Browsing through the most frequent movie trailers on YouTube led me to the newest “The Mummy” movie starring Tom Cruise. Now when I think of Tom Cruise, I think about action movies. The mummy movie franchise was always in the action movie genre in my head, until I viewed some behind the scenes footage for this new movie. The director talks about the monster movie classics and I realized that the horror genre in this is just being complemented by action. I remembered how scared I was as a child watching the scenes with scarabs devouring humans in dark mummy tombs. I realize that crossing genres always happens, but it’s happening today with the horror genre like we have never seen before.
Today the genre is starting to make a bit of a comeback. When I think of horror movies, Hitchcock comes to mind every time. The Oscars were not too kind to him. With so many nominations and no wins, they gave him a lifetime achievement award…while he was still making movies! Thankfully he returned the favor by not displaying a thank you speech of any kind. Hitchcock deserved better, but there has always been this war against the Oscars and the horror genre.
Although it can seem like the Oscars only favor dramas because of how unlikely it is for a comedy to do well for best picture, it’s the exceptions that shine through. For example, I never thought the newest “Mad Max” would get any recognition due to the action/adventure genre that it fell into. So it was a delight and surprise for me to see it do so well at the Oscars.
This brings me to why I think the Oscars don’t give these genres the attention they deserve. This is because I think those genres might base their success off of how many jokes they have, or how many jump-scares they can make you fall for. So a movie could produce those reactions with no real basis behind them. The quality of the journey to get to the best laugh, or the best spook is what matters and that is why I think there is a renaissance happening today.
Jordan Peele said that horror is like comedy because of how both can cause the audience to have a visceral reaction. That includes involuntary reactions like laughing or flinching. Peele understands that uncertainty leads to uncomfort which leads to a laugh or a nervous feeling to cope with the uncertainty. In a comedy setting, the audience will laugh at the uncomfortable feeling to save face, but when saving face doesn't matter, it makes great fodder for horror.
Jordan Peele’s newest movie “Get Out” encapsulated the best aspects of horror and brought a fresh perspective to it that the genre desperately needed. Peele is embracing the process of comedy and horror. In doing so, he structured the movie in such a way that he played with our reactions as audience members. Let's just say I am so glad I got to see the movie in a crowded theater. This fresh perspective will not only spawn more of its kind, but Peele said himself that he would be doing way more films like this one in the future.
Just look at how the new “It” movie trailer got over 23 million views in the past week and a half. Those numbers just show the hype people are willing to give to a movie being remade in today’s renaissance.
This brings me to why I think these great new movies won’t get Oscar recognition. Jordan Peele could end up being the new Hitchcock but it won’t matter because of how we saw Hitchcock being treated. Blumhouse studios themselves released “Get Out” shortly after the Oscars and Oscar season because they had no expectations for it. I hope the greatness of the film can carry out its hype until next year because only then can it have a chance for an Oscar.
