Why the site?
Choosing a movie to watch has always been an exercise in compromise for us, but horror movies have gotten particularly difficult. Most of our friends aren’t interested in horror, so we don’t get much in the way of recommendations. It got to the point where any time we wanted to find something new, we’d spend about an hour researching options, reading reviews, looking up ratings, trying to find out if there would be boobs – only to realize once we finally picked something that we had no way of watching it.
Codex Mortis is our attempt to make that process better for someone else. While there are a lot of great review sites out there, most of them assume you already know what you want to learn about. Our site is set up to help you find the perfect horror movie to watch, no matter who you’re with or what your mood is. And as we continue watching and reviewing movies, our database will keep growing – so you should always be able to find something new.
What’s your favorite horror movie of all time?
We’d be hard-pressed to pick just one… so we won’t. In the future, each of us will release our top picks list for you to peruse, watch, and mock. Till then, you’ll have to make do with checking our movie ratings.
Why don’t you have the movie my boyfriend/sister/roommate recommended?
We’re always watching new horror flicks and expanding our database, but there are an obscene number of movies out there (fortunately) and there’s only two of us. If there’s something you’d particularly like us to review, tell us!
Your reviews are bad and you should feel bad.
That’s not really a question.
Why did you give _______ a bad rating?
We can’t like everything. With both of us reviewing most movies, there’s a better chance that someone will find something positive to say – but there will always be movies that don’t work for either of us.
Even with movies we may not enjoy, we always try to give our audience a sense of what the movie is like. We spend a lot of time adding tags, researching trivia, and providing quotes and highlights. Our goal is to help you find movies to watch based on what you like, not necessarily what we do. That’s why Codex Mortis is set up to help you search by movie content, not by our rating.
If you think we missed something or got something wrong when it comes to one of your favorites, let us know. We’re always interested in feedback and we’d love to hear why you’re passionate about the movie.
How do you guys decide on your ratings?
It’s a super scientific process involving bribery, spreadsheets, alcohol, and the metric system.
We actually do use a spreadsheet; as soon as we finish watching, we score the movie based on a number of categories like acting, cinematography, and special effects. Our individual grades are based in part on those scores, and in part on our general willingness to subject ourselves to the movie again. For the official Codex Mortis ratings, we average our two grades together.
For a better sense of how our grading system relates to your own opinions, we made a quick cheat sheet here with some of the more well-known movies. That should help you assess how strongly you’re likely to agree or disagree with our ratings.
I’m new to horror; do you have any suggestions for me?
If “new to horror” means you’re not sure about being scared for fun, our search function includes the “Entry Level Horror” tag. We assign that tag to movies that, by our estimation, you’re unlikely to find overly scary or gory. We also have a “Family” tag and searchable MPAA ratings.
If you’re not worried about being scared or grossed out and just not sure where to start, our advice is to try a little of everything. Don’t just stick to classic franchises or whatever’s currently trending online. There are a lot of great movies out there that get very little notice, and a lot of mediocre ones that “everyone” loves. You’ll never be able to figure out what you’re actually interested in without branching out.
And when you do find what you love, don’t let anyone shame you about it. We love plenty of “bad” movies, and we dislike plenty of popular ones. What’s important is that you found something you’re excited about.
Can I use your reviews on my site?
If you’re interested in using any Codex Mortis content, let us know. We handle all content requests on a per-case basis.
If you use our content without getting permission first, we will hunt you down, slather your nether regions with honey, and let loose a thousand fire ants.
