Horror stories are, and always will be, popular. What better way to withdraw from life’s mundanity than to scare yourself senseless… right? Now, it’s a given that horror isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but we’ve all taken a sip here or there. It’s unpredictable, gritty, and even when we want to look away, somehow, we can’t. Horror films are among the genres most often made, similar in frequency to thrillers, romance, and action films, all individually making up between 10-15% of films. You would think that considering their high representation, horrors would get their fair share of recognition. However, in the entire history of the Academy Awards only six have been nominated for the Best Motion Picture, with only a solitary one managing to take home the Oscar.
In 1992, Silence of The Lambs (1991) became the first and, to this day, only horror film to ever win Best Picture at the Oscars. Horror doesn’t get a second look when it comes to the critics appreciating film as artwork. In all fairness, it is hard to get horror right; it has a reputation for cheap thrills and lazy storylines, but Hollywood has let one bad apple spoil the barrel in this regard. I can think of hundreds of terrible comedies, romances, and dramas… none of which have ever stopped those genres from cleaning up at award ceremonies. There is real anti-genre snobbery when it comes to horrors.The Silence of the Lambs, in fact, was given a real push to be categorized as a psychological thriller rather than horror. There seems to be quite a theme whenever a horror film does well critically as well as commercially for that film to be re-categorized. Why? Because “it is so much more than just a horror.” God forbid we all agree that it’s just a good horror film.
According to Bloomberg News, since 1995, horror has more than doubled its market share in the US and Canada alone, and that number continues to increase. That may speak more for the genre’s profitability than popularity, but it most definitely has a role in reputation as well. Horror films are notoriously considered low budget films, especially in comparison to action and adventure films, but big budgets and good films are not mutually exclusive, so why should this be the case for horrors?
Nothing scares more than your own imagination; good horror films are merely catalysts, tailored to manifest fear in the storylines. Horror creates worlds far different from the ones we live in, often tackling hard-hitting topics in explorative and creative ways that would otherwise go amiss in other genres. Is that not the very essence of cinema? Perhaps if the Academy stopped fighting the fear of association and playing blind to the genre, we might finally be able to say goodbye to predictability and return to the edge of our seats.
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