About
What is Horror of the Year?
Horror of the Year is an aggregator, not a publisher. We don't write reviews. We don't have opinions. We collect scores from horror-specialist critics, community platforms, and mainstream review sources, and synthesize them into a single weighted index — the Rot Score.
The index is built for horror fans who want a community-first signal, not a score dominated by mainstream critics who rarely cover the genre with depth. Genre specialists are weighted heaviest. Letterboxd community data comes second. Rotten Tomatoes rounds out the picture at a combined 30%.
What is Rot Score?
Rot Score is a 0–100 composite index. Every film receives a score and a letter grade. Scores are calculated from up to four weighted components. If any component is unavailable, its weight is redistributed proportionally across the remaining sources so the score always sums correctly.
The Formula
ROT SCORE
Genre Critics avg × 0.40
+
Letterboxd /5 × 100 × 0.30
+
RT Audience % × 0.20
+
RT Critic % × 0.10
Proportional redistribution
If any source is missing, its weight is split proportionally across the available sources. A film with only two sources still produces a valid score — the weights simply rescale to sum to 100%.
Sources & Weights
| Source | Weight | Input |
|---|---|---|
| Genre Critics Avg | 40% | Composite of 7 genre outlets |
| Letterboxd | 30% | Rating /5 → × 20 |
| RT Audience | 20% | Audience score % |
| RT Critic | 10% | Tomatometer % |
Genre Critics Pool — averaged to one 0–100 value before weighting
| Outlet | Raw Scale | Normalization |
|---|---|---|
| Bloody Disgusting | /5 | × 20 |
| Dread Central | /5 | × 20 |
| Arrow in the Head | /10 | × 10 |
| Daily Dead | /5 | × 20 |
| Nightmare on Film Street | 0 – 100 | direct |
| Horror DNA | /5 | × 20 |
| Certified Forgotten | /5 | × 20 |
Reddit Sentiment Scores
Reddit scores are not calculated — they're read. We go into a film's discussion thread, scan the overall tone, and look for patterns: are reactions mostly positive, mostly negative, or split? How strongly are people expressing praise or criticism? Is the conversation driven by genuine enthusiasm, disappointment, confusion, or hype bleeding over from before release?
Larger threads carry more weight than small ones. A thin sample with ten comments isn't scored at all. A balanced thread with mixed reactions lands near the middle of the scale. Strong, consistent enthusiasm pushes it higher; consistent disappointment pulls it down.
The result is a 1–5 number that summarizes the dominant vibe of the thread — a subjective call, not a formula. Because of that, Reddit is capped at 5% of the total Rot Score. It's in the formula because Reddit is genuinely one of the most active places for horror discussion. It's capped because one person reading one thread isn't a consensus.