The defence The Arthouse Gremlin
“Its refusal to behave is the point.”
The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.
Back to trending 
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Science Fiction · Adventure · Horror · 1957
A dangerous combination of radiation and insecticide causes the unfortunate Scott Carey to shrink, slowly but surely, until he is only a few inches tall. His home becomes a wilderness where he must survive everything from spiders living in the cellar to his beloved cat.
Movie details
The Incredible Shrinking Man
“A fascinating adventure into the unknown!”
1957 Science Fiction · Adventure · Horror 1h 21m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
7.6 / 10
21K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
83 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
73 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
7.5 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
A dangerous combination of radiation and insecticide causes the unfortunate Scott Carey to shrink, slowly but surely, until he is only a few inches tall. His home becomes a wilderness where he must survive everything from spiders living in the cellar to his beloved cat.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over The Incredible Shrinking Man?
For the defence
The Arthouse Gremlin
“The stranger, the better.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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The Asphyx
Fantasy · 1972
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Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Jack Arnold
Written by
Richard Matheson · Richard Alan Simmons
Grant Williams
Scott Carey
Randy Stuart
Louise Carey
April Kent
Clarice Bruce
Paul Langton
Charlie Carey
Raymond Bailey
Doctor Thomas Silver
William Schallert
Doctor Arthur Bramson
Frank J. Scannell
Barker
Court is in session
Put The Incredible Shrinking Man on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Oddness is not depth.”
A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.