The Academy Awards have not been too kind to horror films over the last century. Of the last 92 Best Picture winners, only two horror movies have taken home the golden statuette, including Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs in 1991 and Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water in 2017. Even if one includes Hitchcock's 1940 psychological thriller Rebecca and Bong Joon-Ho's most-recent winner, Parasite, only four horror films have been awarded the top Oscar since 1928.
However, Best Picture horror nominees aren't the only ones to be snubbed in the past. For a look back at some of the best horror nominees that were wrongfully snubbed, scroll below.
10 The Bad Seed (1956) - Best Supporting Actress
The 1956 film The Bad Seed is one of the earliest examples of the creepy-kid subgenre that continues to populate the horror genre. The suspenseful psychological horror film follows Christine Penmark (Nancy Kelly), an idealistic housewife who slowly begins to suspect that her exemplary eight-year-old daughter Rhoda (Patty McCormack) is really a ruthless murderer.
The film scored four Oscar nominations, including Best Actress for Kelly, and Supporting Actress for MacCormack and Eileen Eckhart. MacCormack should have been given the award for her precociously frightening turn as the murderous child.
9 Poltergeist (1982) - Best Visual Effects
Although Steven Spielberg's E.T. was ultimately awarded the highest honor for Visual Effects in 1983, his producorial horror masterpiece Poltergeist deserved to win the Oscar.
While E.T. holds up well, Poltergeist's visual array of ghastly apparitions are even more impressive by today's standards. Rather than a practical animatronic doll that appears dated at times, the visual effects by Richard Edlund, Michael Wood, and Bruce Nicholson continue to mortify audiences nearly 40 years later.
8 What Ever Happened To Baby Jane (1962) - Best Actress
While screen legend Bette Davis won a pair of Oscars in her career (Dangerous, Jezebel), she's never been scarier or more believable than her role as Baby Jane Hudson.
What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? centers on Blanche Hudson (Joan Crawford), a faded child star who is now the paraplegic, wheelchair-bound sister of Jane, who keeps her sister trapped in the dim and dusty attic of their home. The swan song marked the final Academy Award nod of Davis' illustrious career, although she lost to Anne Bancroft for The Miracle Worker.
7 The Sixth Sense (1999) - Best Picture
Despite American Beauty earning the top Oscar prize in 2000, M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense is a movie continue to talk about as one of the all-time greatest cinematic sleights of hand. Given the monumental trick it pulled on everyone, it should have gone home with the Best Picture honor.
The film centers on Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), a troubled young boy who claims he can see and communicate with the dead. When Cole begins visiting grieving psychoanalyst Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis), the plot hurls toward one of the greatest all-time twist endings ever attempted.
6 Get Out (2017) - Best Picture
Given the record-breaking box-office success of the film coupled with the profound thematic relevance, Jordan Peele's landmark horror masterpiece Get Out deserved to win Best Picture. It ultimately lost to another horror movie in del Toro's The Shape of Water, which does soften the blow a bit.
Get Out traces the insidious exploits of Rose Armitage (Allison), a devious white woman who brings her black boyfriend Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) to her home to meet their seemingly nice family. However, Chris slowly uncovers a hegemonic plot to crossbreed the African-American help in order to gain physical supremacy.
5 Black Swan (2010) - Best Picture
In addition to Natalie Portman earning a much-deserved Best Leading Actress Oscar for her role as Nina Sayers in Black Swan, the intense psychological horror film should have also won Best Picture. Instead, it somehow lost to The King's Speech.
Written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan traces timid ballet hopeful Nina, who is pushed by her theater director to become more of a loose and sensuous performer ahead of her starring role in Swan Lake. As Nina loses her mind in her pursuit of perfection, the story culminates in a heart-pounding finale.
4 Rosemary's Baby (1968) - Best Adapted Screenplay
Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby earned veteran actress Ruth Gordon a Best Supporting Oscar in 1969. However, the only other nomination for the film that should have been honored as well.
Roman Polanski was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, having translated Ira Levin's novel into one of the all-time scariest horror movies ever made. Instead, the Academy bestowed the honor to James Goldman for his script for Lion in the Winter.
3 Jaws (1975) - Best Picture
While Steven Spielberg's blockbuster-creating landmark Jaws is technically codified as an adventure-thriller, the movie has scared the world out of its wits since premiering in the summer of 1975. Although the film won Oscars for Best Editing, Sound, and Original Score, looking back it's hard to argue against it being the Best Picture of the year,
Jaws ultimately lost to Milos Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which is also an undeniably all-time great. Still, the monumental impact Jaws had on the landscape of Hollywood commerce cannot be short shrift.
2 The Exorcist (1973) - Best Picture
With all due deference to George Roy Hill's The Sting, William Friedkin's The Exorcist is the finest horror movie to not win Best Picture in the history of cinema. In addition to the superb artistry, the film still ranks as the 15th highest-grossing movie of all time when adjusted for inflation.
The Exorcist earned 10 total Oscar nominations, winning two for Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film about the demonic possession of 12-year-old Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) continues to be one of the most terrifying cinematic experiences of all.
1 Psycho (1960) - Best Director
In addition to the technical mastery, considering how Alfred Hitchcock's seminal horror movie Psycho all but defined the slasher film subgenre, he easily should have been awarded Best Director in 1961. As it is, he lost to Billy Wilder for The Apartment.
Believe it or not, Hitchcock never won an Oscar for Best Director despite being nominated five times. His other nominations included Rebecca, Lifeboat, Spellbound, and Rear Window, none of which have had the cinematic impact that Psycho continues to have on the film industry.
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