Yahoo Movies 'It's time the Oscars finally take horror movies seriously'
The Substance director Coralie Fargeat has called on the awards show to give the genre the credit its due, and she's absolutely right.
The Oscars are seen as the pinnacle of cinematic achievement, with only the best of the best being awarded one of the coveted golden statues. But there is one genre that has been shut out time and time again by the Academy Awards: Horror.
Coralie Fargeat, who directed The Substance, has now called on the awards show to give the genre a chance to "compete on the same level" as other types of films that make the nominees list. The director told IndieWire: "I don’t see horror films as any different from other movies. They are so political. They are such a great way to tell so many things in a very rude way, and in a very indelicate way.
“To me, they should compete at the same level as everything else. I learned to accept who I was as a filmmaker, not loving writing dialogue, for instance, but expressing myself in a visual and very visceral way. And that's when you accept who you are, and then the magic can happen. The best thing I wish for the Academy is that there is not this barrier, that every movie is considered as cinema, which I think it is.”
She's not wrong, it is long past time that the Oscars took horror seriously. Horror films have featured some of the most profound performances of recent years, like Lupita Nyong'o's startling turn in Us or Toni Collette's chilling performance in Hereditary. Both of them deserved Oscars, let alone nominations, but didn't get them.
In horror movies an actor is able to let go, to deliver a visceral and raw performance that they might not otherwise be given space to explore in other genres.
Take Demi Moore, who just won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for The Substance, her performance in Fargeat's gory thriller is nothing short of extraordinary precisely because it is unfiltered, full of rage and yet deeply sad. These are emotions that Moore was able to tap into because of the nature of the story, and how it holds up a mirror to society in ways that other genres don't often harness as strongly.
Yes, there's a lot of blood, guts and gore that is shocking to watch, but horror movies can deconstruct a societal issue and terrify viewers at the same time.
Jordan Peele's Get Out, for example, earned huge acclaim when it was released for the way in which it examined racism. The film made people think about Black people's experience of racism in a way they might not otherwise have done, pointing out the way in which small remarks or gestures can be just as cutting to a person as an outwardly racist tirade.
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The Academy Awards did recognise Get Out in 2018, with the film winning Peele an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay as well as nominations for Best Film, Best Director and a Best Actor nod for Daniel Kaluuya. It is one of the few horror films to be recognised in the awards show's history though, and one of 18 films to win an award — others include The Exorcist, Misery, and The Silence of the Lambs.
Candyman —both the original 1992 film and the 2021 remake— also examined issues with systemic racism in a way that makes its story feel timeless. Like Fargeat said, horror films are very political and sometimes people need to be presented with an entirely different worldview to their own in order to better understand an issue they might have otherwise dismissed.
The same can be said about The Substance, which looks at the way women are treated as they age in the most extreme sense, and it is the film's extreme nature that makes Fargeat's point so apparent. It is wrong that women are made to feel less than because they've gotten older, it is wrong that women often see themselves as unworthy of love because they're not what society deems "perfect".
Could people have found this message in other genres of film? Certainly. But there's no denying that The Substance does it just as well, if not better, than any other movies could have done so to not see horror as equally worthy of recognition seems false.
2025 may well be the year that this all changes, 2024 was a strong year for horror and the Academy is primed to recognise Demi Moore. She is now the frontrunner for Best Actress alongside Mikey Madison, Angelina Jolie, and Fernanda Torres, who won in the drama category at the Golden Globes for I'm Still Here. Only time will tell if the Oscars will take horror seriously, but it really, really should.
The Substance is out on Mubi UK now.
