Oh the Horror! How the Oscars are Finally Embracing the Spooky
As one of a select few genres to have sustained its theatrical audience post-pandemic, horror has become a major staple of the contemporary moviegoing culture. Yet horror has largely scared off Oscar gold, its artistic merits often minimized by detractors claiming it as more style than substance. However, last week’s Oscar nominations showed the genre leveling up in the awards conversation, coming a long way from previously being dismissed upon arrival. With Ryan Coogler’s Sinners receiving a record-breaking 16 nominations, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein coming in hot with nine nods, and Weapons’ Amy Madigan appearing in Best Supporting Actress, there has never been such widespread and diverse support for fear-inducing cinema.
Historically, awards contenders within the horror realm were few and far between (Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, Misery, Black Swan), most of which garnered attention for utilizing horror as a means to explore psychological and cultural turmoil. The genre’s breakthrough truly came with Get Out in 2017, when Jordan Peele’s directorial debut became a major box office and critical hit. With four nominations and a win for best original screenplay, the film was a glimpse into a new template for Academy recognition, one where culturally significant films could join arthouse favorites regardless of genre labels. That this occurred purely two years into the Academy’s membership reform following ”#OscarsSoWhite” represented yet another disruption of an outdated criteria on what made a film “Oscar-worthy.”
In the years following however, various major horror works were left completely blanked despite sizable audience and critical support. Hereditary and Peele’s follow-up, Us, were major box office sensations that were especially singled out for their powerhouse lead performances (Toni Collette and Lupita Nyong’o, respectively) yet received no attention from the Academy. Although Nyong’o received some important recognition for Us — winning Best Actress at the New York Film Critics’ Circle and receiving nods at both the Critics Choice Awards and the Actor Awards — her lack of recognition across BAFTA, Golden Globes, and Academy Awards proved that Get Out remained an exception, not a full embrace, of genre work.
Then came Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance. A Cannes-winning, unadulterated body horror vision that took critics and audiences alike by storm, the film’s awards chances were initially dismissed due to the film’s over-the-top, horror-comedy tone feeling too left field for the overly serious Academy. Yet the film’s virality and lingering presence in the cultural conversation made it an inescapable contender, quickly becoming the Makeup & Hairstyling frontrunner and placing Demi Moore as a major threat for Best Actress. If Get Out opened the gate for horror sensations to race towards Oscar gold, The Substance paved a healthy runway to facilitate the journey.
Premiering mere weeks after Fargeat’s film attended the Oscar ceremony, Sinners came at a pivotal time for Warner Bros, demonstrating audiences’ thirst for original, nuanced horror. The film became one of the highest grossing original films of the year, and was the first film in Warner’s hot box office streak in 2025. Blending elements of historical fiction, musicals, and creature features, Coogler’s first original film in well over a decade was a refreshing vision. The studio released Weapons a few months later to a similarly overwhelming response, following a highly popular marketing campaign and extensive online chatter. Undoubtedly leading these conversations was Amy Madigan’s eerily watchable turn as Aunt Gladys. Although the film saw tough competition in other categories, Madigan appeared in nearly every awards roster, winning a plethora of regional critic awards on her way to the Oscars.
Frankenstein, on the other hand, screamed awards contender from the moment its production was announced despite its genre sensibilities. Del Toro, who is known for his visually sumptuous depictions of monstrosity and outcast creatures, won Best Picture and Best Director for his monster-romance The Shape of Water (coincidentally, beating Get Out), establishing his commentary-driven, dark fantasy filmmaking as pure catnip for his industry fellows. He further established himself as an Academy mainstay with his versions of Nightmare Alley and Pinocchio, the former making the Best Picture lineup in 2022 and the latter winning Best Animated Film the following year. Yet Frankenstein is arguably his most outwardly horror film since Crimson Peak, making its major resonance across the board all the more telling of voters’ increasing openness to rewarding their favorite films regardless of any genre associations.
Also worth noting this year are mentions for several genre hybrids, films that may not fall within the traditional horror realm yet are clearly indebted to the genre in their own way. Rose Byrne has proven to be highly competitive in Best Actress for her hilariously disturbing performance in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, a headache-inducing treatise on parenthood’s neverending demands that employs various squirm-inducing moves. The Ugly Stepsister surprised many during nominations morning when it landed a spot in the Best Makeup & Hairstyling top five. Emilie Blichfeldt’s directorial debut similarly blends humor and disturbing imagery within its fairytale setting.
There’s undeniably still a certain level of thematic and highbrow appeal that these films — predominantly Sinners and Frankenstein — meet in order to be taken seriously as awards contenders. Coogler and del Toro, have a sizable history with the Academy: Coogler helmed both Oscar-winning Black Panther films (as well as receiving a Best Picture producing nod for Judas and the Black Messiah), and del Toro is a three-time Oscar winner. The below-the-line pedigree for both films includes various top-caliber creatives with Academy Awards recognition to spare. Both of these stories also utilize horror as means to explore sociopolitically-relevant themes. Nevertheless, voters are evidently no longer afraid of voting for horror if the quality is there.
The Academy’s complicated relationship with horror highlights a notable — if unfortunate — truth about the industry’s pulse on the culture: the first few projects to prove a long-held custom to be rudimentary don’t reap the benefits of their groundbreaking work, but open the doors for those that follow to compete in a more even playing field. Once audiences are on their side, it’s only so long until voters follow suit. The 98th Academy Awards demonstrate this exciting step forward for the genre as a whole, now a full-fledged threat across the board when capable of capturing a sizable audience. That the most Oscar-nominated movie in history is now a Jim Crow-era, vampire quasi-musical speaks volumes about the just how distinct the now 11,000+ member Academy looks and votes ten years into its new approach to membership. With cultural relevance and thematic merit being placed over stylistic harmony, the future of the Oscars looks to be far less scarily predictable.
- Oh the Horror! How the Oscars are Finally Embracing the Spooky - January 27, 2026
- SFFILM Awards Honor Scott Cooper, Wunmi Mosaku, Kristen Stewart and Benicio Del Toro [VIDEO] - December 10, 2025
- Of Gods and Monsters: Guillermo del Toro Receives the Sloan Science in Cinema Prize for ‘Frankenstein’ - November 13, 2025
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