The horror genre has never been an Oscar-friendly genre, no matter how many different ways these films help shape the definition of cinema – they remain, for the most part, not part of the discussion of what defines the best cinema of the year. Generally, they are left to be watched and rewatched, discovered and rediscovered as the years wear on. And so it goes. The Oscar race is about Miss Right Now, not necessarily Miss Right. So all of the sound and fury that surrounds them is about managing hype, expectations and buzz.
Take, for example, one of the best films made this year, The Witch. It’s doubtful this film will get any sort of acclaim: not the brilliant lead performance, not the gorgeous cinematography or production design, not the magnificent screenplay. Nor will anyone notice, particularly, what a brilliant metaphor for this election the film is – the trial by public opinion of Hillary Clinton both from the progressive left movement and now, as always, from he right, recalls the era of witches: fear of them, fear of female power because it is shrouded in so much mystery. In the end, The Witch, like so many great horror films, probably won’t get the time of day from the awards community. But it will certainly be remembered.
Here are a few Oscar facts relating to horror.
The only horror film to win Best Picture:
The Silence of the Lambs. This horror masterpiece is sometimes not called horror at all, because it does not deal with any sort of supernatural elements. It could probably be called a thriller, actually. But it’s the closest thing to a horror film the Academy ever came to with Best Picture. It won big, being just the third film in Oscars history to sweep Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and Screenplay. It wasn’t a great film, by the way, because it was scary. It was great because the actors drove it so brilliantly, and more to the point, their relationship with each other made that film great, and has made it one of the most quotable films of all time.
Films that have been nominated for Best Picture most would define as horror:
The Exorcist
Jaws
The Sixth Sense
Films nominated for Best Picture that COULD BE defined as horror:
Rebecca
Network
A Clockwork Orange
Deliverance
Sunset Boulevard
Black Swan
Fatal Attraction
Notable actor wins/nominations from traditional horror films:
Frederick March, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (won)
Ruth Gordon, Rosemary’s Baby (won)
Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Carrie
Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, The Exorcist
Sigourney Weaver, Aliens
Kathy Bates, Misery (won)
Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Silence of the Lambs (both won)
Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette, The Sixth Sense
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
But we all know that the best horror films (Silence not withstanding) have been completely ignored. Even the directors most of us revere, like John Carpenter and David Cronenberg especially, have been completely ignored by the Directors branch. I’m surprised that Carpenter has gone so long without appropriate recognition. Isn’t horror a legit cinema genre when it’s done that well?
AwardsDaily now presents our top 20 horror films — feel free to add yours in the comment section.
Sasha Stone
1. Psycho
2. Halloween
3. The Exorcist
4. The Shining
5. Jaws
6. Alien
7. Carrie
8. The Thing
9. Silence of the Lambs
10. The Fly
11. Poltergeist
12. Let the Right One in
13. Don’t Look Now
14. Rosemary’s Baby
15. Scanners
16. Texas Chainsaw Massacre
17. The Birds
18. Night of the Living Dead
19. Suspiria
20. Wolf Creek
Honorable mentions: The Babadook, Misery, Wolf, Videodrome, Crash, Dead Ringers (Cronenberg), The Ring, Repulsion, The Tenant (Polanski), Rebecca
Ryan Adams
60s 70s 80s Classics in English:
Psycho (1960)
The Innocents (1961)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
The Exorcist (1973)
Don’t Look Now (1973)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Alien (1979)
Carrie (1976)
The Shining (1980)
The Thing (1982)
25 International horror films of the past 25 year
La Madre Muerta (1993)
Thesis (1996)
Ringu (1998)
Audition (1999)
Nang Nak (1999)
The Nameless (1999)
The Devil’s Backbone (2001)
Dark Water (2002)
Time Of The Wolf (2003)
Ju-On (2002)
Tattoo (2002)
A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
Shutter (2004)
Ils (2006)
Cold Prey (2006)
To Let (2007)
Frontière(s) (2007)
The Orphanage (2007)
[REC] (2007)
Let The Right One In (2008)
I Saw the Devil (2010)
Sleep Tight (2011)
Here Comes the Devil (2012)
The House at the End of Time (2013)
Goodnight Mommy (2014)
Jazz Tangcay
1. The Shining
2. Nightmare on Elm Street
3.The Exorcist
4. Halloween
5. The Conjuring 2
6. The Others
7. The Fly
8. The Ring
9. The Omen
10. Carrie
11. American Werewolf in London
12. Poltergeist
13. The Conjuring
14. Rosemary’s Baby
15. Texas Chainsaw Massacre
16. Crimson Peak
17. Paranormal activity
18. Child’s Play
19. Psycho
20. Blair Witch Project
Marshall Flores (not ranked)
28 Days Later
Alien
Creepshow
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
The Descent
The Exorcist
Halloween (1978)
Hausu (House)
The Innocents
The Invisible Man
Jaws
Near Dark
Night of the Living Dead (1968 and 1990)
Psycho
The Shining
Suspiria
Theater of Blood
The Silence of the Lambs
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Thing
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