Oscar Winning Horror Movies - What Scares Earned an Academy Award?

Oscar-Winning Horror Movies: What Scares Earned an Academy Award?

Oscar-Winning Horror Movies

On March 4, the 90th Academy Awards will be held in Los Angeles and this year the crop of films up for the coveted Oscar is a special group. Not only are the list of films up for Best Picture from all corners of genres, but two, count ’em, TWO horror films are well represented in the conversation this year. Jordan Peele’s socially-charged horror-comedy Get Out is nominated for four Academy Awards (including Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, and Actor) and Guillermo del Toro’s monster-lead horror-fantasy-romance, The Shape of Water, has the most nominations of the year with 13 (including Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, and more).

The horror genre is often seen as the black sheep of the film family. Though they frequently have audiences in fits, they’re seen as cheap movies with little artistic value, and sometimes a scapegoat for politicians talking about real life problems. Some scary movies have been up for the coveted gold and come home empty handed despite being outright classics of the genre, like The Sixth Sense, The Bad Seed, Carrie, The Amityville Horror, and Psycho. There have, however, been some horror movies given recognition at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – sometimes the gore is just too good.

So before we wait to see what this year’s awards hold for two genre films, let’s look back at the history of horror at the Oscars.

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