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Monday, January 23, 2017

Remember the Oscar Nominated Horror Film?




https://litreactor.com/columns/what-ever-happened-to-the-oscar-nominated-horror-film

For our first opinion piece critiquing, we'll be looking at a topic I've been itching to scratch; the Oscars and the horror genre. Now, those two words are barely used together in the same sentence. And this column by Christopher Shultz gives its two cents on why that is. Specifically, what happened to the Oscar nominated horror film? As it is clearly written as the title. 
Now when researching this topic, one needs to only search up a list of Oscar nominated horror films. Every category applies; best film, best actor, supporting actor, etc. Usually Oscars and horror are reflected back to the 60s with Carrie, The Exorcist, or The Omen. But Shultz goes all the way back to the root, the 1930 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But how credible is Shultz? Well, as much as any guy who took a peak at a wiki page. Horror and the Oscars is a subject based more so on common knowledge of film rather then research, so naturally we're not going to get a lot of source citations....well, none actually. To his credit, the article does do a great job of organizing and structuring itself. Taking itself through the history of horror from its beginning in the 30s and its something that anyone familiar in the genre can follow. 
It's a very linear piece, going from point a to point b without stumbling, only bothering to stop the flow should a disclaimer have to be made. It does start of with a question of what happened with the Academy Awards and horror which may draw readers in because that's a very valid question; its something that movie goers or people in general will sometimes stop and ask themselves.
As I said before, the piece does its job in creating a coherent timeline. It let's you know where it starts and where it ends. It asks the question in the beginning, it gives it's opinions in the middle, then asks for yours in the end. There may have been a couple segments where I did feel a tad bit bored, but never wanted to stop reading. This is a topic I have a passion for, you see. But then Shultz drops this gem on the table, "I had a theory that the September 11th attacks was the cause, with the Academy acting as an agent of escapism in a time awash with terror. And it's true, our society has watered down significantly since that awful day in 2001, but at the same time, the Academy has always been an agent of escapism and champion of the feel-good movie's cause, dodging controversy at every turn..." (Shultz). Once you mention September 11th on American soil, there's a sudden change in atmosphere and there's almost no going back. Now, it seems that it may be directly responsible for why horror films don't win Oscars anymore. It's a really bold claim with no research put into it, but for some reason it is the ultimate kicker in this piece and it would've been much better had it been put somewhere in the beginning, but that would also mean the structure of  the chronological years that it is organized be compromised. So, it's bit hard to tell where it would be better off. There's other theories about the manner of course; the Academy favoring the bigger studios or the rules of what applies for a winner may have changed over the years,But the one we really don't want to believe takes the cake. 
With it's linear style and highly opinionated claims with little or no research to back it up, it's unclear how qualified the writer was to be presenting them but it is still a do-able read. The points are interesting, the facts are common knowledge for every horror fan or movie goer to recall, Nothing too powerful, but something to nod your head in thought to. 

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