Horror is one of the most popular film genres, but it's never really been a favorite at the big awards shows — especially the Oscars. Throughout nearly a century of Academy Awards ceremonies, only six have included horror films as nominees for best picture. In general, horror movies have mostly been relegated to minor technical categories overall. Even so, a handful of excellent horror movies have managed to break through and snag nominations in some of the most high profile categories — and a few have even taken home the night's big prizes! Ahead, you can see which iconic horror movies have been honored with the film industry's biggest awards.
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There have been tons of adaptations of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde over the years — most recently, the dual character was brought into Universal's "Dark Universe" with Russell Crowe's appearance as Jekyll in The Mummy. In 1932, though, the creepy black-and-white horror film earned Fredric March an Oscar for best actor. March's win was an unusual one: he actually wound up sharing the award with Wallace Beery (from The Champ) because the two men tied for the win — one of only six ties in Oscar history!
The 1968 film about a woman with a mysterious, horrifying pregnancy has become quite a classic, but it only received two Oscar nominations: one for best supporting actress and one for best adapted screenplay. Although it lost the screenplay category to The Lion In Winter, supporting actress Ruth Gordon did take home the prize, for her creepy role as Rosemary's devil-worshipping neighbor.
The 1973 horror film is one of the gold standards of the genre, and it was golden at the Oscars too, becoming the first horror film ever nominated for best picture. In fact, it got a whopping ten nominations total, including best actress, best supporting actor and actress, best director, and best adapted screenplay. Ultimately, the only major award it won was best adapted screenplay, losing best picture to The Sting, but it still broke new ground for the horror genre as a whole.
The 1975 horror icon was nominated for best picture, but wound up losing to the psychological drama One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Ultimately, it was the film's behind-the-scenes achievements that carried it through, and that's what the Academy rewarded, with three technical awards, including one for the iconic, creepy musical score.
Misery was shut out of nearly all the categories at the 1991 Oscars — except for one. For her role as deranged stalker Annie Wilkes, Kathy Bates not only was nominated for best actress, but took home the statuette, beating out Anjelica Huston, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, and Joanne Woodward for the win.
Horror films don't often get nominated for the big prizes at the Oscars — only six have ever been nominated for best picture. Not only did The Silence of the Lambs get nominated for that big prize, though, but it won the 1992 trophy, defeating Beauty and the Beast and JFK, among others. It also pulled off the incredibly rare hat trick of sweeping all the major awards: best picture, best director, best actress, best actor, and best adapted screenplay.
Although The Sixth Sense was nominated for six Oscars at the 2000 ceremony, it went home empty handed, losing best picture, best original screenplay, and best actor to the team from American Beauty, while supporting actor nominee Haley Joel Osment lost to Hollywood stalwart Michael Caine.
On the surface, Black Swan may appear to be a run-of-the-mill backstage drama, but sit with it a while and it turns into full-on psychological horror. Natalie Portman's ballerina slowly unravels, physically and mentally, and the performance earned Portman an Oscar for best actress, while the film itself was nominated for best picture (but lost to The King's Speech).
As recently as last year, a horror movie managed to break through to the top nominations at the Oscars. Get Out earned four nominations in major categories: best picture, best actor, best director, and best original screenplay. Jordan Peele became the first black winner for original screenplay, and was only the fourth person in Oscar history to be nominated for picture, director, and screenplay for a debut feature film.
