Have the Oscars Always Hated Horror?

As award season ramps up, we come closer and closer to the main event… the Oscars. Arguably the most prestigious award someone in the film industry can receive, this ceremony has always been a beacon for hot takes and opinions. As someone who follows film releases closely, I love hearing everyone's thoughts on who might or (might not be) a contender for the big award. This year, I’ve heard lots of talk about “snubs”.  For those who may be unfamiliar, an Oscar snub is exactly what it sounds like: a performance, movie, or nominee who has received much praise and often has had success in the award show season only to be robbed at the Oscars. While I have my own thoughts on who was “snubbed” at this year's Oscars, I was thinking of years past and thought of a performance that I was shocked to find out didn’t win. Even worse, it wasn't even nominated. In my opinion (and if you’ve seen the film or at least her famous dinner scene, I’m sure you agree), Toni Collette’s work in Hereditary was one of the best acting performances I’ve ever seen. Finding out she wasn’t even considered as a nominee blew me away. I tried to come up with reasons behind her snub and found a curious pattern that had been somewhat of an open secret in the academy, which led me down a rabbit hole: Hereditary is a horror movie through and through, and unfortunately, there's a bit of a rocky history of horror/thriller movies having success at the Oscars over the past few years. However, this wasn’t always the case. In fact, there was even a time when The Exorcist was an Academy Award winner, so what happened? When did the academy start turning a blind eye to horror? 

The Exorcist is a unicorn among the nominees of the 1974 Oscars. Never before has a horror movie received so much attention among general audiences and critics alike. For a film that drew viewers into the theater out of a chance that they might puke, it’s a bit puzzling how it got nominated for so many categories, including Best Picture. But if we look at the movie without the label of “horror” and think of all the technical accomplishments in the film, especially as one made in the 1970s and with impeccable performances by Linda Blair and Max Von Sydow, it would be insane for it not to receive a nomination. Despite protests from critics, concerned parents, and even the catholic church, The Exorcist actually ended up winning in two categories (writing and sound mixing) , but lost the biggest award, best picture, to The Sting of all films. So once a horror movie had won the most elite award it could receive, was the barrier finally broken? Not quite. It wouldn’t be until the 1991 Oscars that we would see another horror movie get nominated with Silence of the Lambs. The film swept almost every category in which it was nominated and won both Best Actor for Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of the eerie serial killer Hannibal Lecter and Best Picture. However, there's one detail that makes its wins much different from The Exorcist, despite being advertised as a horror movie, it was labeled as a thriller when it came time for award season. Although the film is undoubtedly full of suspense and mystery, I wouldn’t exactly call it a “crime-thriller.” The film is a giant web of horror tropes and themes and features some of the most chilling dialogue and scenes in all of cinema. 

Labeling your movie as a thriller invokes a different type of association attached to it compared to horror, which tends to feature more dramatic and campy films in its genre. Films that would not be serious contenders in the academy's eyes. We continue to see this trend of labeling horror movies that make it to the award circuit as “thrillers” with the next few movies that make it to the Oscars. Natalie Portman won in 2010 for her performance in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, a film with some of the most complex body horror shots in cinema, but yet again, it was labeled as a “thriller.” Jordan Peele’s terrifying movie masterpiece, Get Out, was nominated for Best Picture but again labeled as a “thriller”.

There have been so many well-written, visually stunning, and impressive performances that fall under the guise of being a horror film that don’t get recognized for their success and greatness all because of a label. To turn a blind eye to a genre filled with amazing movies and refuse to take it seriously is ignoring an entire sector of cinema that is more than worthy of your attention. Could you imagine if the academy discounted Foreign Cinema or animation from its nominee pool just because of a few movies? Horror as a medium deserves the same amount of respect and prestige as any other genre, and even if the academy doesn’t recognize it, I hope you do.

Here's a short list of some horror movies that are worthy of Oscars (in my opinion)

The Witch (2015)
Suspiria (both the original and the 2017 remake)
Hereditary (2018)
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
Talk to Me (2022)
The Invisible Man (2020)
The Others (2001)
Funny Games (1997) 

Sources:
Kaufman, Flynn. “15 Horror Movies That Were Nominated for an Oscar (& Prove Horror Deserves More Awards Season Love).” ScreenRant, 22 Oct. 2023, screenrant.com/horror-movies-oscar-nominated/#jaws. 
Rewind, Be Kind. “Who Ruined the Exorcist’s Oscar Campaign?” YouTube, 29 Nov. 2023, youtu.be/qp-H33dfvLA?si=I1veYSC62xPZdbNj.