Okay, so eventually this blog will stray from the sole topic of movies... I promise. But for now, the movie ranting will continue.
As you may be aware, I'm pretty darn excited for the Friday the 13th movie, which I'll be seeing tonight (hopefully). Like with most movies, I go to Rotten tomatoes to get the scoop of what I'll be in for.

Not to my surprise, Rotten Tomatoes already has a harshly negative percentage for Friday the 13th (25% rotten when I checked). This is frustrating for a genre that will always be popular, but always negatively reviewed if things maintain the same. What's even more saddening is the negative reviewers said that the movie was made well, technically, but lacked a deep plot..
Slasher films are part of our culture. With that said we
all know what we're getting when we go to see a slasher film: Nudity, Screaming, Gore, lack of plot, and pure awesome (slightly subjective?)
So why do horror movies continue to be made if they're all bad?... well, for their genre they
aren't bad. Slasher films fill a niche that is bound to entertain some (like me), while disgust others. They aren't meant to be the next Slumdog Millionaire, although some may attempt this (with success or with complete failure... BTW Danny Boyle is my favorite director).
So now to my wishful thinking. I wish that critics would look at movies and take into account what they are going for. How can you rate a movie for lacking a plot when the most important aspect of the movie isn't the plot!? (last time I checked, I didn't get scared from a plot... maybe a few chills, but scared?.. no).
Rating movies shouldn't involve the same "rubric/grade sheet" to rate how good a movie is.. It wouldn't work, and I believe that many critics don't look at movies like this. They look at things like plot, acting, cinematography, soundtrack. Some of these might be important for most movies, but the amount that either makes or breaks a movie depends on the genre (good cinematography is important for me in just about any movie). Sound is much more important for a horror film than an action film, plot is more important for movies lacking any real excitement. etc (I'm sure you could think of genres that require different things).
Critics need to realize that a movie's purpose isn't always to mentally challenge the watcher, or to even require watchers to feel as though there is an underlying theme (although many horror movies do contain this subtle layer).
If society has decided that a plot is the most important part of a movie, then I may have to defect to a cave (I'd bring my laptop and a netflix subscription, though). Next time I rate a romantic comedy I'll be sure to rate it poorly for lacking the thrills that make a horror movie good, because to me that is what is important to a movie.