The G.O.R.E. Score

Thank you so much for stopping by my little slice of zombie-cyber-heaven. I watch zombie movies, read zombie books, write zombie stories, and play zombie video games fairly regularly, so I created this site, really, just to have somewhere to express my thoughts on all the fun undead — fundead, anyone? anyone? okay — stuff I come into contact with daily. The site has become fairly popular fairly quickly, so much so that “The G.O.R.E. Score, Vol. 1” will be in bookstores by Summer 2010, collecting the first 50-plus reviews from the website, plus some reviews written exclusively for the book. Be sure to swing by my main blog, Opine Mine, for more writings and ramblings about all the non-zombe, a.k.a. “normal,” stuff going on in my life.

When I first created The G.O.R.E. Score, one of my primary focuses was to get back into writing regularly, and I quickly decided that I wanted to share my love of zombie movies, books, etc., with everyone on this site as well, as I know so many of us have seen so many different zombie films and read different zombie novels or comics, the good, the bad, and the ugly!

So, I came up with a system that I hope will allow anyone who reads my reviews to easily discover what a reviewed item does better/worse/differently than other zombie films. This system rates the item on four distinct levels, allowing readers who are seeking to find/avoid particular details of zombie-centric stuff to easily identify the specific area they want to know about:

When you average the scores from the four individual categories (adding them and dividing them by 40), you get what I call the “Total Score.” Now, it’s important to note that the Total Score is NOT an exact indicator of how “good” or “bad” the reviewed item is, it’s simply an average of the four different categories. That having been said, the Total Score of a reviewed item usually means that it falls into one of four ranges that indicate how enjoyable the item may be to the average consumer, what I like to call the “Verdict.” The four different ranges are:

Items that Score this high are usually the “cream of the crop” in terms of well-constructed and highly-enjoyable for the average viewer. Items in this range should be actively sought out by the zombie lover, and you shouldn’t be disappointed when you do get the time to experience the item in question.

Items that Score in this range usually have many redeeming qualities to them, and can please a lot of the people a lot of the time. While some zombie fans may find more to love in this category than others, odds are good that items in this area will give you at least some sort of satisfaction, and are usually very safe to seek out.

This is the area where things can start to get “iffy.” Many of the items that fall in this range of Scores have some value and enjoyment deficiencies for a lot of people. It’s not all bad, though: many times items that fall in this range can be enjoyed by certain people, but they simply may not be the “safest” bet for most people.

You will usually find the worst of the worst in this category. Items that fall in this range have obviously scored very low in most (if not all) of the four categories, and as a result the items may not hold a lot of entertainment value for the average viewer. Those who actively seek out “bad,” retro, or “camp” movies/books/etc. may find some value here, but most people are best advised to steer clear of items in this range if you can.

Hopefully this will be helpful to anyone looking to focus on a specific aspect of a given item, or anyone who simply wants to know specific details about something without having to sit through tons of critic-rhetoric about “Why I Loved/Hated This Thing.”

As always, feedback to reviews is welcomed and appreciated! And if there are any specific films or items you would like to see reviewed, let me know and I’ll do what I can to make it happen. Thanks everyone, and I hope you enjoy the G.O.R.E. Scores!

–Tony