Warning: This article contains descriptions and images of graphic body horror.Demi Moore is currently the runaway, odd-on favorite to win her first Oscar, as she leads the Best Actress category thanks to her portrayal of Elisabeth Sparkle inThe Substance. Moore’s performance ends with the ultimate body-horror transformation, as her character desperately tries to maintain a youthful appearance using a black market drug with catastrophic consequences. Sparkle’s younger version Sue is aFrankenstein’s Monster for the age of anti-aging cosmetics, and her horrific mutation effectively rollsSunset Boulevard’s Norma Desmond andThe Fly’s Brundlefly into one.
ABest Actress Oscar for Moorewould be a worthy testament not only to her performance, but to the overall strength ofThe Substanceas a portrayal of body dysmorphia. Perhaps even more importantly,it would be an Oscars first for a much-maligned cinematic subgenre, which is long overdue its moment in the spotlight. Body horror is held in high regard by horror movie fans, with pioneering director David Cronenberg celebrated as a seminal genre filmmaker. Yet in broader circles, the subgenre is dismissed as a grotesque diversion from narrative cinema as an art form, and its merits have never been fully appreciated at the Oscars.
The Substance Would Be The First Body Horror Movie To Win An Acting Oscar
Demi Moore’s Victory Would Be A Huge Breakthrough For The Subgenre
In the entire history of body horror as a recognized cinematic subgenre, across approximately four and a half decades,no body horror has ever won an Academy Award in a major category. Sigourney Weaver is perhaps the only actor before Moore to have been nominated for an Oscar for their performance in a movie even vaguely associated with body horror, althoughJames Cameron’sAliensitself doesn’t qualify for the subgenre.
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No one was nominated for an acting Oscar for the film’s 1979 forerunner,Ridley Scott’s grossout sci-fi horror movieAlien. Scott’s extraterrestrial blockbuster was arguably one of the first mainstream examples of body horror cinema, and its major-category snubs serve to demonstrate the Academy’s general indifference towards performers in movies of this ilk.Body horror tends to have been seen as a niche area of interestamong certain horror fans, not worthy of celebration at the most prestigious award ceremony in the film calendar. There’s traditionally been only one area of filmmaking in which even the Oscars haven’t been able to deny body horror movies the credit they’re due.
Body Horror Usually Only Wins In The Academy’s Design And Effects Categories
These Are The Categories Which Best ShowcaseThe Subgenre’s Qualities
When it comes to makeup, visual effects and costume design, it’d be downright ignorant to exclude examples of body horror from the running for Academy Awards. Landmark body horror films such asAlien,An American Werewolf in London, David Cronenberg’sThe FlyandBram Stoker’s Draculahave all won Oscarsfor Visual Effects, Makeup or Costume Design. Movies from other genres simply weren’t able to compete with the stunning work from these production departments on display some ofbody horror’s all-time great movies.
Nosferatuwill almost certainly scoop at least one of the design and effects awards at the 2025 Oscars.
Robert Eggers’ 2024 body horror box-office hitNosferatuwill almost certainly scoop at least one of these awards at the 2025 Oscars. But it does a disservice to the acting, direction and screenwriting in body horror filmmaking that the Academy Awards collected by the subgenre are confined to these categories alone.
Demi Moore Winning For The Substance Would Mark A Wider Trend In The Oscars Acting Categories
These Categories Would No Longer Be The Preserve Of Orthodox Dramatic, Biopic And Musical Performances
Theacting category winners at the Academy Awards have traditionally been limitedto more orthodox dramatic portrayals, biographical depictions, and, occasionally, musical performances. There have been signs in recent years that the general shunning of other, more subversive film genres in these categories is on its way out. Two years ago, for example, the absurdist comedyEverything, Everywhere, All At Oncescooped three of the Academy’s four acting prizes, while last yearDa’Vine Joy Randolph won for her performance in the holiday comedyThe Holdovers.
Demi Moore Winning Best Actress Would Continue A Weirdly Specific 3-Year Oscars Trend
If Demi Moore wins an Oscar for her turn in The Substance, then she’ll be the third Best Actress winner in a row from a bizarre sci-fi movie role.
If Demi Moore does win this year forThe Substance, it’ll be a breakthrough moment not only for body horror but other niche cinematic subgenres, too. Were Zoe Saldaña to win as well as Moore, for her supporting role in the musical crime drama Emilia Pérez, it would effectively confirm that acting Oscars are no longer reserved for whoever can do the best impersonation in a biopic, or for the best actor giving a performance about acting. The categories will have been opened up to other types of performance, and the Academy will be better for it.
