Summary
In the ceremony’s 97 years, thehorrorgenrehas been famously snubbed at theOscars. Since the first Academy Awards in 1929, only sevenscary movieshave been nominated for the prestigious Best Picture award, and only one—The Silence of the Lambsin 1992—has ever secured the award.
This year’s nominations provided a rare embrace of the underrepresented genre. Carolie Fargeat’s bold gore-festThe Substancelanded five nominations, including Best Picture, joining the handful of horror movies ever considered for the coveted award.Here’s thecomplete ranking of every critically acclaimed horror film nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.
Coralie Fargeat’s gore-filledbody horrorThe Substancebroke the mold of Oscar contenders this year. The gross-out movie has been widely praised for its stomach-churning portrayal of sexism in show business and the industry’s obsession with youth. Demi Moore plays Elizabeth Sparkle, an aging celebrity who takes extreme measures to bring to life a younger, “better” version of herself, portrayed by Margaret Qualley.
Like Fargeat’s equally visceral debut film,Revenge,The Substanceis an overwhelming sensory experience that is stylistically disorienting and excessive. It pulls no punches and isn’t looking to be subtle about itsfeminist message, delivering a heartbreaking and unforgettable tale of self-destruction.
In 2010, Darren Aronofsky ended the 16-yeardry spell for horrorin the Oscars Best Picture race withBlack Swan.The movie follows Nina, a perfectionist ballerina whose sanity spirals as she is pushed to the brink while training for the iconic and demanding lead role in Tchaikovsky’sSwan Lake.
Nina’s emotional unraveling is marked by terrifying hallucinations in which Aronofsky makes use of both psychological and body horror, crafting a disturbing tale of obsession that is equally beautiful and frightening. The Academy rightly awarded Natalie Portman a Best Actress Oscar for her mesmerizing performance as Nina, making her the last actor to win an Oscar for a horror performance. AlthoughBlack Swandidn’t take home the Best Picture trophy, it remains one of the most haunting films to be recognized by the Academy.
WhenGet Outreceived its Best Picture nomination in 2018, it was a welcome exception to the Academy’s history of overlooking the horror genre. Jordan Peele’s directorial debut delivers a chilling examination of race relations in contemporary “post-racial” America using the ordinary setup of a young Black man, played by Daniel Kaluuya, meeting his white girlfriend’s parents for the first time. The movie soon unfolds into a surreal and grotesque tale, using the vocabulary of horror and comedy toexpose and satirize real societal horrors.
Peele’s original story carries the thematic depth of classic social thrillers likeNight of the Living DeadandThe Silence of the Lambs,earning it the critical respect the Academy rarely affords the blood-soaked genre and solidifying its place in horror history.
The mother of all monster movies,Jaws,was released in the summer of 1975 with enormous commercial success. Steven Spielberg’s landmark movie, an adaptation of Peter Benchley’s bestseller about a killer shark terrorizing a small beach town, became the first summer blockbuster of its time, revolutionizing Hollywood filmmaking and earning four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
In contrast to the copycat shark movies that followed,Jawsis celebrated for its suspenseful storytelling. Spielberg sparingly used the film’s terrifying 25-foot mechanical shark, relying on thenow-iconic musical score by John Williamsand creative camera work to suggest the monster’s presence rather than show it, masterfully building tension from an unseen threat. As impressive asJawswas, itfailed to snag the Best Picture statue, yet its mark on pop culture as the movie that made a generation afraid to enter the water is enduring.
Half a century after the first Academy Award Ceremony, William Friedkin’sThe Exorcistmade history as both the most shocking film ever made and the first horror movie to secure a spot in the Best Picture race. Released in 1973,The Exorcistinstantly swept America with controversy as its intenseportrayal of the demonic possessionof a twelve-year-old girl terrified and disturbed audiences, with certain visceral scenes still burned into popular memory over 50 years later.
While it only managed to win two of its ten Oscar nominations (for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound Mixing),The Exorcistbroke new ground for horror movies in the industry and has become a classic of the genre.
When it opened in 1999,The Sixth Sensewas a cultural phenomenon. Both a box office and critical sensation, it earned six Oscar nominations and catapulted M. Night Shyamalan into the spotlight as a polarizing filmmaker known for histrademark twist endings. The film follows a child psychologist, played by Bruce Willis, as he begins treating a disturbed young boy with a unique problem: he can see the dead.
Shyamalan’s genre masterclass made him a household name, and while it delivered cinema’s most-talked-about twist, the film’s final reveal was not its only strength.The Sixth Sensethoughtfully implemented jump scares within a tightly structured emotional story, seamlessly blending horror and drama, which would influence the next generation of genre-blending horror films, including fellow Oscar nomineeeGet Out.
It wasn’t until 1992 that a horror movie managed to pull off a Best Picture win. Sweeping all five of the major Academy Awards, Jonathan Demme’sThe Silence Of The Lambsis one of the most acclaimed films in history and, to date, is the only horror film to earn the Best Picture title.
Based on Thomas Harris' best-selling novel of the same name,it follows FBI trainee Clarice Starling, who is tasked with interviewing imprisoned serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter for insight into the mind of another killer, Buffalo Bill. Demme’s classic elevated the horror genre with its layered themes and dark realism, setting the stage for future Best Picture horror contendersand proving they can compete for the biggest prize in the film industry.
