporary time. Lang's Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922) was described by Rubin as an important part of

14500-548: The multiple-Oscar winning film In the Heat of the Night (1967), which was more about social issues than being a straight thriller, the films' use of racial epithets and strong-arm methods paved the way for films featuring characters like Dirty Harry and Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle for the upcoming police cycle. Early films in the cycle included Madigan (1968), The Detective (1968), Coogan's Bluff (1968) and Bullitt (1968),

14645-446: The narrative focusing on the group of survivors. The genre ended following overt sequels, television films and parodies. The genre had a brief revival in the late 1990s through the science-fiction and disaster hybrid Independence Day (1996), which was followed by Dante's Peak (1997), Volcano (1997) and Titanic (1997). In the early 1990s, thrillers had recurring elements of obsession and trapped protagonists who must find

14790-511: The non-professional or victim being placed in unfamiliar situations enhanced their vulnerability and thus increased greater suspense. Derry specifically noted the "innocent-on-the-run" theme a coherent in the genre, presenting them in films such as The 39 Steps (1935), North by Northwest (1959) and conspiracy thriller films like The Parallax View (1974) and the comedy-tinged Silver Streak (1976). Alternatively, British communication professor Jerry Palmer in his book Thrillers defined

14935-581: The occasion of the 75th anniversary of the New York Film Critics Circle , its chairman Armond White cited Rotten Tomatoes in particular and film review aggregators in general as examples of how "the Internet takes revenge on individual expression". He said they work by "dumping reviewers onto one website and assigning spurious percentage-enthusiasm points to the discrete reviews". According to White, such websites "offer consensus as

15080-430: The opportunity to escape, with Carl in pursuit after killing Clate. After making a call to Halcombe, Paulson is almost killed by Carl, but Halcombe rescues her just in time. Halcombe uses a bracelet identical to one worn by one of the victims to trick Hansen into thinking the police have found the evidence he'd hidden in the bush. The bracelet, combined with the sight of Paulson in the interrogation room, enrages Hansen to

15225-423: The ordinary world opposed to the limited confines of the studio sets. Further spy films were made, including The House on 92nd Street began encompassing anti-communist themes. This was inaugurated with films like The Iron Curtain (1948). These titles drew on 1930s gangster film conventions, with the American branch of the communist parties being depicted like a gangster organization. This cycle continued into

15370-438: The period, Rubin stated that Hitchcock became a "top rank" filmmaker specialising in the classical film thrillers, opposed to his prior output, which only sporadically included films that could be considered thrillers. Compared to Lang, Hitchcock approach to the spy thriller was described by Rubin as "less abstract, less epic" with "a greater emphasis on individual psychology and subjective points of view" while Lang's primary focus

15515-445: The point that he incriminates himself. The epilogue states that Hansen confessed to the murders of 17 women, and the kidnappings and rapes of another 30. He was charged with the abduction and rape of Cindy Paulson, and the murders of Joanna Messina, Sherry Morrow, Paula Goulding, and "Eklutna Annie". He was sentenced to 461 years plus life without parole. The film ends with a dedication to and photographs of Hansen's victims. The film

15660-587: The police officer following darker paths. These included The Man Who Cheated Himself (1951), The Prowler (1951), Pushover (1954). A smaller wave of similar police thrillers had the police detective having moral weakness, but excessiveness. These included Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), On Dangerous Ground (1952), The Big Heat (1953). Rubin declared Orson Welles ' Touch of Evil (1958) as another major film of this flawed-cop style. Rubin found that these late noirs collectively represent

15805-527: The police thriller is the vigilante film , in which an avenger in an urban setting throws off the restraints of the super cop of the police thrillers to operate as a loner without a badge or uniform. The main characters usually revolve around personal revenge and desire to cleanse society of its evil doers. Examples include the Death Wish film series, Taxi Driver (1976) and Ms. 45 (1981). A cycle of action films featuring black leads that came from

15950-530: The police thriller, vigilante films, and blaxploitation films arrived with the 1970s. The films predominantly feature loose-cannon private eyes such as in Shaft (1971), Slaughter (1972) and Coffy (1973) or hustlers such as in Super Fly (1972) and The Mack (1973). The films were often derivations of earlier films such as Cool Breeze (1972), a remake of The Asphalt Jungle , Hit Man (1972)

16095-469: The protagonist confronts dangerous adversaries, obstacles, or situations which he/she must conquer, normally in an action setting. Action thrillers usually feature a race against the clock, weapons and explosions, frequent violence, and a clear antagonist. Examples include, Face/Off , Hard Boiled , Dirty Harry , Taken , The Fugitive , Snakes on a Plane , Speed , The Dark Knight , The Hurt Locker , The Terminator , The Equalizer ,

16240-604: The proto-types to the thriller was early detective and mystery fiction, such as Edgar Allan Poe 's " The Murders in the Rue Morgue " (1841), which is widely considered the first detective story. The detective story drew upon the previously mentioned forms, and is shown through stories such as the Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles . The roots of the thriller also generally associated with

16385-508: The realm of mundane and modern-day urban existence. In his book Crime Movies: An Illustrated History , Carlos Clarens discussed location being related to thrillers as well, stating that crime films as emphasized broad, socially symbolic characters such as the criminal, the Law, and society while thrillers were more concerned with violence or disturbances within a private sphere. Rubin declared that thrillers attached itself to other genres such as

16530-792: The rise in popularity of detective films. These ranged from B-film detectives such as Michael Shayne , The Falcon , Boston Blackie , the Crime Doctor as well as modernized Sherlock Holmes stories having him battle Nazis. These smaller budget films led to more major productions such as John Huston 's The Maltese Falcon (1941) while Murder, My Sweet (1944) introduced the character Philip Marlowe to film. Marlowe would appear again in The Big Sleep (1946). These detective films drew upon thriller and thriller-related genres with their nocturnal atmosphere and style influenced by expressionism. They often overlapped with film noir ,

16675-401: The rise of and fall of the criminal with Rubin noting that suspense in these films was "relatively slight", with both genres leaving an imprint on subsequent forms of the thriller with mid-1930s G-Man films, the early detective films of the 1940s, and the gangster films of the 1950s. The gangster film itself imbued the modern urban environment with larger-than-life overtones. Rubin described

16820-462: The rise of the urban-industrial society in the 19th century which created new and expanded mass audience, along with new forms of entertainment. This included stage play melodramas such as Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) in which an escaped slave escapes over an ice-choked river and the rural-set melodrama Blue Jeans (1890) which features a heroine who unties the hero just before he is cut by and advancing buzz saw. Other forms of entertainment arrived in

16965-550: The scores are regularly posted in Google search results for films so reviewed. Furthermore, the scores are prominently featured in Fandango's popular ticket purchasing website, on its mobile app, on popular streaming services like Peacock , and on Flixster, which led to complaints that "rotten" scores damaged films' performances. Others have argued that filmmakers and studios have only themselves to blame if Rotten Tomatoes produces

17110-560: The search for a serial killer who re-enacts the seven deadly sins . Another notable example is Martin Scorsese 's neo-noir psychological thriller Shutter Island (2010), in which a U.S. Marshal must investigate a psychiatric facility after one of the patients inexplicably disappears. In recent years, thrillers have often overlapped with the horror genre, having more gore/sadistic violence, brutality, terror and frightening scenes. The recent films in which this has occurred include Disturbia (2007), Eden Lake (2008), The Last House on

17255-516: The site announced that user reviews would no longer be accepted until a film is publicly released. The site also announced plans to introduce a system for "verified" reviews, and that the "Want to See" statistic would now be expressed as a number so that it would not be confused with the audience score. Despite arguments on how Rotten Tomatoes scores impact the box office, academic researchers so far have not found evidence that Rotten Tomatoes ratings affect box office performance. In January 2010, on

17400-474: The site available in the United Kingdom, India, and Australia were discontinued following the acquisition of Rotten Tomatoes by Fandango. The Mexican version of the site, Tomatazos  [ es ] , remains active. The Rotten Tomatoes API provides limited access to critic and audience ratings and reviews, allowing developers to incorporate Rotten Tomatoes data on other websites. The free service

17545-523: The site launched a new web series on Facebook, See It/Skip It , hosted by Jacqueline Coley and Segun Oduolowu. In March 2018, the site announced its new design, icons and logo for the first time in 19 years at South by Southwest . On May 19, 2020, Rotten Tomatoes won the 2020 Webby People's Voice Award for Entertainment in the Web category. In February 2021, the Rotten Tomatoes staff made an entry on their Product Blog, announcing several design changes to

17690-454: The site went live the same month, but the release of Rush Hour was delayed until September 1998. Besides Jackie Chan films , he began including other films on Rotten Tomatoes, extending it beyond Chan's fandom . The first non-Chan Hollywood movie whose reviews were featured on Rotten Tomatoes was Your Friends & Neighbors (1998). The website was an immediate success, receiving mentions by Netscape , Yahoo! , and USA Today within

17835-539: The site: Each film's 'Score Box' at the top of the page would now also include its release year, genre, and runtimes, with an MPAA rating to be soon added; the number of ratings would be shown in groupings – from 50+ up to 250,000+ ratings, for easier visualization. Links to critics and viewers are included underneath the ratings. By clicking on either the Tomatometer Score or the Audience Score,

17980-423: The style in terms of cycles. Prior to the development of films, the genre has its connections to broadly-based fiction of the 18th century. Elements of the thriller are traced to the earliest gothic novel with Horace Walpole 's The Castle of Otranto (1765) which led to Matthew Lewis 's The Monk (1796) and Ann Radcliffe 's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) and The Italian (1797). Rubin noted that

18125-495: The surprised hit Dr. No (1962), which led to increasingly expensive and lucrative sequels as well as spearheading a 1960s spy craze in cinema and mass media. Dr. No was conceived as a series of action set pieces (called "bumps" by the series co-producer Albert R. Broccoli ) which mixed the film's action and violence with generous doses of humor and Bond's post-bloodshed quips and sexual banter. The Bond films generally distanced themselves with apolitical villains, that toned down

18270-492: The tensions of the 1930s and the outbreak of World War II . The genre grew into popularity in Great Britain in the mid-1930s with the output of the countries leading filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock . Between 1934 and 1938, Hitchcock directed five spy thrillers: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), Secret Agent (1936), Sabotage (1936), and The Lady Vanishes (1938). Along with Lang's output of

18415-691: The thriller's technique of accelerated motion. Chase films were limited in scope, but their emphasis on the chase sequence would extend well into the future in films such as On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Vanishing Point (1971), and Speed (1994). The period between 1907 and 1913 solidified the film industry's increasing mastery of narrative filmmaking, predominantly with D.W. Griffith 's films, which Rubin described as "enhancing suspense, psychological depth, and spatial orientation." Griffith applied new techniques such as cross-cutting to build suspense in films such as The Girl and Her Trust (1912), which also supplied psychological context for

18560-585: The tradition of being considered "modern". The second literary form that predated thrillers was the Victorian sensation novel , starting with Wilkie Collins ' The Woman in White (1859–1860) which stripped the gothic genre of its mysticism and brought to a contemporary time closer to everyday life. These sensation novels often were published in serialized form, sometimes concluding their installments with cliffhangers called "climax and curtain". The third of

18705-577: The users can access "Score Details" information, such as the number of Fresh and Rotten reviews, average rating, and Top Critics' score. The team also added a new "What to Know" section for each film entry page, which could combine the "Critics Consensus" blurb with a new "Audience Says" blurb, so users can see an at-a-glance summary of the sentiments of both certified critics and verified audience members. Rotten Tomatoes staff first collect online reviews from writers who are certified members of various writing guilds or film critic-associations. To be accepted as

18850-669: The vocal disgust of influential critics such as Roger Ebert, who was prone to derisively condemn such moves, with gestures such as "The Wagging Finger of Shame", on At the Movies . Furthermore, the very nature of withholding reviews can draw early conclusions from the public that the film is of poor quality because of that marketing tactic. On February 26, 2019, in response to issues surrounding coordinated " bombing " of user reviews for several films, most notably Captain Marvel and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker , prior to their release,

18995-602: The website for "reducing hundreds of reviews culled from print and online sources into a popularized aggregate score", while expressing respect for traditional film critics. Writer Max Landis , following his film Victor Frankenstein receiving an approval rating of 24% on the site, wrote that the site "breaks down entire reviews into just the word 'yes' or 'no', making criticism binary in a destructive arbitrary way". Vulture ran an article in September 2023 that raised several criticisms of Rotten Tomatoes's system, including

19140-520: The website's rating system. The awards were later renamed the Golden Tomato Awards. The nominees and winners are announced on the website, although there is no actual awards ceremony. The films are divided into wide release and limited release categories. Limited releases are defined as opening in 599 or fewer theaters at initial release. Platform releases, movies initially released under 600 theaters but later receiving wider distribution, fall under this definition. Any film opening in more than 600 theaters

19285-408: The world of the thriller is in an urban world, opposed to bygone eras of knights, pirates and cowboys which assists with the concept that "one normally does not think of Westerns as thrillers, even though they often contain a great deal of action, adventures chases and suspense." Similarly, the adventure film is predominantly set in an environment that is already exotic and primitive, and removed form

19430-587: Was a grand success and resulted in the newspaper developing the even more successful The Million Dollar Mystery . Serials often ended with cliffhangers, an element that led to the tendency in thrillers to break up the story into a series of self-enclosed set pieces. Film serials were later produced in Europe, with French directors such as Louis Feuillade who went from making chase films to making serials based on novels about master criminals, such as Fantômas (1913) and Les Vampires (1915). Outside of France,

19575-424: Was active from 1905 onward. These films featured distorted sets and stylized gestures which had an influence on filmmaking all over the world, including the United States. The expressionist cinematic style was particularly relevant to the thriller, combining psychology and spectacle. The early 1930s saw the rise of two film genre movements: the gothic styled horror film and the gangster film . Universal Pictures

19720-416: Was bought by News Corp 's Fox Interactive Media . In January 2010, IGN sold the website to Flixster . The combined reach of both companies is 30 million unique visitors a month across all different platforms, according to the companies. In 2011, Warner Bros. acquired Rotten Tomatoes. In early 2009, Current Television launched The Rotten Tomatoes Show , a televised version of the web review site. It

19865-466: Was built for people under 18 ... so we wanted to give the movie its best chance. What other wide release with a score under 8 percent has opened north of $ 20 million? I don't think there is one". Conversely, Warner Bros. also did not do critic pre-screenings for The House , which held a score of 16% until the day of its release, and opened to just $ 8.7 million; the lowest of star Will Ferrell 's career. That marketing tactic can backfire, and drew

20010-413: Was going to be an increasingly serious complication for the film business: "The power of Rotten Tomatoes and fast-breaking word of mouth will only get stronger. Many Millennials and even Gen X-ers now vet every purchase through the Internet, whether it's restaurants, video games, make-up, consumer electronics or movies. As they get older and comprise an even larger share of total moviegoers, this behavior

20155-464: Was hosted by Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox and written by Mark Ganek. The show aired Thursdays at 10:30 EST until September 16, 2010. It returned as a much shorter segment of InfoMania , a satirical news show that ended in 2011. By late 2009, the website was designed to enable Rotten Tomatoes users to create and join groups to discuss various aspects of film. One group, "The Golden Oyster Awards", accepted votes of members for various awards, spoofing

20300-445: Was in turn acquired by Warner Bros. in 2011. In February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcast 's Fandango ticketing company. Warner Bros. retained a minority stake in the merged entities, including Fandango. The site is influential among moviegoers, a third of whom say they consult it before going to the cinema in the U.S. It has been criticized for oversimplifying reviews by flattening them into

20445-565: Was later input into a framework known as the "chase film" which came into prominence in 1903. The chase films were often produced in Britain and France and employed minimal narrative for an extended chase scene. This genre led to one of the most commercially celebrated American films of the period, The Great Train Robbery (1903). It contained elements of the heist film with its depictions of ingeniously planned robberies, as well as relying on

20590-503: Was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley : Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang. Although the name "Rotten Tomatoes" connects to the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes in disapproval of a poor stage performance , the direct inspiration for the name from Duong, Lee, and Wang came from an equivalent scene in the 1992 Canadian film Léolo . Since January 2010, Rotten Tomatoes has been owned by Flixster , which

20735-461: Was on "the structure of the trap", Hitchcock's was on the "mental state of the entrapped." The first major American spy thriller of the World War II era was Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939). After relocating to the United States, Hitchcock continued his attachment to spy films with films like Foreign Correspondent (1940) and Saboteur (1942). Despite having these films exist beyond

20880-482: Was shot in 26 days, entirely in Alaska. Writer/director Scott Walker delayed shooting for five months so he could shoot the film on the cusp of fall into winter, so he could achieve a look and feel of the film starting with no snow and ending in the deep of winter. He has said he literally wanted the feel of the weather closing in and around the story, and freezing the case. As a result of shooting at this time of year, by

21025-543: Was the leader of the horror genre in the early 1930s with its expressionist-derived atmosphere that started with two big hits film: Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931). Rubin noted that both films lacked the thriller's fundamental tension between the familiar and exotic or adventurous. Also in the early 1930s, the gangster film arrived with early major films including Mervyn LeRoy 's Little Caesar (1930), William A. Wellman 's The Public Enemy (1932) and Howard Hawks Scarface (1932). These films centered on

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