Horror is not known for getting a lot of love come awards season. There have been some key wins and nominations in its history, though. The Exorcist got an adapted screenplay Oscar win and a best movie nomination, Silence of the Lambs took the best picture statue in its year, and Kathy Bates was given the best actress award for her performance as Annie Wilkes in Rob Reiner’s Misery. Jordan Peele got his recognition thanks to Get Out whereas movies like Aliens and Cronenberg’s The Fly were rewarded in the technical categories.
Unfortunately, these notable examples are exceptions more than anything. Something that happens every few years if a “serious” enough horror movie comes along and ticks some of the most important Hollywood boxes. This is why it was so surprising and refreshing to see the most recent edition of the Critics Choice Awards recognize Amy Madigan for her role as Aunt Gladys in Zach Cregger’s Weapons.
Gladys has become something of a new horror icon, the breakout star of a movie that has Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, and Benedict Wong in its cast. Sometimes, the perfect character comes along at just the right time and in just the right movie. There was already a lot of hype behind Cregger’s sophomore feature, built on the success of the director’s first film Barbarian. Aunt Gladys made sure it was worth the wait, and that’s considering she wasn’t heavily featured in the movie’s trailers.
Weapons earned critical praise early on, but it was Aunt Gladys who stood out as the key ingredient that made the movie special. Amy Madigan played the character with sinister energy, gleefully going about her evil ways. Her smeared makeup look augmented her already eccentric personality and gave her image a boost that made her even more recognizable (something horror icons need in large amounts to attain their status).
If the awards gods favor horror this time around, we may have a serious horror contender in line for the more important awards. Early noms and wins start laying down the foundations for what will come to dominate the awards season. If Madigan racks up a few more wins, then things can get serious fast.
Given the state of horror in these ceremonies, I know we should be grateful there’s at least someone carrying the torch for the genre in this space. That said, there were a lot more performance worthy of recognition in 2025, starting with Sally Hawkins as Laura in Bring Her Back.
The Phillippou’s trauma possession flick gave Hawkins a juicy role in which she could stretch her acting muscles and show off her range. She plays a grieving mother that wants to bring her dead daughter back through demonic means. Her performance sees her go from scheming villainess to dark magic practitioner to heartbroken mother, all in the span 139 minutes. She’s more than convincing in each phase of her personality, making for one of the best showcases of acting in 2025.
And yet, Hawkins is not considered a contender in the current awards push. Wunmi Mosaku was also nominated for best supporting actress in the Critics Choice Awards for her role as Annie in Sinners, a Hoodoo healer and conjure woman that is instrumental in the fight against the Irish vampires. Her presence in the movie serves as a bridge between reality and magic, and she does a magnificent job of it. She may not have attained the same iconic status as Aunt Gladys, but she’s one of the storytelling pillars of what some have considered the best movie of year (ahead of One Battle After Another in some cases).
Unfortunately, Mosaku also hasn’t received the same amount of attention as other nominees like Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas for Sentimental Value, or Teyana Taylor for One Battle After Another. Mosaku is not nominated for a Golden Globe. Madigan is.
Michael B. Jordan was also nominated for his role as twins Smoke and Stack in Sinners, but he lost to Timothée Chalamet for his lead performance in Marty Supreme at the Critics Choice Awards. Chalamet’s been propped up as the top contender for the big acting prizes for a while now, which was already hyped up due to it being the result of a collaboration with one of the directors of Uncut Gems, Josh Safdie.
Sometimes it’s easy to predict who’s going to rack up all the wins in a particular category by how much visibility they’re afforded, by how much talk is thrown their way. This year, it looks like every acting award is Chalamet’s to lose. Unfortunately, it’s at the expense of Jordan’s masterful performance as two distinct characters in Sinners.
The other big horror contender is del Toro’s Frankenstein, which has a strong chance of taking some of the coming shows’ biggest prizes. Jacob Elordi already won in the supporting actor category at the Critics Choice, earning him considerable momentum heading into the Globes, the Baftas, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Frankenstein can be argued as one of those “serious” films that make the industry more willing to consider it for recognition. Guillermo del Toro has already won an Oscar and he’s earned his place at the table among Hollywood’s elite filmmakers (despite still facing challenges for being an outspoken voice regarding the use of technology in moviemaking, most notably in the field of AI). Still, it’s interesting that he’s reached this level of consideration by sticking to his genre guns. Horror has been good to del Toro, and vice versa.
It’s clear that horror has been dealt a better hand this awards season, but not the winning hand it really deserves yet. Horror has been one of the most successful and reliable genres in recent years, both critically and financially. It’s had some truly great films under its banner, complete with memorable and awards-worthy performances. Let’s hope Madigan’s win is a sign of progress here, and that the other horror nominees get to disrupt the status quo.
