[Oscars Theme – Greg Hulme]
It’s that time of the year again, when everyone suddenly turns into a pretentious film critic. With the Golden Globes behind us it’s time for the main event: The Oscars. Of course, the discourse has already begun over the Academy’s choices–who got snubbed, who didn’t deserve a nomination and everything in between. Although, this year a particular group of nominations carry extra significance for their films’ genre. And what genre is that? None other than the historically underappreciated world of horror.
[Horror Sound Effect]
The 97th Oscars, set for March 2, boast a list of nominees featuring more fright-filled films than in previous years. The critically acclaimed The Substance scored 5 nominations, including a Best Actress nod for Demi Moore. Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu earned four nominations while Alien: Rommulus snagged one for Best Visual Effects.
[The Third Night – Robin Carolan]
MARIA VIERA: My name is Maria Viera, I think it was an interesting film to say the least. The most prevalent sensory experience that you can get from Nosferatu is either sound or the visuals of watching the character’s faces.
ALICIA DINWIDDIE: My name is Alicia Dinwiddie, I’m a 3rd year and a RTVF Major. I think Nosferatu, although it’s beautiful and has beautiful cinematography, I think the story itself is very weak.
[The Substance – Raffertie]
But when it comes to The Substance, Dinwiddie had a very different take.
DINWIDDIE: The substance was actually one of the best movies I think to come out this year. I think it’s really interesting to see a female perspective from a female writer, female director in a genre like sci-fi horror that’s so male dominated.
Dr Ashley R. Smith, an adjunct assistant professor at Northwestern’s department of radio, television and film, echoed this sentiment. Particularly in horror’s evolution in depicting body horror and ageism.
ASHLEY R. SMITH: Historically we’ve seen lots of leading ladies in horror or final girls that are around the age demographic of Margaret Qualley’s character, but not so much Demi Moore’s character and what’s sort of different about the substance, I think, is that you know she’s just as much the star as Margaret
Horror’s ability to explore themes in a distinctly unique way is what draws Dinwiddie to the genre in the first place.
DINWIDDIE: It can offer a really complicated look at social themes and it can be very critical of society and the world that we live in, and sometimes it’s not the most direct, but you can definitely see those critiques in it, and I think that makes it very interesting.
For Viera, this aspect was Nosferatu’s saving grace.
[Increase Thy Thunders- Robin Carolan]
VIERA: There stands to be a lot said for Women in society and treatment of women in society and how they compare to men, all themes that are worthwhile visiting and discussing.
Ironically, horror’s capability in tackling these issues may stem from its lack of recognition
SMITH: Horror movies were B-movie fodder and they had lower budgets and they had a little bit less oversight as well from studio heads because it’s sort of like, well, it doesn’t really matter what you’re doing here because it’s not as important as Gone with the Wind or something. Which is what we’re going to focus our time and attention on. So sort of in that space of neglect in terms of not having a lot of oversight a lot of creative freedom blossomed.
This creativity is likely what draws so many fans. For Ava Fields, horror has always been a part of her life. She even launched The Horror Advocate to help people fully appreciate the genre. Despite being overlooked, Horror has always been a consistent force at the box office.
AVA FIELDS: Horror films absolutely never really bomb at the box office. That’s not really something that we ever hear about.
And it’s true–horror films often have lower budgets, leading to higher profit. From 1971 to 2017, horror movies averaged 173% return on investment. Yet, the genre is still overlooked by major awards. Since the Oscars began in 1929, only seven horror films have been nominated for Best Picture. The Substance is the latest addition. A frustrating reality for horror fans.
FIELDS: It just like reinforces this idea that horror as an individual genre is never going to be worthy of actually stepping into that space because it’s just violence on film.
But in years like this, some horror films manage to break through. But why do some films stand out and others don’t? Fields believes it may come down to having a successful actor attached to the project. Dr. Smith, on the other hand, suggests it could be about how much artistic ambition the Academy is willing to embrace.
[Claw Machine Instrumental – Sloppy Jane]
SMITH: You can kind of see the way that even though it maybe seems like the Oscars are being transgressive by including some of these other films, horror films in the mix. You can see something that’s more easily kind of assimilated into like a mainstream taste culture with The Substance and Nosferatu as opposed to I Saw The TV Glow. Which again, another film that is gorgeous to look at, also has a relatively kind of experimental style in its message, but also it’s narrative construction as well.
But will this year mark a shift? Dinwiddie isn’t so convinced.
DINWIDDIE: Popularity has a lot to do with the Oscar nominations. So, I, I thinks that The Substance was a very good movie and that Nosferatu has a lot of like clout behind it.
But as mentioned before, horror does well financially and audiences appreciate its artistry. So does it really matter if award bodies recognize it? Opinions on this were mixed. Fields took a more optimistic stance.
FIELDS: I think it’s just a moment to celebrate of recognition that other people can see those parts of us and just kind of having that moment. But I don’t think it’ll turn into like a normal thing to have Oscars going to horror films for performances. If we’re talking about visuals or visuals or lighting, costuming, cinematography, anything like that, that is something I could see gaining more momentum because of what is happening because of those nominations this year.
Dr.Smith agreed to a certain extent.
SMITH: I don’t think it would be a bad thing either for filmmakers and performers
who are doing really great work to have that acknowledged because they really are great performances and great artistic expressions irregardless of genre. It would be great if the Oscars didn’t sort of feel like being within a particular genre or having like a genre film suddenly meant you know the work you were doing was less important because It’s clearly not.
Though, that doesn’t necessarily mean the lack of recognition is harmful to the genre.
SMITH: I think creatives within the horror genre have been incredibly artistic and inventive and some of that has come about as a result of a lack of resources or not having as much money thrown at certain productions as as films in other genres. As I mentioned before, kind of like a lack of oversight or feeling they don’t necessarily need to pander to the same kinds of sensibilities as films that are aiming to be prestige pictures.
For WNUR News I’m Karrah Toatley
[The Substance – Raffertie]
Sound Effect by freesound_community from Pixabay
