Oscars 2025: With ‘The Substance’ and ‘Nosferatu’ nominated, is the Academy finally taking horror seriously?
When The Substance was released last year, it quickly became the film on everyone’s lips. Not only did it feature Hollywood star Demi Moore in an unconventional role that few actors of her standing would dare to accept, but it was loaded with blood, gore, nudity, and strong commentary on female ageing, patriarchal expectations, and beauty standards. Thus, it gave people plenty to talk about, with many viewers revelling in its feminist approach to body horror and others finding themselves unable to discuss it without feeling sick.
With the film becoming a massive talking point online and earning lots of four and five star reviews from various publications, it seemed destined for awards season success. Yet, horror is a genre historically snubbed by the Academy Awards, leading fans to question the films’ actual chances of earning Oscar nominations. Like many great horror movies that have come before it, was The Substance going to be unfairly snubbed?
Luckily, Coralie Fargeat’s feature has challenged horror’s dismal Oscars track record, earning nominations for ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’, ‘Best Actress in a Leading Role’ (for Moore), ‘Best Original Screenplay’, and ‘Best Makeup and Hairstyling’. The Substance has the most nominations a horror movie has received in a very long time, a record held by 1973’s The Exorcist, which received ten, winning two. Meanwhile, The Silence of the Lambs is the only horror movie to have won ‘Best Picture’ in Oscars history, with both Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster also winning Academy Awards for their roles in the film.
The four other actors who have won Oscars for horror performances include Natalie Portman for Black Swan, Fredric March for Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde, Ruth Gordon for Rosemary’s Baby, and Kathy Bates for Misery. Thus, if Moore wins for The Substance, she’ll join a very select group of actors who have earned Oscars for horror movies, while Fargeat has the chance of becoming the second filmmaker to win ‘Best Director’ for a horror film following Jonathan Demme’s win for The Silence of the Lambs.
The Substance isn’t the only horror movie to be recognised this year, however; Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu has picked up nominations for ‘Best Cinematography’, ‘Best Costume Design’, ‘Best Production Design’, and ‘Best Makeup and Hairstyling’. The movie fell short of earning a ‘Best Picture’ or ‘Best Director’ nod, but regardless, it is still impressive that it received four nominations from an institution that rarely awards horror.
The fact that Nosferatu earned nominations for more technical areas like makeup and production design also suggests that the Academy is finally beginning to realise how artistically breathtaking horror can be. For so long, it has seemed like many high-ranking industry figures have viewed the genre as a lesser one, not realising how profound and visually arresting horror stories can be. With Nosferatu and The Substance, striking aesthetic choices work alongside searing explorations of themes like female sexuality and alienation, making them complex and powerful pieces of cinema no less worthy of serious praise than their non-horror counterparts.
Why has the Academy been hesitant to praise horror for so long? Perhaps the genre’s associations with long-standing and often-used tropes and themes, from vampires and haunted castles to paranormal activity and serial killers, has made judges hyper-critical. While there have been many low-budget, schlocky horror movies released across the globe over the years, there have also been many incredible ones that say more about society, gender, race, sexuality, class, capitalism, and other poignant themes than your average Oscar-nominated biopic or epic historical movie.
The Academy’s apparent disdain for horror has always been unjust, and the fact that the most awarded horror movie in Oscar history, The Silence of the Lambs, leans more towards thriller than pure horror speaks volumes. However, if the delightfully gothic Nosferatu or The Substance—a bold and gory feminist reimagining of the body horror genre (itself a relatively niche subsection of horror)—manages to take home an Oscar, it might finally push people to take the genre more seriously.
