How Dreadpick turns horror into something you can actually search.
Dreadpick uses structured metadata, experience classification and preference matching to help users discover horror games and movies.
This page explains where our information comes from, how Dreadpick classifications work and what our match scores actually represent.
Our data sources
Dreadpick combines information from multiple sources.
Depending on the title, this may include publicly available or licensed metadata from services such as:
- Steam;
- The Movie Database (TMDB);
- official publishers, developers, distributors and studios;
- publicly available title information;
- Dreadpick’s own classifications;
- user-submitted ratings and activity.
External metadata may include information such as:
- title;
- release year;
- artwork;
- platform;
- genres;
- descriptions;
- multiplayer functionality;
- identifiers and relationships between titles.
External metadata and Dreadpick classifications are treated as separate layers.
A genre supplied by an external database is not automatically considered a Dreadpick experience classification.
Dreadpick experience profiles
Dreadpick creates its own structured representation of the horror experience offered by a title.
The principal dimensions visible throughout the platform are:
Atmosphere
Environmental mood, audiovisual identity, immersion and sense of place.
Tension
Sustained suspense, pressure and anticipation.
Fear
The degree to which an experience is designed to frighten or unsettle.
Psychological
Psychological disturbance, ambiguity, paranoia, perception and conceptual horror.
Gore
Graphic violence, blood and explicit bodily horror.
Action
The importance of action, confrontation and momentum.
Each dimension is represented internally on a numerical scale.
These values should not be interpreted as measures of objective quality.
A score of 9 for Gore does not mean “better gore” than a score of 6.
It means gore is a much stronger part of that experience.
Additional characteristics
Some media require additional information to improve discovery.
Games, for example, may include characteristics such as:
- combat;
- stealth;
- multiplayer or co-op availability;
- pacing;
- horror centrality.
Movies may include characteristics such as:
- slow-burn structure;
- psychological emphasis;
- horror centrality.
Not every internal characteristic is necessarily displayed to users.
Some exist to improve filtering and recommendation quality.
Horror Centrality
One important distinction in Dreadpick is Horror Centrality.
Some games and movies contain horror elements without horror being the central experience.
Others are fundamentally built around horror.
Dreadpick attempts to distinguish between the two.
This helps prevent a title with a few monsters or dark environments from being treated exactly like an experience designed primarily around horror.
Horror Centrality may influence discovery and ranking, but it is not intended to override compatibility.
A title should not rank highly simply because it is “more horror.”
Classification process
Dreadpick classifications may be created using a combination of:
- structured source metadata;
- descriptions and publicly available information;
- automated analysis;
- rule-based processing;
- AI-assisted classification;
- manual review and correction.
AI-assisted classification allows Dreadpick to process a catalog larger than would be practical through manual tagging alone.
However, automated systems can make mistakes.
For this reason, Dreadpick treats classification as an evolving dataset rather than immutable fact.
Data may be updated when:
- better metadata becomes available;
- classifications are reviewed;
- our methodology improves;
- new evidence becomes available;
- users identify incorrect information.
How individual matching works
When you provide preferences, Dreadpick compares your desired experience with the experience profile of each eligible title.
In simplified terms:
The closer the two profiles are, the stronger the match.
Differences across individual dimensions contribute to the overall distance between your preferences and the title.
Dreadpick then converts that distance into a more understandable match value.
Some contextual factors — such as whether horror is central to the title — may provide small ranking adjustments.
The system is designed so that compatibility remains the main factor.
Popularity is not the primary ranking signal.
A less famous title can therefore outrank a major release if it matches your preferences more closely.
Why we don’t simply use averages
Two recommendations can have the same average difference while being very different in practice.
A title that is slightly different from your preferences across several dimensions may be a better match than something that is perfect on five dimensions but dramatically wrong on the sixth.
Dreadpick therefore considers the shape of the preference profile rather than relying on a single genre or average score.
Fearprint
Fearprint uses the same general experience dimensions as the Dreadpick catalog.
Your initial Fearprint is based on preferences you explicitly provide.
Over time, Dreadpick may also use interactions as additional signals.
Different actions carry different levels of confidence.
For example:
Saving a title
Suggests interest.
Playing or watching a title
Shows actual engagement.
Rating a title
Provides explicit information about how you experienced it.
Adaptive signals are intentionally limited so that a small number of interactions do not immediately overwrite the Fearprint you deliberately created.
The original Fearprint remains an important baseline.
User ratings
Dreadpick does not ask users to reduce an entire horror experience to one star rating.
Instead, users can rate individual dimensions such as:
- Atmosphere
- Tension
- Fear
- Psychological
- Gore
- Action
This gives Dreadpick much more useful information about why someone responded to an experience.
In the future, aggregated user ratings may also contribute to community-level understanding of titles.
Where community data and Dreadpick classifications are shown together, they should remain distinguishable.
DreadSync group matching
DreadSync extends individual matching to groups.
The challenge is different.
A simple average can produce a recommendation that looks mathematically good while being a terrible choice for one participant.
DreadSync therefore considers both:
- overall group compatibility;
- the compatibility of the least-matched participant.
The current group ranking places greater weight on the group’s average compatibility while also giving substantial weight to the lowest individual match.
This encourages recommendations that work reasonably well for everyone rather than exceptionally well for only part of the group.
After group-compatible titles are identified, DreadSync adds human choice back into the process through shortlisting and voting.
The algorithm narrows the field.
The group makes the final decision.
Filters and eligibility
Not every title is eligible for every recommendation.
For example, when DreadSync is used to choose a game for a group, Dreadpick may restrict the candidate pool to games identified as supporting co-operative play.
Other filters can also reduce the candidate pool before matching takes place.
This prevents a mathematically strong match from being recommended when it does not meet a basic requirement of the session.
Data confidence and limitations
Horror is subjective.
No classification system can perfectly describe how every person will experience a game or movie.
Other limitations include:
- incomplete source metadata;
- changing platform information;
- regional differences;
- incorrect third-party data;
- ambiguous genre boundaries;
- differences in individual sensitivity;
- differences between advertised features and actual experiences.
Multiplayer information in games can be particularly complex because definitions of local co-op, online co-op and player counts are not always consistent across sources.
Dreadpick therefore continues to refine these fields as better information becomes available.
Match scores are not review scores
This distinction matters.
A 95% Dreadpick Match does not mean:
“Dreadpick rates this title 9.5/10.”
It means:
“Based on the information available, this title appears highly compatible with the selected preferences.”
Likewise, a critically acclaimed title can receive a low match.
That does not mean Dreadpick considers it bad.
It means it may not be what you’re looking for right now.
Not a content rating system
Dreadpick classifications and content information do not replace official classification systems such as ESRB, PEGI or national film classification authorities.
Users, parents and guardians should consult official ratings where age suitability or specific content concerns are important.
Data updates and corrections
The Dreadpick catalog is continuously evolving.
Titles may be reclassified or updated when:
- source metadata changes;
- new releases become available;
- errors are discovered;
- methodology improves;
- additional evidence becomes available.
If you notice inaccurate information, you can contact us at:
[CONTACT EMAIL]
Please include the title and the information you believe should be corrected.
Transparency
Recommendation systems are most useful when users understand what they are being shown.
Dreadpick will continue to make its methodology understandable without pretending that horror preference can be reduced to perfect mathematics.
The numbers are there to help you discover.
Not to tell you what you’re supposed to like.