THE SCALE, EXPLAINED
How scores work.
Most sites give a film one number that mixes up two questions: is it good, and is it for you? ReelScale skips the first one. Each category is scored from 0 to 10 for how much of that thing the film has. A 10 on Gory isn't praise or a warning; it simply tells you there's a lot of gore, so you can decide.
What 0, 5 and 10 mean
Scary
How frightened or tense will you feel?
- 0
- Nothing frightening at all.
- 5
- A few tense or creepy moments.
- 10
- Genuinely terrifying; hard to watch alone.
Funny
How much will it make you laugh?
- 0
- No comedy, or none that lands.
- 5
- Some good laughs along the way.
- 10
- Laugh-out-loud from start to finish.
Sexual
How much sexual content and nudity is there?
- 0
- None.
- 5
- Sex scenes without explicit nudity, or brief nudity.
- 10
- Graphic and frequent sexual content.
Gory
How much blood and graphic injury is shown?
- 0
- No blood.
- 5
- Some bloody injuries, briefly shown.
- 10
- Extreme, lingering gore.
Violent
How much fighting, shooting and brutality is there?
- 0
- None.
- 5
- Regular fights or shootouts.
- 10
- Constant, brutal violence.
Romantic
How much is it about love?
- 0
- No romance.
- 5
- A romantic subplot.
- 10
- The whole film is a love story.
Woke
How much do social or political messages shape the film?
- 0
- No noticeable social or political messaging.
- 5
- Messages are present but stay in the background.
- 10
- The messaging drives the film.
Where the numbers come from
Votes from people who've seen the film. Anyone with an account can score a film in any category they're sure about, and skip the rest. A film's score is the average of everyone's votes, and each film page shows how the votes are spread, so you can see whether people agree.
Starting estimates. A film nobody has voted on yet would have no scores, so it starts with an estimate. We work it out from the film's genres, its age rating and descriptive tags (for example "gore" or "jump scare"). Estimates are marked "Early estimate" on the film page.
Votes take over. Each vote pulls the score away from the estimate and towards what viewers actually think. Once a category has 10 votes, the estimate is dropped completely and the score is purely the community's.
Voting well
- Only score films you've seen, and only the categories you're sure about.
- Score how much of something the film has, not whether you liked it. A brilliant comedy with no blood is still a 0 on Gory.
- Use the descriptions above, so a 7 means the same thing to everyone.
- You can change your scores any time; your latest vote is the one that counts.
Choosing for children?
Scores are a helpful guide, but they're opinions, and estimates can be off. For young viewers, check the official age rating too.