Horror invaded this year’s Oscars.
While the Academy would like general audiences to think that Jordan Peele‘s Get Out is a comedy, and that Guillermo del Toro‘s The Shape of Water was a dramatic love story, both films come straight from the genre’s heart. Get Out played like a classic episode of “The Twilight Zone”, while The Shape of Water was rooted in the early Universal Monster movies, especially Creature From the Black Lagoon. Like it or not, they’re horror movies, and the Academy members allegedly felt violated by the genre takeover. It got so bad that it was reported that older Oscars voters snubbed Get Out … without having even seen the film!
Well, it didn’t stop the younger voters from propping up two excellent films and carrying them to Academy Awards. Not only did del Toro win “Best Director” for The Shape of Water, but the film also scored Oscars for “Best Production Design”, “Best Original Score”, and… “BEST PICTURE.” Peele was able to grab the award for “Best Original Screenplay”…
From what our insiders tell us, the top brass at the Academy had a fit following the ceremony. One allegedly flipped over a catering table, while another threw one of the on-screen temp Oscars at the wall, causing several onlookers to catch their conversation. A slew of obscenities were tossed around as one proclaimed, “We cannot let this happen again,” with the other screaming in pain that Phantom Thread was “snubbed”.
There was purportedly a huge fallout from these awards, with two key sources telling us that “heads rolled, jobs were lost, and changes are being made.” Sure, the story was hysterical, but what stood out were these planned changes – from what I hear, the Academy will never again allow a genre film to win “Best Picture”, “Best Director”, or “Best Original Screenplay”. The plan, which is quietly being put in action, is to introduce three new categories: “Best Genre Picture”, “Best Genre Director”, and “Best Original Genre Screenplay”, and much like the heavy metal categories at the Grammy’s, they plan to hand out these awards off-screen prior to the telecast. In essence, they’re wiping genre films from their celebration.
It’s nice that our beloved genre was able to strike fear into the Academy and make this much noise and commotion, but it would also be nice to be respected. I’d much rather Get Out be called a horror film and win an award for “Best Genre Picture” than being dubbed a comedy just to appease the masses, which is just foolish. I guess we’ll know how this all pans out by next April…
