(NEXSTAR) — This Sunday, four first-time Oscar nominees and one previously nominated actress will all vie for the Best Actress statuette at the 97th Academy Awards. But one actress’ win would be a big win for the horror genre, which has historically been overlooked by the Academy.
While over the years there have been numerous horror films and performances not acknowledged by the Academy, this year’s Oscar ceremony could be a little different.
This image released by Mubi shows Demi Moore in a scene from “The Substance.” (Mubi via AP)
Not only is Coralie Fargeat’s horror-comedy “The Substance” nominated for Best Picture but its star, Demi Moore, is among the two most likely winners in Best Actress. Moore, 62, has already earned multiple acting awards for her role as aging actress Elizabeth Sparkle, but an Oscar win would cement a truly unforgettable horror performance in Academy history.
Moreover, Moore’s win would be the first time an actress has won Best Actress for a horror (or horror-adjacent) film since 2010, when Natalie Portman snagged the Oscar for her harrowing performance in Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan.”
And while it is true that the Academy has not always seriously considered horror for its various awards, the organization has nominated (and awarded) at least a few films and performances. Here’s a look at the actresses who have previously earned nods for their roles in horror films.
YearActressFilmStatus1973Ellen Burstyn“The Exorcist”Nominated1976Sissy Spacek“Carrie”Nominated1986Sigourney Weaver“Aliens”Nominated1990Kathy Bates“Misery”Won1991Jodie Foster“The Silence of the Lambs”Won2000Ellen Burstyn“Requiem for a Dream”Nominated2010Natalie Portman“Black Swan”Won2024Demi Moore“The Substance”Pending
Leading up to this year’s Oscar nominations, there was even chatter of Lily-Rose Depp earning a (deserved) Best Supporting Actress nod for her chilling role in Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu,” though this ultimately didn’t happen.
But Depp is only the latest in a long list of horror performances that deserved more. Here are some of the performances that many say were overlooked by the Academy.
In the 10 years since Jennifer Kent’s contemporary classic “The Babadook” was released, the horror exploration of grief and motherhood has only grown more popular and well-regarded.
Essie Davis in Jennifer Kent’s “The Babadook” (Courtesy of IFC Midnight)
At the center of the film is Australian actress Essie Davis, who delivers a haunting and desperate performance as Amelia, a recently widowed mother trying to hold it together for her troubled young son. What’s more, a storybook monster known as “Mister Babadook” begins tormenting the mother and son.
Though Davis did win Best Actress at the 2015 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards and was nominated at the fourth AACTA Awards (the Australian equivalent of the Oscar), her performance was mostly only celebrated among horror circles. But we believe history will reflect fondly on her brilliant work in this brilliant film.
Perhaps it’s because Polish auteur Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 avant-garde horror masterpiece was met with tepid reviews upon release — in addition to the film’s stark unpleasantness — is why French actress Isabelle Adjani wasn’t nominated that year.
It’s a shame because Adjani gives one of the most electrifying performances seen in any film, if we’re being honest. In “Possession,” Adjani plays a woman locked in a crumbling marriage — the psychological terrors of which send her stumbling into psychosis and birthing a monstrous living manifestation of her pain.
Isabelle Adjani in Andrzej Żuławski’s “Possession” (Courtesy Gaumont Dist.)
One needs to only type “possession subway scene” into YouTube for a clip displaying why Adjani not only should have been nominated but should have won (sorry, Katharine Hepburn in “On Golden Pond”).
But be prepared if you do.
In Ari Aster’s horror film “Midsommar,” Florence Pugh is put through the ringer. After losing her entire family in a grizzly murder-suicide, Dani (Pugh) travels with a checked-out boyfriend to a folk festival in rural Sweden — where things get increasingly worse.
Though Pugh was nominated for Best Actress at the 29th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards and won Best Actress at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, her gut-wrenching performance went largely unacknowledged by those outside of horror.
Dani — and Florence — deserved better!
Florence Pugh in Ari Aster’s “Midsommar” (Courtesy A24 Films)
Spoilers ahead for Jordan Peele’s 2019 psychological horror film “Us” ahead.
For her role in “Us,” Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o (Best Supporting Actress for “12 Years a Slave”) does double duty — literally. In the film about an invasion of “the Tethered,” a group of mysterious duplicates coming after their human counterparts, Nyong’o is tasked with the most developed “tethered” role of all the others in the film, in addition to playing her protagonist counterpart, Adelaide, who must face down her double by film’s end.
Lupita Nyong’o in Jordan Peele’s “Us” (2019) (Courtesy of Monkeypaw Productions/Blumhouse)
Nyong’o’s performance received critical acclaim and many theorized an Oscar nod was on the horizon, though ultimately, it didn’t happen. It’s now frequently listed as among the worst recent “Oscar snubs.”
Nyong’o herself commented on the Academy’s perceived anti-horror bias in an interview with Buzzfeed News, saying she learned about it during filming “Us.”
“I definitely heard a lot of that as I was promoting the film,” said Nyong’o. “People would say there’s this bias against horror films — one that I was not aware of.”
Finally, we come to the biggest modern example of a horror performance that deserved not only a nomination but a win — and pretty much everyone agrees on this one.
Few performances in recent memory have gone to the places Toni Collette goes to in Ari Aster’s 2018 horror masterpiece “Hereditary.” In the film, Annie (Collette) is handed tragedy after tragedy as a demonic force takes hold of her family, and Collette meets these various challenges with a take that is all at once heartbreaking, humorous and terrifying. One only needs to search “Hereditary dinner scene” on YouTube to understand all the ways Collette is brilliant in the film.
It’s a role widely considered to be the performance of Collette’s career (so far), and this is an Oscar snub that continues to be discussed regularly online throughout the years. Including:
Earlier last month, one X user posted: “It took me forever to finally watch Hereditary so my disbelief that Toni Collette was never nominated for an Oscar for her performance in it is 200 years too late but omg.”
Omg indeed.
Regardless of awards show love, Collette’s performance is one for the ages and will be remembered for decades to come.
On Sunday night, Moore faces stiff competition from fellow first-time nominee Mikey Madison, whose role in Sean Baker’s “Anora,” has already earned her a BAFTA, in addition to dozens of other critical awards. Others include Cynthia Erivo, a three-time Oscar nominee, for “Wicked”; Karla Sofía Gascón in “Emilia Pérez”; and Fernanada Torres in “I’m Still Here.”
