While the horror genre is a consistent moneymaker in Hollywood — one only need to look at the unlikely box office triumph of last weekend’s Five Nights at Freddy‘s as an example — the genre is noticeably light on Oscar recognition.
Variety points out that in the history of the trophy, just six films that could be considered to be in the horror/thriller genre have ever been nominated for Best Picture: 1973’s The Exorcist; 1975’s Jaws; 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs; 1999’s The Sixth Sense; 2010’s Black Swan; and 2017’s Get Out.
Out of these, Silence was the only to be seriously rewarded with Oscar gold, with a Best Picture trophy, Best Director for Jonathan Demme, Best Actor for Anthony Hopkins and Best Actress for Jodie Foster.
With that in mind, the trade logged 16 great horror performances that should have been recognized, but scarily, were not.
Topping the list was Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, whose 2019 performance in Jordan Peele‘s Us went unrecognized on the Academy podium.
Toni Collette‘s turn in 2018’s Hereditary came in second in the opinion of the trade, followed by Christian Bale‘s iconic killer yuppie in 2000’s American Psycho in third place.
Oscar winner Nicole Kidman should have scored for 2001’s The Others, good enough for the fourth slot, followed by Matthew Lillard in 1996’s genre-bending blockbuster Scream to round out the top five most horrifically ignored horror movie performances.
Check out Variety‘s full list here — and maybe you’ll get some Halloween night watching inspo, to boot.
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