We have the nominees for this year’s Oscars, and the discourse has splintered in multiple directions about what’s been chosen and what hasn’t. Spider-Man: No Way Home inspired some discussion, and the horror movie Malignant, which wasn’t shortlisted at all, has Twitter all in a huff.
Not only has James Wan’s monster movie been glossed over for Best Picture, it didn’t even manage a single nod in any of the effects categories. Needless to say, Twitter has been unhappy. In a retweeting trend where users listen the ten movies they loved that got zero nominations, Malignant has been a fixture, alongside drama movie Pig, and fantasy movie The Green Knight.
Some have gone further, expressing their disdain at the Academy’s choices between mere social games. “No nomination for Joseph Bishara’s Malignant score Oscars how come,” tweeted one user. “Very rude of The Academy to forget to nominate malignant for any Oscars this year,” adds another. One account claimed The Academy is beneath Malignant: “Let’s be honest, Malignant is too good for the Oscars anyway.”
Obviously this is all tongue-in-cheek, but it does highlight a general bias when it comes to Academy voters against horror. Relative to other genres, horror rarely gets a look in at awards season, and it’s rarer still that it wins.
The likes of Jordan Peele’s Get Out, or thriller movie The Silence of the Lambs receiving statues are very much the exception. Most of the time, the scares are kept out of the Academy’s festivities. In any case, Malignant, directed by The Conjuring and Aquaman filmmaker James Wan, has its ardent fanbase, none of which is diminished one iota by a lack of gold statues.
Still, nothing for Gabriel’s mask? Choices were made.