Horror and the Academy: 13 Times the Oscars Could Have Embraced the Genre

Reid Chavis/PalmStar Media/Kobal “What an excellent day for an exorcism.” -Linda Blair, “The Exorcist” (1973) If asked to describe a typical “Oscar” film, you’d likely hear phrases like “biopic” or “sprawling epic.” If there’s a genre that’s been grievously undervalued, and to a greater extent, disrespected within the industry space, it’s horror. It can be argued that it’s one of two genres that comes with an embedded bias, preventing wide acceptance (the other being “musicals”). Academy voters are one problem, but critics and awards analysts are another. Qualifying phrases like “highbrow” or “surprisingly smart” have to be used to give permission for analysts and voters to give “serious” consideration for annual top 10 lists and ballots. The definition of what constitutes “horror” has been debated for decades. If you yell into the vacuum of Oscar historians asking, “What is the last horror film to be embraced by the Academy with a nomination for best picture?” you’d hear different answers. A few would say Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” utilizing racism as the fearful catalyst for scares. You’d catch some mentions of Jonathan Demme’s “The Silence of the Lambs,” applying the psychological terror of a serial killer to advance the plot. […]

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