10 Movies That Critics Loved but Audiences Hated In 2023

Especially with such a high number of notable and memorable film releases happening all at once, it’s impossible for general audiences and esteemed critics to agree on the quality of every single film. It can be difficult for a film to be able to appeal to the tendencies and tastes of both the average audience member and a meticulous critic, with general audiences usually being more easily placed by a film’s output. However, there are a number of exceptions to the rule of films that in their execution manage to impress and delight critics, while completely alienating audiences.

2023 was no stranger to a number of these movies, as there were many films that, while they may have done a great job at getting a high critics’ score, failed to justifiably please general audiences. It’s a sentiment that can be hard to quantifiably grasp through a single metric, such as with Rotten Tomatoes. It is all-encompassing of several factors surrounding the film as a whole, such as discussion surrounding the film and box office performance.

10 ‘Inside’ (2023)

Critics Score: 62%, Audience Score: 40%

Inside is a meticulous one-man show thriller that follows the story of Nemo (played by Willem Dafoe), an art thief who during a heist gone wrong finds himself trapped alone in a New York penthouse. With the owner away for who knows how long, Nemo is forced to stick it out and find a way to survive in the penthouse, with nearly no food or water at his disposal and surrounded by nothing but priceless art pieces. His sanity slowly begins to wain away as the days turn into weeks and months, with seemingly no hope of escaping in sight.

Inside is a simple premise that is built upon the benefit of allowing one of the greatest actors of a generation to let loose and make the entire film a sprawling canvas for his acting abilities. Critics loved just how much Dafoe brings it his all in this film, yet audiences found themselves bored and unsatisfied by the film’s one-note plot that rarely evolves and excites as the runtime continues. The film’s increased focus and subtext about isolation and the pandemic certainly didn’t help things, as it only lessened the focus on its core interesting premise, waning audience interest even more.

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9 ‘No One Will Save You’ (2023)

Critics Score: 82%, Audience Score: 56%

No One Will Save You provides a unique sci-fi twist on the classic home invasion premise, seeing an anxiety-ridden shut-in facing an invading alien who has found its way into her home. Completely alone in her house and facing the mysterious extra-terrestrial, Brynn must find the courage within herself to take on the alien face-on, not only to preserve her own life, but the lives of her community and possibly the entire world.

Critics immediately fell in love with No One Will Save You‘s twist on the classic thriller archetype, creating massive amounts of tension and fear entirely through masterful filmmaking and with very little dialogue. However, what was able to conjure fear for the critics was not able to create the same sense of dread and scares for audiences, who found the silent home invasion to be mostly dull and uneventful. Combined with its complicated ending, audiences finished No One Will Save You more confused and uninterested than scared.

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8 ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ (2023)

Critics Score: 98%, Audience Score: 41%

The Teachers’ Lounge is a German drama film that follows the story of teacher Carla Nowak, who has an idealistic and optimistic viewpoint of the world and her job as a school teacher. However, her limits are soon brought to their breaking point when one of her students is suspected of theft, causing Nowak to begin delving deeper into the matter to find the truth. This quest for the truth proves itself to be much more difficult than imagined, as it pushes her ideals to their limits, with her actions having massive consequences that threaten her livelihood.

A big reason critics fell in love with The Teachers’ Lounge is the film’s subtle yet powerful messaging about the complacency and destabilization that can occur within smaller, seemingly innocuous communities. The film’s primary premise acts as only the backdrop and jumping-off point for these poignant themes, a fact that has made it both a massive hit with critics and a miss with audiences. The increased focus on the subtext and inner meaning that the actual core story at the center wasn’t as engaging or uplifting as audiences hoped.

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7 ‘Fair Play’ (2023)

Critics Score: 86%, Audience Score: 53%

Fair Play is an erotic thriller that follows the story of young couple, Emily and Luke, who have to keep their intense love life a secret because they both work at the same cutthroat hedge fund. However, after Emily receives a surprise promotion, the competitive nature of their workplace slowly finds itself seeping into their love life, putting their recent engagement in complete disarray. The anger and slow destruction of their relationship proves to have massive ramifications on their entire lives that neither of them could have predicted.

Fair Play scratched a powerful itch among critics who were missing an exciting and unexpected erotic thriller, as the film’s signature style and execution harkened back to the genre’s heyday. Combined with the notions and themes of greed and gender politics, the film acted as a great modern evolution of the genre in the eyes of critics. However, audiences simply couldn’t find themselves getting interested in this return to form for the genre, seeing the plot as predictable and the ending to be highly disappointing.

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6 ‘Eileen’ (2023)

Critics Score: 85%, Audience Score: 53%

Eileen follows the story of Eileen Dunlop (played by Thomasin McKenzie), a young woman living in 1960s Massachusetts working as a prison secretary who is completely sick and tired of her job. However, her boring and uneventful life soon begins to find a new spark of excitement when she is convinced by co-worker Rebecca (played by Anne Hathaway) to get involved with a serious crime. The intrigue and thrill behind the crime proves itself to be worth all the possible downsides for Eileen, yet it soon becomes apparent that the crime is much more than she bargained for.

Critics found themselves enamored by the core dynamic and performances of McKenzie and Hathaway in Eileen, who prove themselves to massively elevate and give justice to the psychological thriller source material. However, audiences were not a fan of the film’s more vague and unanswered questions throughout its runtime, leaving for a plot that to a great number of audiences was uninteresting with a lackluster ending.

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5 ‘Infinity Pool’ (2023)

Critics Score: 87%, Audience Score: 52%

Infinity Pool follows the story of well-off couple James and Em, who are enjoying a seemingly perfect vacation at a high-luxury resort on the beaches. However, the resort is hiding a dark and sinister underbelly underneath the surface, one that begins slowly enticing James to give into his dark desires of power and lust. As he begins to explore the truth behind this strange community, James finds himself trapped in a group surrounded by violent and hedonistic peers, with seemingly no way to escape, if he wants to, that is.

Especially in an era of horror so greatly changed and defined by more experimental and artsy auteurist efforts, there are bound to be horror films that toe the line too far and completely alienate general audiences in the process. Infinity Pool is the perfect example of such, as its more adult and hypersexual themes and messaging make for a strange, philosophical viewing experience that has no true answer to the meaning behind it all. This style of experimental filmmaking usually always results in critical praise, it also results in complete confusion and annoyance from general audiences.

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4 ‘Skinamarink’ (2023)

Critics Score: 72%, Audience Score: 44%

Drawing inspiration from the trend of analog horror on the internet, Skinamarink may be about as experimental and as minimalist as one can get in the realm of horror filmmaking. The film follows the premise of two children having woken up in the middle of the night to realize that their father is missing, as well as the terrifying fact that all the windows and doors in the home have disappeared. The strange and paranormal occurrences only continue to arise, as a strange and disturbing voice begins luring the children to their doom.

Skinamarink‘s unique and experimental approach to horror makes it unlike any other feature-length horror film out there, being able to create unheard-of levels of dread and disturbing implications for critics. However, this approach proved itself to only work for the critics who had never seen anything like it before, as the vast majority of audiences found it to be much more dull and uninteresting than actually scary.

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3 ‘Leave the World Behind’ (2023)

Critics Score: 75%, Audience Score: 34%

Leave the World Behind is a sci-fi thriller that follows a family’s attempted getaway to a luxurious rental home on the outskirts of the city, taking a massive turn when a cyberattack knocks out all electronic devices. In the midst of all the confusion and chaos, a collection of strangers find themselves at their door looking for safety and shelter, claiming to be the rental home’s original owners. However, things prove themselves to not be all that it seems, as the mystery behind the cyberattack continues to grow more nightmarish as time goes on.

Critics greatly enjoyed Leave the World Behind‘s uncanny ability to suck in the viewer with its simple premise yet precise execution that slowly drip-feeds the audience information and high-stakes tension. However, as is the case with the majority of thrillers that revolve around a mystery and core twist, if the twist doesn’t land, it can sour the entire experience, which is exactly what happened in the eyes of audiences. The ending and shift in the second half of the film managed to bring down the entire experience in the eyes of audiences, even souring aspects such as the performances and dialogue.

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2 ‘Satanic Hispanics’ (2022)

Critics Score: 91%, Audience Score: 46%

Satanic Hispanics is a horror anthology film featuring 5 distinct shorts helmed by different Latino directors, with each story finding a connection through a primary story at its center. The film sees the police raiding a house in El Paso, only to find a mysterious singular survivor known as The Traveler, who, when taken in for questioning, relays numerous terrifying stories of his time on Earth. Each story tells its own mythical and terrifying tale that finds inspiration from the legends of Latin America, and the horrors from them are rarely adapted to the big screen.

Horror anthology films have always made for a great entryway for up-and-coming horror directors to show their chops and provide a wide variety of interesting and unique scares, with Satanic Hispanics being no different. Critics loved the infectious blend of top not scares and genuine humor throughout the film, yet many audiences simply couldn’t get behind the more graphic and gruesome nature of the stories. This combined with notable tonal shifts between the stories themselves made this a difficult sell for many audiences looking to get scared.

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1 ‘The Rat Catcher’ (2023)

Critics Score: 100%, Audience Score: 59%

One of the four short film Roald Dahl adaptations made by legendary filmmaker Wes Anderson, The Rat Catcher follows the story of a reporter who has made his way to an English village in search of a story. In his short time there, he is joined by a mechanic as he experiences a firsthand in-depth explanation of how to weed out the village rat infestation from the infamous ratcatcher. As his methods reveal themselves, it becomes more and more apparent that the ratcatcher is no ordinary exterminator, yet something much more calculated and terrifying.

The Rat Catcher was a favorite among critics when it came to Anderson’s Roald Dahl adaptations, with its amazing central performance from Ralph Fiennes and terrifying rising tension. However, while audiences were much more accepting and praising the other three shorts, The Rat Catcher‘s tendency to hide its most terrifying aspects, letting Dahl’s writing do all the work, made it a miss among audiences. It’s a case of being the most disappointing in a selection of fantastic films in the eyes of audiences, as the stellar execution of the other three shorts only makes The Rat Catcher‘s flaws stick out that much more.

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