What was the first horror movie to win an Oscar?
It’s no secret that the Academy Awards have long held biases, with movements such as #OscarsSoWhite and #MeToo highlighting the longstanding history of the award show’s persuasion towards white men, even those accused of abuse.
In fact, it seems like the Oscars have long crowned those who champion a specific message, a palatable vision of America that Hollywood approves of. Of course, there are exceptions, but there’s a reason why moving dramas, biopics, and historical epics have so often swept the Academy Awards and Oscar bait is so rampant. A certain film will always please more than others.
One genre that doesn’t fit into the Academy’s agenda is horror, which has very rarely won any awards, because horror often serves as a device to highlight difficult social and political issues, with allegories for racism, misogyny and the oppressive nature of capitalism often manifesting through knife-wielding masked figures and scary monsters.
And for those who don’t think that hard into the genre, there’s something decisively less substantial about horror, with its jump scares and long sequences of killers chasing helpless victims, and of course, that’s a reductive statement, but it’s one that has long left horror on the margins, only occasionally finding itself in the middle of award season buzz.
What was the first horror movie to win an Oscar?
When 2024’s The Substance won an Oscar, it felt like a turning point, because it’s rare that a horror film ever gets a look-in at such a prestigious awards ceremony, let alone a body horror film, and with Sinners receiving various nominations and wins this 2026 awards season, it seems like we might be seeing the genre creep closer into the mainstream.
However, this wouldn’t be possible if not for the horror movies that made a case for the genre being award-worthy several decades ago, with big hitters like The Exorcist winning ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ and ‘Best Sound’, while The Silence of the Lambs scooped up various awards, including ‘Best Picture’.
The first movie to take the crown as the original Oscar-winning horror film came much earlier, though, and it features a performance that remains one of the most iconic in early Hollywood history. Released in 1931, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde saw Frederic March take on the dual role of the scientist who transforms into a killer, of course serving as an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
It wouldn’t be the first adaptation of the story, with many, including a notable John Barrymore version, emerging in the silent era. March’s would be the first with sound, and his performance as both the good-natured Jekyll and his darker side, Hyde, was compelling. The actor mastered these opposing parts, transforming into his terrifying alter ego in an incredibly unforgettable scene, although he did have to share his Oscar win with Wallace Beery for The Champ.
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be another 37 years until another horror performance would win an Oscar, this time Ruth Gordon for Rosemary’s Baby. Other winners have emerged over the years, like Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter and Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes, but really, Oscar-winning horror performances remain a rare, elusive thing.
