The Most Outrageous Horror Snubs in Oscars History (original) (raw)
Updated Mar 7, 2024, 1:00 PM EST
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Mia Goth’s 2023 criticism of the Academy Awards for consistently overlooking the horror genre has made headlines. The thing is, she makes a valid point, one that is very hard to disagree with. The proof is evident throughout the history of the Oscars, where horror films have scored few nominations and even fewer wins. To date, only The Silence of the Lambs has won Best Picture, and 1973’s The Exorcist was the first horror film to even be nominated for Best Picture – 45 years into the institution. This year is no different, with Godzilla: Minus One the only horror film up for a nomination, for Best Visual Effects. Overall, there have only been six horror films to be nominated for Best Picture consideration. For years, horror films have fostered award-worthy depth and talent that have been passed over, but these may be the most egregious snubs of them all.
1 'Evil Dead Rise'
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Deadite Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) clutching on to the bathtub in Evil Dead Rise.
Image via Warner Bros.
In many ways, the horror genre is a victim of its own success when it comes to the Best Makeup and Hairstyling category. Even the worst horror film can bring the most nightmarish visions to life at the hands of the makeup artist, which makes Evil Dead Rise a rarity among its kin. Not only does the film make every open wound and dripping perforation ultrarealistic, it brings Ellie's (Alyssa Sutherland) transformation into a grotesque Deadite to life — er, death. The pacing of the transformation is perfect, with the cosmetics wisely keeping Ellie recognizable, the human behind the gore, even as she goes full-Deadite. The effects honor the _Evil Dead_films before it, yet still create something new to build off of.
Release Date
April 21, 2023
Runtime
96 minutes
Director
Lee Cronin
A twisted tale of two estranged sisters whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.
2 'The Babadook' (2014)
Essie Davis for Best Actress
Amelia holding her son and looking ahead with a scared expression in The Babadook.
Image via IFC Films
In Jennifer Kent's The Babadook, Essie Davis plays Amelia, a widow who has been raising her six-year-old son Sam (Noah Wiseman) on her own. She is exhausted, still struggling with grief, and isolated. Soon, Sam displays erratic behavior, develops insomnia, and is adamant that an imaginary monster is out to get him. His sleepless nights become her sleepless nights, and after reading a pop-up storybook called Mister Babadook, Sam is convinced that the Babadook is real. And as Amelia finds out, he is. Davis is flat-out amazing in the role, making the character's journey from exhausted single mother, to fearful recluse, to impatient and angry authoritarian, to the murderous intent of the Babadook that comes to possess her believable and grounded. It's a powerhouse performance that deserved to be at least nominated.
Release Date
November 28, 2014
Runtime
94 Minutes
Director
Jennifer Kent
Cast
Noah Wiseman
Samuel Vanek
3 'Hereditary' (2018)
Toni Collette for Best Actress
A distraught Annie Graham (Toni Collette) in 'Hereditary'
Image via A24
After the death of her mother, with whom she shared a troubled relationship, Annie (Toni Collette) and her family are haunted by an ominous presence. It's not coincidental: Annie discovers that her mother was the leader of a coven. Now, her family are pawns in an evil plan to summon the demon King Paimon, with her son set apart as the demon's male host. Annie's unbelievable pain and anguish are utterly devastating, and it's a testament to Collette's talent that it doesn't come across as melodramatic. Olivia Colman took home the gong this year, with Collette not even nominated. The Academy had a chance to expand the vision of Best Actress beyond what we usually see but unfortunately did not take it.
Release Date
June 8, 2018
Runtime
2h 7m
Director
When her mentally ill mother passes away, Annie, her husband, son, and daughter all mourn her loss. The family turn to different means to handle their grief, including Annie and her daughter both flirting with the supernatural. They each begin to have disturbing, otherworldly experiences linked to the sinister secrets and emotional trauma that have been passed through the generations of their family.
4 'IT' (2017)
Best Adapted Screenplay
Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise in IT Chapter 1
Image via Warner Bros
Stephen King novel adaptations are largely hit or miss. For every Misery, there's a Maximum Overdrive, so screenplay writers Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, and Gary Dauberman were already in for a challenge before putting pen to paper on 2017's IT. IT came with an additional challenge: the shadow of the successful adaptation as a TV miniseries in 1990, with Tim Curry as the menacing, definitive Pennywise, that came before. So not only did they need to bring the story of the Losers Club and their battle against Pennywise to life, but they needed to set it apart from its previous incarnation. Challenge accepted. The screenplay is a faithful and smart adaptation of King's novel, with the film covering the first chronological half of the book, sans the "Ritual of Chüd" and problematic sex scene. More importantly, how they wrote Pennywise created a separate entity from Curry's portrayal, allowing Bill Skarsgård to make the character his own.
Release Date
September 8, 2017
Runtime
135 minutes
Director
Seven young outcasts in Derry, Maine, are about to face their worst nightmare -- an ancient, shape-shifting evil that emerges from the sewer every 27 years to prey on the town's children. Banding together over the course of one horrifying summer, the friends must overcome their own personal fears to battle the murderous, bloodthirsty clown known as Pennywise.
5 Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Best Original Screenplay
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost watching TV in 'Shaun of the Dead'
Image via Rogue Pictures
The pair of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg struck gold with Shaun of the Dead, the British zombie comedy film from 2004. It was wildly successful upon release and consistently places high on lists of the best comedy films and horror films. The way they approached the genre is perfection. The zombies in the film are not played for laughs, for the most part. These zombies are just as dangerous and menacing as any found in George A. Romero's films, and it's a respectful homage to the zombie genre. Where they find the humor is on the outskirts of the zombie apocalypse, with best friends Shaun (Simon Pegg) and Ed (Nick Frost) oblivious to the surrounding horror, more focused on a pint than their direction in life. The screenplay is silly where it can be, horrifying when it needs to be and gives the characters a natural progression from layabouts to heroes.
Release Date
September 24, 2004
Runtime
99 minutes
Director
Edgar Wright
6 Us (2019)
Best Picture/Lupita Nyong'o for Best Actress
Lupita Nyong'o holding Evan Alex and Shahadi Wright Joseph in Us.
Image via Universal Pictures
The topic of this piece could arguably be the works of auteur Jordan Peele alone. Peele's Us is unique, something that stands apart from others in the horror genre. It's the tale of a family of four on vacation, shaken to see a group of four people that look exactly like them. These four haunting doppelgängers get into the house, and only one can talk, but haltingly and with effort: Adelaide's (Lupita Nyong'o) double, known only as Red. Peele had created a whole mythology around the film, including an underworld where there are other doppelgängers who come to the surface and start killing their surface doubles. The film ends with a Shyamalan-esque twist of the world he's created. The success of the film is largely thanks to lead actress Nyong'o, who plays the double role excellently, creating two very different characters, imbuing them with their own traits and purposes.
Release Date
March 22, 2019
Runtime
116 Mins
Director
Writers
Adelaide Wilson and her family are attacked by mysterious figures dressed in red. Upon closer inspection, the Wilsons realize that the intruders are exact lookalikes of them.
7 American Psycho (2001)
Christian Bale for Best Actor
Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman wielding an axe in a fancy apartment in American Psycho
Image via Lionsgate
It's 1987, and Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) is the epitome of the late '80s Wall Street investment banker. Well-groomed and wealthy, but behind the exterior lies a shell of a man. A serial killer. Bale's performance captures the narcissistic yuppie of the era, where prestige, more stuff, and better stuff are the only things that matter. If that's all the role called for, then he's no different from any other power-hungry character. But Bale's Bateman is empty behind the eyes, his perfection and charm merely a mask to hide his homicidal anger at being unable to reach the perks of being at the top, while those he sees as inferior can. Bale makes that switch seamlessly, making his daytime pursuits of the almighty dollar and his nighttime murderous activities at home in the same person. He also understands the satire of the film, and his delivery matches the intention of the scene flawlessly.
Release Date
April 14, 2000
Runtime
101 minutes
Director
Mary Harron
In New York City in 1987, a handsome, young urban professional, Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), lives a second life as a gruesome serial killer by night. The cast is filled by the detective (Willem Dafoe), the fiance (Reese Witherspoon), the mistress (Samantha Mathis), the coworker (Jared Leto), and the secretary (Chloë Sevigny). This is a biting, wry comedy examining the elements that make a man a monster.
Related
8 The Others (2001)
Best Picture
Grace (Nicole Kidman) holds her kids close in The Others.
Image via Dimension Films
Grace (Nicole Kidman) has retired to a mansion in 1945, with her photosensitive son and daughter, who are unable to be exposed to daylight without being hurt. Her husband died in the war, so she is left to care for the children on her own. She is strict, enforcing her religious principles and rules upon them. Her servants all recently left, without a word and without collecting their final wages, so when three new servants arrive, she hires them on the spot. Soon, strange things start happening around the house, whispers and banging noises ringing through the air. Her daughter insists that there are intruders in the house, but Grace refuses to believe it. The strange events keep happening with regularity, and Grace is growing increasingly hysterical, losing her sanity more and more. And then... the twist. The Others subverts expectations, delivering a haunted house thriller without once betraying the clever twist, à la The Sixth Sense. Chicago won Best Picture that year, with The Others not even getting a nomination.
Release Date
August 10, 2001
Runtime
104 minutes
Director
Alejandro Amenábar
In 1945, immediately following the end of Second World War, a woman who lives with her two photosensitive children on her darkened old family estate in the Channel Islands becomes convinced that the home is haunted.
Writers
Alejandro Amenábar
9 Let The Right One In (2008)
Best Picture
A bloodied Eli in 'Let the Right One In'
Image via Sandrew Metronome
The Swedish film centers on 12-year-old Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), a mild-mannered boy subject to frequent bullying, and Eli (Lina Leandersson), a girl that moves into the apartment next door, who turns out to be a vampire. The film foregoes the usual tropes of vampire films and focuses primarily on the deep friendship that grows between the two. Eli encourages Oskar to stand up for himself, and Oskar protects Eli where he can. That isn't to say there isn't gore and death in the movie - it delivers on that front - it's more that it's borne out of need. It humanizes Eli, not an easy thing to do with a bloodthirsty vampire, but it succeeds. Like The Others above, Let The Right One In defies expectations, while that year's winner, Slumdog Millionaire, has largely left the public's memory.
Release Date
December 12, 2008
Runtime
114 minutes
Director
Based on John Ajvide Lindqvist's 2004 novel, Let the Right One In is a romance horror/drama that follows Oskar, a kindly young boy who is bullied relentlessly upon moving to a new Swedish neighborhood with his mother. Oskar's fortunes begin to change when he befriends the dour but enchanting Eli, despite her dark and deadly supernatural secret.
10 Psycho (1960)
Anthony Perkins for Best Actor
Norman Bates staring at the camera and smiling in Psycho.
Image via Paramount Pictures
Psycho introduces us to Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) and his "mother," who doesn't take kindly to the arrival of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) at the Bates Motel they own. One wildly violent shower results in Marion's sister Lila (Vera Miles), Marion's lover Sam (John Gavin), and a private investigator (Martin Balsam) showing up to investigate Marion's disappearance. By now, we all know what goes down: Bates has an alternate personality, his mother, due to the immense guilt he felt after murdering his mother and her lover ten years earlier. So, when Norman would become attracted to a woman, "Mother" would take over and kill her. Alfred Hitchcock would earn a nomination for Best Director, as would Leigh for Best Supporting Actress, but the fact that Perkins would be overlooked for Best Actor is questionable (and that's putting it lightly). He nailed Bates' mildness, his horror upon seeing Mother's victims, and his need to cover up the crime. Perkins delivered a Bates that was anxious, wary of Mother getting caught. But one scene alone puts Perkins over the top: that empty, dark stare forward with the horrifying smile as the movie ends. It's iconic, and it only works because of Perkins' performance throughout the picture.
Release Date
September 8, 1960
Runtime
109 minutes
Director
A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.