Horror at the Oscars (Part Five - Conclusion)

Oscar-Worthy Horror: Every Single Horror Film to Win (& Be Nominated for) Academy Awards

 

Part Five: The Resurgence of Pure Horror

 

The 2010s kicked off with the first acting win for a horror movie since the 90’s, and the wins didn’t stop there. Black Swan (2010) won Best Actress for Natalie Portman, who was pretty good in the role, and for it to be so widely recognized in a very big year for great films is pretty significant. It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director for Darren Aronofsky, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing. This is the same guy who made Requiem for a Dream ten years earlier, so I’m sure he felt vindicated that his lead actress actually won this time. I would call Black Swan more of a psychological thriller in comparison to Requiem for a Dream, but it’s still undeniably horrific in the degradation of Portman’s character and the psychological torture she endures.  

American Werewolf winner Rick Baker had always been interested in tackling the makeup effects for a remake of The Wolf Man, if anyone ever decided to do it, and it did eventually go into production, and Baker was eventually hired for the job, but unfortunately, the production was a troubled one, and many of his makeup/prosthetic/animatronic effects did not make the final cut, instead replaced with CGI. Luckily, enough remained in the final cut that The Wolfman (2010) was still nominated for an Oscar. While it’s probably one of the least artistic horror movies in the 2010s to get any awards attention, Rick Baker won for a werewolf yet again; he got Best Makeup with Dave Elsey, making The Wolfman the only other werewolf movie to ever be recognized by the Academy (and until recently, the only horror movie to win this award this century).

At the 84 Academy Awards an Academy Honorary Award was given to Dick Smith: makeup artist on The Exorcist, Marathon Man, Scanners, House on Haunted Hill (1999) and many more. Aforementioned winner Rick Baker got one of his first jobs in the industry assisting Smith on The Exorcist, and while Smith did later win an Oscar for Amadeus in 1985, his body of work went largely unrecognized by the Academy until this point, and it is clear the impact his effects had on the horror genre, leading to ever more sophisticated and disturbing creatures and characters.

The 85^th Academy Awards saw two horror-inspired stop motion films both nominated for Best Animated Feature—Frankenweenie (2012) and ParaNorman (2012)—as well as the Alien franchise return with an award-worthy prequel. Prometheus (2012) was nominated for Best Visual Effects, but lost to Life of Pi. Then, it wasn’t until five years later at the 90^th Academy Awards that the genre came back strong. The Shape of Water (2017) won four awards, including two of the top honours: Best Picture, Best Director for Guillermo del Toro, Best Original Score for Alexandre Desplat, and Best Production Design (but strangely enough, not even nominated for Best Visual Effects). It was also nominated for Best Actress (Sally Hawkins), Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer), Best Supporting Actor (Richard Jenkins), Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Film Editing (13 nominations total).

The Shape of Water is about a woman falling in love with a fish monster, but it isn’t exactly Creature from the Black Lagoon, so it’s more period fantasy romance than horror, but obviously it needs to be acknowledged because 1) it was made by Guillermo del Toro, who got his start in horror and has always had his heart in the sci-fi/fantasy/horror genres, and 2) it’s about a freaking fish monster! But the real big surprise of that year was Get Out (2017), nominated for Best Picture, Best Director for Jordan Peele, Best Actor for Daniel Kaluuya, and most incredible of all? It won Best Original Screenplay for Jordan Peele. Get Out is a cunning, cutting piece of social commentary wrapped up in a Twilight Zone-esque plot that shocked everyone with its clever twists and perfect combination of genuine thrills with effective humour. The fact that it was considered for such prestigious awards is, in this case, a testament to the quality of the film, and how it will remain a significant representative of when horror became truly scary (and good) again in the 2010s.

There was nothing as major as the combo-win of Get Out and Shape of Water for the rest of the 2010s, but still a couple nominations worth remembering and honorary awards long overdue. A Quiet Place (2018) was nominated for Best Sound Editing, which is the perfect nomination for it, since that movie used sound to its full advantage, and did so more effectively than any other that year. At the 92^nd Academy Awards, an Honorary Academy Award was awarded to David Lynch, a director who made only a few films throughout his career, but always made something original and standout, with the strange Eraserhead being his first, and Twin Peaks (TV show and prequel film) being one of his most well-known creations, and one that is firmly rooted in horror. That same night, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was given to Geena Davis – “For her work fighting for gender-parity in media through her Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media” (but also, let’s not forget she was in The Fly (1986) and Beetlejuice!), and Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse (2019) was nominated for Best Cinematography: the first black-and-white horror picture to get that nomination in ages.  

We are almost up to the modern day, and while there’s certainly been a resurgence in the horror genre as of late, it’s still clear these are not films favoured by the Academy. I doubt we will ever see anything like The Exorcist or Jaws or Silence of the Lambs or even Get Out get close to a Best Picture win in the near future. A few years back, Hereditary (2018) was completely snubbed, and should have at least been nominated for Best Actress for Toni Collette. Pundits still reference the snub to this day, and it’s far from the only one in recent years. But, at least the Academy had the sense to finally acknowledge one of the most important international horror characters two years ago. Godzilla Minus One (2023) won Best Visual Effects, which was the first time a Godzilla movie had ever even been nominated, and I think it’s the only time an international feature has won in this category. Godzilla, born in the 1950s, has come back time and time again, and is an icon of monster movies, but finally, he got that statue.

Now, we are at the most recent nominees. Robert Eggers’ remake of Nosferatu (2024) was nominated for Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, and Best Costume Design. It deserved all those nominations, but I can understand why it lost in all four categories. The Alien series returned to Oscars consideration for the first time since 2012 (which had been a prequel that didn’t even bear the name). Alien: Romulus (2024) was nominated for Best Visual Effects, but lost to Dune: Part Two. As much as I did enjoy the visuals in Romulus, particularly the recreation of the retro-future aesthetics from the original, Dune: Part Two definitely deserved it more.

Finally, let me cover the movie I mentioned at the very beginning of part one as being a partial inspiration for tackling this topic. I really thought The Substance (2024) was going to be the rainstorm to break the drought for a horror movie to win big in an acting category again. Demi Moore was the frontrunner for The Substance, but Anora ended up taking most of the major awards last Sunday night. However, The Substance is still a record holder. It won for Best Makeup (deservedly so), and even though it didn’t win any other trophies, the fact that it was even nominated for Best Picture at all is telling. It was also nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Margot Fargeat, making it the first horror movie in cinematic history directed by a woman to be nominated in either category. I wrote about the women of horror last year (link below), and this is the validation that has been so long overdue. I cannot wait to see what the genre has in store in the near future, and what terrifying masterpiece will slither its way into awards season next. 

 

Women of Horror: http://cccmovies.blogspot.com/2024/10/female-horror-directors-brief-history.html