Summary

• Horror films have historically been overlooked at the Oscars, with only 61 horror films ever receiving nominations out of nearly 4,000 recognized films.
• The Oscars have a history of snubbing horror films, which has garnered negative reactions from fans and critics.
• Horror films like "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Get Out" are the exception rather than the rule regarding Awards season recognition for the genre.

Genre films, especially horror, have long been overlooked at the Oscars, with only 61 horror films ever receiving nominations. That's of the nearly 4,000 films that have been recognized in the near century since the Academy first handed out awards. Only six horror movies have made the Best Picture nominees, with only one, The Silence of the Lambs, actually winning. With so many unique and original voices in horror, the Oscars' trend of rarely acknowledging horror films should come to an end.

The Academy Awards were first held in 1929, and since then the categories have expanded to encom a broader scope of the talents it takes to make a film, and categories have been renamed and replaced countless times. The Awards have a history of snubbing nominees in the horror genre, with the annual exclusions of intelligent genre fare gaining negative reactions from fans and critics alike. Though many popular nominees are featured in the list below, some of the best horror movies like Get Out and The Silence of the Lambs, are noticeably missing in an attempt to highlight some more forgotten nominations in the genre.

15 Jaws

Steven Spielberg's movie hit Jaws, a masterclass in building tension, made history in 1976 as only the second-ever horror Best Picture nominee. Though it lost Picture to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the team behind the iconic shark won all three of its other nominations for editing, score, and sound. The Academy did not, however, make a nod at Spielberg's brilliant and visceral directorial vision, nor at the three main actors who brought his script so vividly to life.

14 Misery

This Rob Reiner-directed the only Stephen King adaptation to win an Oscar. The Academy recognized Bates's complex and realistic performance for strengthening both the film's dramatic dimensions and a palpable sense of horror, but the for female horror leads at awards bodies has since dwindled.

13 The Exorcist

In 1974, The Exorcist earned 10 Academy Award nominations, including for its three main cast , and became the first horror film to ever be nominated for Best Picture in 46 years of the ceremony’s history. It won only two, one for its sound, and the other for its screenplay in the category that was then known by the much wordier ‘Best Screenplay - Based on Material from Another Medium’. The Academy also gave a nomination to director William Friedkin, whose handheld camera work made the film feel terrifyingly realistic and helped to blend the script’s supernatural elements with its heavy emotional drama.

12 Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock earned his fifth and last Best Director nomination for his 1960 masterpiece Psycho, though it failed to be nominated for the night's biggest category and ultimately won no awards. Hitchcock uses many of his trademarks in Psycho. In his tale of a woman on the run and the strange motel she stumbles into, Hitchock's use of innovative editing and uniquely minimalistic approach to violence made for a horrifying psychological experience. Equally unsettling was the innovative second-act shift in the protagonist. Janet Leigh's brilliant, vulnerable performance in the part earned one of the film's other nominations.

11 The Lighthouse

Jarin Blaschke has worked on all contemporary horror favorites Robert Eggers's films and earned Eggers' film The Lighthouse its single Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography. The Oscars have often chosen cinematography as the place to reward horror films, and Blaschke's ethereal and deeply moody work in black-and-white has a massive hand in setting the tone of this folksy and darkly humorous film. Still, after Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson's transformative and intensely raw performances received critical acclaim, it was a shame that the Oscars failed to recognize their work, or the film's vivid, unique screenplay.

10 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Both the 1931 and 1941 films of this title received nominations at the Academy Awards, with the earlier version earning 3 nominations and one win at the 5th Oscars ceremony. Its win, in a rare tie, was for lead actor Fredric March, one of the most celebrated Hollywood stars of the time. Both films were adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson's story about a doctor who takes a potion that unleashes his inner demons.

9 Seconds

Another horror film whose cinematography earned it its only nod is 1966's Rock Hudson-led psychological horror Seconds. Directed by John Frankenheimer, Seconds follows a disillusioned middle-aged banker who s a mysterious company that provides customers with new faces and new identities. Legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe, known for his masterful use of shadows, lost the award for Best Cinematography Black-and-White, then separated into two awards, to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? His work helped make this film about corporate paranoia feel unnervingly claustrophobic.

8 Flatliners

Joel Schumacher's 1990 film Flatliners earned its highly stylized tone thanks to the power of its sound effects. With an all-star cast of Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, and Kevin Bacon, to name but a few, this chilling psychological science fiction film follows five medical students who conduct experiments simulating death to find out if there is an afterlife. The film was nominated at the 63rd Oscars for Best Sound Effects Editing, which was then considered separate from the Best Sound category. Beyond helping to weigh the film's drama and providing dramatic intensity, the film's otherworldly sound effects effectively brought the audience between the real world and the characters.

7 Phantom of the Paradise

Brian De Palma's campy, creepy, unique rock musical Phantom of the Paradise earned composer Paul Williams, who also starred in the film, one in his line of Oscar nominations. Williams' score, which mixed rollicking rock-and-roll numbers with a deliciously eerie mood, was a celebration from the Awards body of a film and a score that is much weirder and more singular than they usually nominate. The Oscars should more often celebrate the ways music can define the mood of a whole film, much as Williams' work does here.

6 Altered States

Ken Russell's sci-fi thriller, starring William Hurt in his film debut, earned two nominations at the 53rd Academy Awards, one for Best Sound and the other for its score by contemporary classical composer John Corigliano. The film is about a scientist and professor who attempts to advance his experiments with sensory deprivation through the use of hallucinogenics but soon begins to lose his grip on reality. Music is used sparingly and strategically in the film. When it is used, Coriligano's score evokes a sense of disorientation, even in the film's more grounded moments, that intensifies the viewing experience and matches Russell's flamboyant visual style.