Gasper vs IMDb: a horror ranker next to the reference

IMDb is the reference. Cast, crew, release dates, trivia, the number everyone quotes when they ask whether a film is any good. Gasper is not trying to be that. It is a horror-only logger that ranks films by asking which was scarier, and this page sets the two next to each other honestly, including the many things IMDb does that Gasper does not.

What IMDb does

IMDb is the internet's film and television database. It holds a page for nearly every film and series ever made, with full credits, plot summaries, release information, trivia, goofs, parental guides, quotes, and links to where a title is streaming. Registered users rate titles from 1 to 10, and the weighted average of those votes is the IMDb rating shown on every page, alongside the vote count. Users keep a watchlist and can make lists, write reviews, and see ratings from everyone. The Top 250 is built from those user ratings. IMDb is owned by Amazon and runs on the web and in iOS and Android apps.

The heart of IMDb is the page itself: the one place that knows who worked on what.

What Gasper does

Gasper is a free iOS app for logging horror films. You rank rather than rate: after a quick verdict on how scary it was (Terrifying, Some scares, or Barely flinched), you answer a handful of head-to-heads, "Which was scarier?", and the film lands in your rankings with a scare score, out of 10, read from where it sits. You never type a number. If you loved the film regardless of how scary it was, you tap a heart and it is marked as Loved.

Every film page shows the Community Scare, the average of members' scare scores, and the percentage who loved it. Your scores against the crowd's produce Scare Tolerance. There are leaderboards for films and fans, a feed of friends' rankings, lists, a daily pick, a week streak and Bloodwork. Film data comes from TMDb, not IMDb.

Side by side

Where IMDb is better

Almost everything that is not ranking horror. IMDb is the complete reference: if you want to know who did the makeup on a 1981 werewolf film, which cut of a giallo you are watching, or what a film is called in another country, IMDb knows and Gasper does not. Its catalog covers every genre. Its user base is far larger and its ratings go back decades, so even obscure horror has a vote count. It has parental guides, which matter for horror. It is on the web and on Android. For looking something up, IMDb is the right tool, and Gasper members use it for exactly that.

Where Gasper is different

The IMDb rating is a typed number that averages everyone's sense of overall quality. Gasper's number comes from a different process and measures a different thing.

Comparisons, not votes. An IMDb rating asks you for a 7 or an 8. A head-to-head asks whether The Thing (1982) or Alien (1979) scared you more. The second question has a stable answer, and the number follows from it. Your list is always consistent with itself.

Scary, with love kept separate. IMDb has one rating for everything a film is. Gasper ranks one thing, how scary it was, because a film can be terrifying and clumsy, or beautiful and calm, and a single number for both says neither. For the films you adore regardless of where they sit there is the heart (Loved), a flag rather than a second rating.

A crowd that is all horror fans. The Community Scare is the average of people who rank horror against other horror, which makes it a specific signal. Your distance from it becomes Scare Tolerance, a Hottest Take and a Deepest Cut. Leaderboards are only possible because the scope is narrow.

Using both

They do not compete. IMDb is where you check who directed a film and whether it is the version you think it is. Gasper is where you decide, after watching, whether it was scarier than the last one. Many members have IMDb open on one screen while they rank on the other.

Gasper does not import IMDb ratings or anything else yet. Because its scores come from comparisons, an imported list of 1 to 10 votes would not build a ranked list on its own. The start here guide covers the first dozen rankings, after which the scores stop calibrating and start to describe you.