Horror won big at the 2026 Oscars – it’s time the genre was taken seriously
The horror genre rose from the grave to win big at this year’s Oscars, with four films featuring prominently in the awards.
Ryan Coogler’s period vampire movie Sinners was nominated for a record-breaking 16 Oscars, bringing home four golden statues – including the coveted best actor prize for Michael B. Jordan.
Weapons’ Amy Madigan fended off stiff competition to win best supporting actress, and – at the PG-rated end of the horror spectrum – K-Pop Demon Hunters won best animated film and best original song.
Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus shuffled away from the ceremony clutching three Oscars in its cadaverous hands. It won best production design, best costume design, and best make-up and hairstyling out of nine nominations that included best picture and best supporting actor for Australian actor Jacob Elordi.
It would appear that horror is now considered up there with the costume dramas and masterpieces of world cinema that have long been mainstays of film industry awards. But this has not always been the case. Aside from rare recipients such as William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) – which took possession of golden statues for best adapted screenplay and best sound but missed out in all eight of its other nominations – horror has often taken a back seat during awards season.
It seems unfathomable now that Anthony Perkins didn’t receive any Oscar love for his now-iconic role as Norman Bates in Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960). Fans were also horrified, but not in a good way, when Ari Aster’s 2018 occult chiller Hereditary (and its trailblazing performance by lead actress Toni Collette) was completely overlooked by the Academy.
The Exorcist was the first of only a handful of horror features to be nominated for the best picture award. Jaws (1975), The Sixth Sense (1999), Black Swan (2010) and Get Out (2017) were all nominated, and more than worthy potential recipients, but were all snubbed. In 1991 Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs won best picture (there’s much debate as to whether the film is a horror or a thriller – let’s just say it’s both), but why the wait for another success story like that of Sinners?
For many, the view that horror is less worthy of mainstream gongs stems from the “video nasty” era when rental shelves at petrol stations across the Western world placed horror tapes on the top shelf alongside more lurid adult titles.
But horror is a very broad church and anyone with a passion for the genre will tell you of their love of everything from gore-fests such as Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead (1981) to quieter, more atmospheric terrors like Jack Clayton’s The Innocents (1961) and Robert Wise’s The Haunting (1963).
Indie horror is a hotbed of innovation and experimentation and an inclusive place to take risks and have fun. And perhaps one reason for horror’s ascension to the big league of film awards ceremonies is the way in which it is purpose-built to hold a mirror up to society’s problems.
Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance (2024) explored ageing, body image and media manipulation via twin powerhouse performances from Margaret Qualley and Demi Moore. Fargeat was the first woman to be Oscar nominated for writing and directing a horror film, and Moore received a best actress nomination, but both were snubbed on the night.
Jordan Peele’s brilliant and disturbing horror-with-comedy Get Out (2017) took an unflinching look at racism with the Academy awarding it best screenplay. Horror can tackle these big themes using allegorical storytelling, revealing that the scariest monsters of all are often ourselves.
While cheering on the great and good during the Oscars coverage on Sunday night, I was reminded of my own undying love for the genre. I remembered my first ever live book reading at a big horror convention called Horrorfind Weekend in Maryland, US. Tens of thousands of fans were in attendance, lining up for hours for autographs from horror luminaries such as George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead, 1968) and Tony Todd (Final Destination franchise, 2000s, and Candyman, 1992).
The panel discussions often continued in the bar afterwards and I remember chatting with one of my horror heroes, the writer and filmmaker John Skipp (A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, 1989). We were talking about how to reach a wider audience with our work and Skipp reminded me, “If you make outsider art, you’ll attract outsider fans.”
Perhaps, this is the key to horror getting the gold standard of approval from awards voters. The more our leaders push us into ever widening margins with their endless stoking of culture wars, the more we become outsiders. We need to face our demons in order to overcome them. Many of us long to be seen, and horror stories see all of us.
The emerging generation of horror filmmakers like Ryan Coogler know this and embed it within their work. To paraphrase the (now Oscar-winning) song Golden from K-Pop Demon Hunters, horror is done hiding, and now it’s shining.
Frazer Lee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.