While you’re right that horror movies don’t often get awards, the idea that they don’t often get good reviews from critics is completely off base. Just this year we’ve already had M3GAN, Skinamarink and Infinity Pool which were all very well received critically. The past few years we’ve had movies like The Witch, The Lighthouse, Midsommer, Hereditary, The Menu, Nope, Us, Get Out, The Babadook, The Blackcoats Daughter, Suspiria, Bones and All, Raw, Titane, Malignant, the Conjuring movies, The House of the Devil, X, Pearl, Mandy, Green Room, It Follows, Bone Tomahawk, Terrifier 2, The Innkeepers, Men, Resolution, The Endless, Crimson Peak, The Night House, The Ritual, I could honestly keep going.
That’s not even counting classic horror like The Thing and the Shining, which while at the time reviewed poorly, but are now counted amongst the greatest films ever made and other classics which received glowing reviews from the start like The Exorcist, Alien, Psycho, The Fly, Videodrome, They Live, Halloween, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Evil Dead 1 and 2, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Return of the Living Dead, Re-Animator, Candyman, The Haunting, Child’s Play, Nightmare on Elm Street.
Horror has always been a genre that’s open to experimentation and boundary pushing which is something critics usually appreciate and while it is a very prolific genre with many cheap entries, it’s a very critically successful one.
smokewidget t1_j6kg15k wrote
Reply to What are some horror movies that enjoy critical acclaim beyond the genre (i.e., are considered to be great movies overall, not just respected by horror fans)? by FeatheredVentilator
While you’re right that horror movies don’t often get awards, the idea that they don’t often get good reviews from critics is completely off base. Just this year we’ve already had M3GAN, Skinamarink and Infinity Pool which were all very well received critically. The past few years we’ve had movies like The Witch, The Lighthouse, Midsommer, Hereditary, The Menu, Nope, Us, Get Out, The Babadook, The Blackcoats Daughter, Suspiria, Bones and All, Raw, Titane, Malignant, the Conjuring movies, The House of the Devil, X, Pearl, Mandy, Green Room, It Follows, Bone Tomahawk, Terrifier 2, The Innkeepers, Men, Resolution, The Endless, Crimson Peak, The Night House, The Ritual, I could honestly keep going.
That’s not even counting classic horror like The Thing and the Shining, which while at the time reviewed poorly, but are now counted amongst the greatest films ever made and other classics which received glowing reviews from the start like The Exorcist, Alien, Psycho, The Fly, Videodrome, They Live, Halloween, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Evil Dead 1 and 2, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Return of the Living Dead, Re-Animator, Candyman, The Haunting, Child’s Play, Nightmare on Elm Street.
Horror has always been a genre that’s open to experimentation and boundary pushing which is something critics usually appreciate and while it is a very prolific genre with many cheap entries, it’s a very critically successful one.