Manhunt (Oscar Season)

My darlings,


I'm so very sorry to have left you postless for so long.  I've been rather busy with that pesky thing we call "real life" and have had to deal with the harsh realities of winter.  You'll be pleased to know that I've oft thought of you in my absence.  In fact, I'm working on an article that should scratch at some murderous itches.  I know it's been aiding in mine.  Until then, I've a morsel for you to chew on.

Yesterday, Oscar nominations for the year were announced, and yet again, anyone who knows anything about film was left depressed, unsatisfied.  Perhaps they will soon be as numbed as I.  Let's face it, horror hasn't held any Oscar hopes in years.  Hitchcock, a cinematic legend of the century, never won a single Oscar.  He was nominated for Best Director five times (Rebecca, Lifeboat, Spellbound, Rear Window, and Psycho) but never earned a statue for his meticulous work.  When the Academy eventually gave him an award, all he had to say to them was "thank you." (Directors who've never won an Oscar)

In 1973, The Exorcist happened.  Yes, it happened.  People were throwing up and leaving, lines were out of control, and everyone wanted to see it. So many in fact, that it remains the 9th highest grossing film in history, AND the Number One grossing R-Rated film. Ever.  (Screw you SOPA) In 1974 the Golden Globes gave it 7 nominations and it took 4 awards, including Best Picture - Drama.  (Ellen Burstyn was nominated but snubbed) For horror, this was as good as it got.  Then it pressed on to garner 10 Oscar nods but only two glances of recognition which came in Sound Editing (woohoo..) and Best Adapted Screenplay.  (Ellen Burstyn was nominated but snubbed. Again.)  Horror never had it so good!  Unfortunately, it lost Best Picture in the supposed "Big Leagues" to The Sting.

Which also won Norman Rockwell his first Oscar for "Most upbeat mobster movie poster ever"

I want you to ask the next ten people you see if they've seen The Exorcist.  Then ask them if they've seen The Sting.  No, I'll wait.  Ten to roughly nothing?  Under 40? Interesting.  The Academy is supposed to catalog the advances in film, the cream of the crop, a time capsule collection of films that would show our progress as a race through the art of cinema.  According to the early 70s, America had a huge thing for mobsters and violence.  I guess Vietnam didn't get it all out of our system.

Jaws got 4 nods in '75 and won 3 (More than The Exorcist really?), including Best Sound.  Horror's good with that.  If you haven't seen it, watch The Strangers for some more recent excellent sound design.  Then the next baby of the genre boomed: The Silence of the Lambs.  The golden child of horror, it was the third film ever to win the Oscars in the top five categories: Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, Adapted Screenplay.  Anthony Hopkins is in the movie for a little over 16 minutes.  Some would say this is a testament to his power in that role.  I'm going to stay quiet on this one. 

Mum's the word, right Hanny?

Wait.  I hate to interject but, isn't golden child of horror accolades, The Silence of the Lambs more of a Thriller/Cop Drama?  Can we still count it as ours? No? My mistake.

Yes dears I know there are more classic nods like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Rosemary's Baby, and a few others even after Lambs but the point is that it does not happen every year.  However, every year we have a biopic, an indie upriser, and something generally patriotic up for the Best Pic grabs while horror sits, gaining cobwebs.  The most influential (whether it was high quality or not) horror in the past ten years has gone unnoticed.  Maybe if we make a movie about a gay mentally handicapped real person who was horribly disfigured and murdered in a scandal involving the White House who's a ghost that overcomes the overwhelming odds against him, we can spin it somehow.

Either way...

 I'm still on the lookout for the next great American horror.

Yours truly,
AP