NEWS – Horror Fails to Land Oscar Nominations – Studios Should Take Note

Published on: 2nd February, 2010

NEWS - Horror Fails to Land Oscar Nominations - Studios Should Take Note  | read this item

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The horror genre was shunned once again by the Academy as this year’s Oscar nominations were revealed earlier today. Yet in a year that gave cinemagoers such worthy contributions as The Last House on the Left, Lesbian Vampire Killers and Rob Zombie’s Halloween II, perhaps this is not so surprising. The last few years has since a significant rise in the production of remakes and 2009 was no exception. In fact, the amount of reboots of American movies from as recent as the 1980s was at an all-time high, with the likes of Friday the 13th, My Bloody Valentine, The Stepfather, Sorority Row dominating the box office.

Sequels (and the latest trend, prequels) were rushed out to capitalize on the success of superior movies, resulting in such forgettable efforts as Saw VI, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations, The Final Destination and The Grudge 3. Those few that were neither sequel nor remake would range from the disappointing (Jennifer’s Body) and the overrated (Drag Me to Hell) to the unappreciated (Giallo). Perhaps the most successful genre picture of the year was the South African sleeper hit District 9 which, whilst hardly horror, catered more to the fans of the genre than most of the other offerings of the year.

Whilst District 9 lands a nomination for ‘Best Picture’, it faces rivalry from Kathryn Bigelow’s critically acclaimed war drama The Hurt Locker, James Cameron’s phenomenally successful 3D fantasy Avatar (now officially the most successful movie ever), Quentin Tarantino’s epic Inglorious Basterds and the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man. Those fighting for ‘Best Director’ are Bigelow, Cameron and Tarantino, whilst the ‘Best Actor’ nominations include Colin Firth (A Single Man) and Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker). So, as usual, it seems to be the same few movies featured in most categories.

So perhaps it is no surprise that the ‘Best Original Screenplay’ award could go to either Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds), Joel and Ethan Coen (A Serious Man), Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) or, for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay,’ Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell. One unexpected addition, however, is Henry Selick, whose gothic animation Coraline feels more like a Tim Burton movie than his own recent efforts.

Whilst horror is the easiest genre for a first-time filmmaker to find success, it is one of the most difficult to master. Anyone can throw blood and T&A at the audience, and how many times do we need to see such clichés as kids wandering into the woods or creepy kids’ voices in apartment blocks? Perhaps studios should be taking note here: horror remakes may clear up at the box office for one weekend, but what about their shelf life? Six months down the line and they are just another video on the shelf. To give the genre the respect it deserves, both studios and filmmakers should approach their material with more sophistication and intelligence and stop short-changing audiences time and time again with the same old watered-down concepts.

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