The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards awards every year, and like any other group, it becomes clear over time that they have their favorites. Serious dramas reign at the Oscars, so much so that it’s a real shock when genre films get serious attention outside of technical categories. In particular, horror movies like “The Silence of the Lambs,” “The Exorcist,” and “Outside” win Oscars so rarely that they’re easily dismissed as exceptions to the rule, rather than evidence that the horror genre is so rich and nuanced like any other and requires as much award-winning talent to craft.
Every year it seems there are a handful of horror movies and performances that receive the coveted Oscar buzz, only to come out of the season empty-handed. If Academy voters can talk themselves out of nominating Toni Collette for “Hereditary” or Lupita Nyong’o for “Us,” they may well pass up even more of the best work the horror genre has to offer. offer.
With that in mind, and in the sincere hope that some Academy voters are paying attention, let’s take a look at some of the Oscar-worthy horror movies deserving of consideration this year.
Best Original Screenplay: Sarah DeLappe and Kristen Roupenian, “Bodies Bodies Bodies”
It’s been a bumper year for the whodunit genre, and while Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion” is soaking up most of the year-end accolades, Halina Reijn’s “Bodies Bodies Bodies” is just as smart and decidedly crueler. . Sarah DeLappe’s screenplay from a story by Kristen Roupenian is a witty and scathing parody of the murder, mystery and slasher genres, in which a group of wealthy and entitled Millennials try to figure out who is killing them one by one in the medium. of a hurricane, only to discover that his worst enemy is his own superficiality.
Best Actress: Anna Diop, for “Babysitter”
Nikyatu Jusu’s “Nanny” was the first horror film to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. And while it’s mostly a subtle and suspenseful drama about a Senegalese immigrant working for a wealthy couple who insidiously take advantage of her, it features haunting imagery that pays off, overwhelmingly, by the end of the film. While it would be nice to think that Rina Yang’s stunning cinematography would also get some well-deserved Oscar attention, the camera falls almost exclusively on Anna Diop, who delivers a stunning and nuanced performance as a mother who quells her despair and rage at the good of your son. In a year with fantastic lead performances (and we’ll talk about a few more), Diop continues to be a standout.
Best Actress: Mia Goth, “Pearl”
Mia Goth turned heads with her performance on Ti West’s retro-slasher “X,” but turned them completely around with the follow-up, “Pearl.” A dynamic showcase for Goth’s range and talents, “Pearl” finds her living in the 1910s in an oppressive home, struggling to contain her sexual urges and violent temper in hopes of getting out into the big world and doing something for herself. herself. We already know she fails, that’s what “X” is about, which takes place decades later, and while she kills a lot of people in “Pearl,” that sense of inevitability gives her performance a powerful sense of tragedy. Goth walks a fine line between raw emotion and camp and never missteps, and its climactic one-take monologue is one of the most impressive moments for any actor in years.
Best Actress: Rebecca Hall, “Resurrection”
Rebecca Hall is often overlooked by the Academy, but nonetheless, she has emerged as one of the most interesting and exciting actresses of her generation. It seems likely that if the Oscars could somehow pass over her riveting work in Antonio Campos’s “Christine” and David Bruckner’s “The Night House” (not to mention her exceptional directorial debut, “Passing”), then Andrew Seman’s deeply disturbing psychological thriller will meet the same fate. But that would be a crime. Hall’s performance as a confident, successful single mother who falls back into terrifying patterns when her abuser returns to her life is both delicate and impactful. She also gets an absolutely riveting one-take monologue this year, with speech so unthinkably bizarre that her ability to get away with it, let alone make it sound real, is a testament to her skills.
Best Adapted Screenplay: David Kajganich, “Bones and All”
Luca Guadagnino’s cannibalistic romantic road movie “Bones and All” is establishing itself as a top Oscar contender, and it may have the juice, but there’s a good chance it’s too weird to get mainstream traction. Academy. (See also: Guadagnino’s bold and defiant remake of “Suspiria.”) The film already failed to make the short lists for Best Cinematography and Best Original Score, which is a crime, but hopefully the strangely candid script of the movie has a chance. The writing categories haven’t been afraid to honor, or at least nominate, the outliers who are too edgy for the rest of the ceremony, and David Kajganich’s surreal yet intimate approach to coming-of-age drama deserves a nod. well.
Best Animated Feature Film: “Mad God”
While plenty of brilliant movies have won the Best Animated Feature Oscar since its inception in 2002, the category has been dominated by family movies for the past 20 years. Very few of the many exceptional animated films made for mature audiences have been nominated, and with the arguable exception of the complex but familiar “Spirited Away,” none of them have won. One would hope that visual effects legend Phil Tippett, who won Oscars for “Return of the Jedi” and “Jurassic Park,” could break the curse. Tippett independently produced the astonishing and terrifying “Mad God” over the course of 30 years, crafting a story like no other, in wild, vivid and creative stop-motion animation. It may not be to the Academy’s usual taste, but it’s impossible to deny that “Mad God” deserves an award.
Best Supporting Actor: Harry Melling, “The Pale Blue Eye”
Harry Melling turned out to be one of the most exciting young actors to emerge from the “Harry Potter” franchise, and he has appeared in a number of notable and captivating roles in recent years. But as a young Edgar Allan Poe in Scott Cooper’s elegant historical murder mystery, Melling really takes off. His meticulous balance of inexperience and ego gives the iconic horror poet and author a meaningful and recognizable humanity, while preserving his legacy as a larger-than-life figure whose imagination birthed some of the most gruesome images in history. of fiction. “The Pale Blue Eye” deserves serious Oscar consideration for its austere, yet utterly elegant cinematography and production design.
Best Supporting Actress: Keke Palmer, “Nope”
Keke Palmer gave one of the biggest stellar performances of the year in Jordan Peele’s acclaimed genre-defying sensation, so it’s quite a surprise to find that Universal is campaigning for her in the Best Supporting Actress category. Although she is clearly the co-star of the film, there is little point in her confusing the issue and costing her the attention she deserves from her and the captivating performance of her that she obviously deserves from her. Palmer works her way into the spotlight from its opening moments, charismatically dominating the film while subtly revealing unexpected depths to her character, until at the end of “Nope” she emerges as one of the richest and most interesting creations of the year.
“No” should be nominated for a variety of Oscars this year, in a perfect world: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects (at least), but Competition is stiff all around and there are no guarantees. Heck, it’s already off the short list in one of those categories. Here’s hoping the Academy gets it right, at least.
Best Original Screenplay: Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, “The Menu”
Mark Mylod’s twisted horror satire “The Menu” is aimed squarely at everyone who has ever had to work in the service industry, as well as anyone who makes or even writes about art. Seth Reiss and Willy Tracy’s screenplay, about a world-renowned chef who uses his culinary skills to get just revenge on people who have lost track of the true value of art, or who don’t respect the people who produce it, or even they serve it on the plate, it’s genuinely funny and unbelievably spiky. Some members of the Academy may see themselves on screen, more or less literally skewered, and not appreciate the joke. But “The Menu” makes a meaningful connection to how we process and appreciate art, and how the class defines that appreciation, and it has at least one plot point that’s so clever it makes you want to stand up and clap. .
Best Director: Jane Schoenbrun, “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair”
While there have been many amazingly directed movies this year, Jane Schoenbrun achieved something else entirely with her mind-blowingly low budget. “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” borrows familiar elements of the body horror genre but fuses them with modern filmmaking techniques that are evolving online to tell a story about a queer coming-of-age experience through the language of YouTubers and CreepyPasta. . Creative It can be easy for some, as one of the characters in the film does, to overlook the complexity of what Schoenbrun is accomplishing with “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair,” and that makes his Oscar chances look slim. But Schoenbrun’s uncanny understanding of how the newest filmmaking techniques can be used to tell deeply meaningful and personal cinematic stories makes her work stand out in an already great year for movies.
