Horror Roundtable - Week Thirty-Five
Name a performance in a horror movie which you believe should have been nominated for an Academy Award.
And the Oscar goes to…Bill Moseley as Otis in THE DEVIL’S REJECTS. Oh sure, Charlize Theron gets an award for MONSTER, but Moseley only gets a freaking Fangoria Chainsaw Award. He (not to discount Sid Haig, Sheri Moon Zombie or William Forsythe) delivered one of the most powerful, beliveable incarnations of pure evil since Anthony Hopkins won for THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. The character of Otis transformed from a cartoonish boogey-man (in HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES) to the embodiment of all things the we fear, slicing our guts out while spouting homespun wisdom as we lie there bleeding to death. It’s a real shame that he didn’t get noticed outside of the horror circles.
Jack Nicholson in The Shining might be an example, although many people see his performance as hammy and over the top. But when the movie itself failed to even be nominated for any Oscars, and was just nominated for, without winning, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films “Best Horror Film” award that year, and Stanley Kubrick was nominated for a Worst Director Razzie for it, I guess you can’t get your hopes up.
Mia Farrow’s performance in Rosemary’s Baby is also excellent, and might well have deserved a Best Actress Oscar (she was nominated for, but didn’t win, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe).
But to top them all off, with a performance that doesn’t just impress with its acting skill, it also scares me out of my wits, there’s Michael Rooker in “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer”. There’s just not that much more to be said about it, it’s probably one of the scariest cases of pure acting ever seen.
ROY SCHEIDER in JAWS…
David Z. - Tomb It May Concern
I have a hard time figuring out what is “Academy Award” winning is myself. I can’t get my head around rich hollywood people giving each other awards or what the criteria is… I’ll go with Linnea Quigley, who was robbed for her lack of nomination as Trash in Return Of The Living Dead for rocking a tight body sleeve to maximum effect. That certainly got a standing ovation from my audience!
I don’t even know where to begin. It’s such a maligned genre in terms of awards recognition. So I’ll just state the most recent oversights: three of the actors in Pan’s Labyrinth - Ivana Baquero as little Ofelia, Sergi Lopez as the evil Captain, and Maribel Verdu as Mercedes - should’ve gotten recognized. All three took roles that are pretty solid archetypes and infused them with something special, be it Baquero’s haunting sadness, Verdu’s soulful defiance, or Lopez’s chilling sadism.
Quality over quantity this time around. I guess everyone else were busy picking an outfit to wear for the red carpet. That or it was a shit question. Thanks once again to everyone who contributed, my Mom for believing in me as a child, J. for encouraging my dreams even during the bad times, my hairdresser, Jose, for working his magic every single day on set, the guy down at the corner who sells Asian bootlegs, my dogwalker…
February 23rd, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Love the Creature version of the Academy Award. Sweet.
February 23rd, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Hello! I just found your blog and really enjoy it. I’d love to participate in these round tables if you need anymore contributors.
I totally agree with Joakim that Mia should have won for Rosemary’s Baby and Michael Rooker as Henry was amazing! He should have been nominated as well.
Some other great performances that I think should have been noticed by the Academy include:
Deborah Kerr as Miss Giddens in The Innocents
Catherine Deneuve as Carole in Repulsion
Isabelle Adjani as Anna/Helen in Possession
February 23rd, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Man, time got away fro me this week and I forgot to answer. :(
I would’ve said Donald Sutherland in either Don’t Look Now or Invasion of the Body Snatchers…I loves me some ’70s afro Donald.
I also loved Shelley Duvall in The Shining- I think she gave a wonderful, understated performance. She got a Razzie nod for it! People’s perceptions of The Shining have really changed over the years. I wonder if in 30 years we’ll all really love Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.
February 23rd, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Notes to Readers Old and New…
Note to new readers: From my stats page, I can see how many hits I’m getting, what pages people are reading, and how long readers are staying on my site. And I’m very flattered that so many of you are……
February 24th, 2007 at 4:30 am
I was going to say Warwick Davis, but couldn’t choose only one movie to nominate him for. How do you choose just ONE Leprechaun movie??
February 24th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
This question overwhelmed me. The only declaration I can make is that I don’t think anyone deserves any Oscar nominations for any acting in this year’s crop of horror movies. For all the horror Renaissance that is going on only a handful of movie will be remembered for this past year (Hostel, Descent, Hills Have Eyes, but is their any really awesome acting here)… Sadly I have seen pretty much nothing that is nominated at all in any catagory this year… although maybe that is not sad - it’s all annoying.
February 25th, 2007 at 2:19 am
Thanks, Dave. I thought it appropriate considering the Creature’s history with Oscar.
Thanks for popping by, Cinebeats. For the longest time I would visit Cinebeats only to be greeted by the Mothra twins. Though I was sad that you weren’t posting, the twins made me feel better.
Stacie, even though I enjoy the Razzies on one level, it’s obvious that at least part of their mandate is to rip into movies that aren’t always bad, but are sometimes just daring. It’s a shame they can’t see the difference.
Gary, though Leprechaun 4 is my favourite in the series, I think Davis’ performance in 3 is slightly better.
Warren, I’m sorry the question overwhelmed you. It was meant, like all roundtable questions, to be a bit of fluff, not something too serious. And the discussion wasn’t confined to just one year. I’m sure there’s some backyard horror master performance that you could thrill us with.
February 25th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
[…] - Over at the Horror Blog, an abridged roundtable group discusses which horror performances should have been nominated for Academy Awards. It’s an interesting, if brief, chat with some good suggestions. Personally, I agree with Stacie’s suggestion of Donald Sutherland for the ’70s edition of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, though my personal picks would have to be Wilford Brimley for Supporting Actor in The Thing and Peter Cushing in…well, just about anything (though I’ve always leaned towards his performance in the Hammer update of The Mummy). […]
February 27th, 2007 at 6:18 am
Don’t get me wrong, I think the question was entirely appropriate - I was completely stumped though…
Acting is the hardest thing for me to evaluate in films.