Over the past few years, horror fans have been blessed with some real gems. Movies like Split, Get Out, The Witch, It Follows and most recently Stephen King’s It prove that there is a lot of potential lying in the horror genre. Many of these films have competed with, or outright exceeded films in other genres critically. Get Out, for example, sits at a whopping 99% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
However — even with the oscar-buzz the films Get Out, and Split are receiving — these films are likely to receive no official recognition. Which is nothing new. There is a stigma attached to horror, and it’s something that producer Jason Blum, having produced many of the more noteworthy horror films over the past several years, is well aware of. The founder of Blumhouse Productions sat down with Screen Rant recently, and gave his thoughts on the Academy’s aversion to the horror genre:
“You know what, I don’t know because I was going to say because people tend to shy away from the violence, but the truth is there are super violent movies that are nominated for Academy Awards, they’re just rarely horror films or they haven’t been horror films in a long time. Maybe they think they’re gross or something. I don’t know, that’s a good question. I don’t know. But you’re right.”
Part of what makes horror such a unique, and charming genre is also a bit of its undoing. Back in the ’80s, when studios were scrambling to get direct-to-VHS movies on shelves, the horror genre was by far the most lucrative. These films shot for cheap. Consumers would be lured in with imaginative box-art only to find a film that bore little resemblance to the cover, with most films being remarkably bad. Such a stigma is hard to move away from, even for a genre with some truly great films. However –with movies like Get Out, and It — it’s starting to feel like we are on the verge of a horror renaissance.
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