Horror has always been that imaginative void in which our deepest fears and the best of the creative parts of our brains marry together to invent something prolific. When blended with any genre in cinema, horror generates an experience that embraces what the world is.
An extended parable of the concerns of the world and healing for the personal ones, horror has always been a process in which one works through physical and psychological challenges together yet is dazzled and even terrified by the experience of it all.While horror has become a successful and even laudedgenre in film, higher institutions such as the Academy Awards have always had a say in its vital importance in the upper crust of cinema.
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Horror, even without the bid for the Oscars, has always been successful. While the rejection of horror having its place in the Oscars or having cultural merit has often been misplaced in judgment, the genre continues to defy the odds to prove otherwise. From the British Hammer Studio films of the 1940s to the renowned slasher era of horror that would manifest in the 1980s, the world has always had an intense fascination with fear. As the years change,so does what we identify with as fears, making the horror genre something that is constantly evolving through life with subgenres that consistently redefine what the label means to society. In the tenebrous Disney World of cinema, horror finds a way to innovate and keep audiences on the edge of their seats the way no other genre can.
As Mia Goth poignantly noted afterPearlandNopewere rejected at the Oscars, this is not the first time that the highbrow aristocracy of film has shunned the genre. Horror has always struggled to leave an impression on the biggest stage of them all because it is routinely rated lower than other genres. Despite the public’s unwavering love and adoration for the horror genre, which has contributed to the genre’s current financial success,Horror has always had a lurid and honest presencethat has caused the Academy to veer away from such strong unaltered cinematic displays in the world of black ties and gorgeous gowns.
While times have changed, the same tinged stigma remains trapped around the genre. Directors from the renowned Alfred Hitchcock, who would only go on to win an honorary Oscar for his achievements to other great minds like Wes Craven, who never saw an Oscar, chose the horror genre to create some of the best films cinema has ever seen.Since the creation of the Academy Awardsin 1927, only 18 horror films have been recognized for their creative vision since its inception, with only 6 of those films being within the guise of the Best Picture category within its 95 years.
Throughout the years, horror has continuously been denied not just to the directors who make them, but to the actors who play a part in making such unforgettable stories come to life. WhilePearlandNopeare some of the most recent examples of the Oscars failing to recognize talent in the horror genre, other films in the recent past also suffered the same fate.
Films like 2014’sThe Babadookhad all the stars aligned for being mentioned by one of the most distinguished awards in cinema. Its creative use of the medium,which depicted grief as a terrifying monster, was revolutionary.The Babadook, helmed one of the best horror movies of the decade but would never receive the credit it deserved.
Fast-forward to 2018, Ari Aster’sHereditarystruck fear into everyone’s hearts. An intense family drama about grief and resentment with an even more unnerving horror backdrop to boot, Hereditary was more than just a typical horror experience. One of horror’s contemporary masterpieces, actor Toni Collette would deliver a performance worthy of an Academy Award. The film would be majorly glossed over that year.
The same reaction would also be given to other movies, like Jordan Peele’sUs. One of the most enigmatic talents in modern horror, Jordan Peele, would use breathtaking imagery to reveal where America stands in the perverse and sinister web of imperialism. Numerous people were impressed by Lupita Nyong’o’s outstanding performance, leading them to believe that she would, at the very least, be mentioned or win an Academy Award.All of these films and the powerful performancesof these actors would go unnoticed. To say that the Academy completely ignores horror is not true, but it would be remiss to say that the Academy goes for a certain type of horror.
The Oscars has always aimed for an air of sophistication within its choices, hence why dramas often get the bid over horror, fantasy, or sci-fi films. It was the only reason films likeSilence of The Lambsever pulled through in 1991 for Best Picture and numerous other categories while films such asPsycho,Rosemary’s Baby, andThe Exorcistwould barely even scratch that surface. This is by no means stating that the psychological thriller is by any means a terrible film. It rightfully deserved to take its place among the ranks of other films that have won such a prestigious award.
However, such films like this have an original quality and groundbreaking prestige, and moments like this are often fleeting for the genre, if at all.While other notable films such asJaws,The Sixth Sense,Black Swan, andGet Outwould also get nominations for the unique ways they portrayed the dark and unsightly, no one would ever pull off what Silence of the Lambs did that night for the horror genre.
While many members of the Academy would not call most horror films an “elevated horror” experience, it is precisely this narrow-minded thinking that keeps the genre from being recognized in the first place. Art house slashers such asTerrifierdue to its glorified use of gore would never be mentioned in the same breath as one of these awards.But while gore plays a critical factorin what does and does not get a nod, there is a type of catharsis and powerful emotion that resonates with slashers and other films like it.
While it’s the duality of such emotions that registers more with hybrid horror, it’s this type of raw exploration of horror that should be looked at and taken more seriously as a high level of cinematic art. Horror is meant to be used to face our fears, whether it is enjoyed for the blood and gore alone or as part of a more somber experience. Sometimes these stories have happy conclusions, other times not so much. However, what strikes a chord is the memory of experiencing intense sadness, trauma, terror, or thrills and emerging transformed from such an experience. It is this type of exploration of fear and our internal understanding of how the world works that makes us deal with each head-on.It not only forces us to deal with such frightening detailsin our existence but allows the development of such films to show that process in real-time. Horror was created to address such meanings, and those who fully understand the impact and power of films, such as the Oscars, should treat it with more respect.
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