Since the prestigious Academy Awards formation in 1928, the horror genre has generally gone unnoticed despite its popularity with the audience. Horror movies tend to be recognized in the technical categories but overlooked in the acting and other significant classes. This is even though there have been a multitude of iconic and highly influential horror movies that were more often than not ignored in favor of films that would surmount much smaller legacies.

Only six horror movies have been nominated for Best Picture in almost a century of Oscars, with just one successfully winning the golden statuette. Despite the general lack of acknowledgment for the genre, several scary movies have broken through the barrier and won Oscars. Considering just how rare it is when horror movies end up getting nominated, let alone winning an award, it speaks volumes to the quality of those who were able to succeed despite the Academy's inherent biases.

10 'Misery' (1990)

Award Won: Best Actress

Bestselling romance novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) gets into a car accident during a blizzard. He is rescued by Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), a self-proclaimed "number one fan." Yet, she becomes enraged after reading his new manuscript and refuses to let him leave until he rewrites the book. Unable to escape with a broken leg, Paul becomes Annie's captive as she gets increasingly out of control.

Misery has aged tremendously in the modern era, with its powerful and nightmarish depiction of uncomfortable parasocial relationships. The film works as well as it does thanks to the brilliant performance from Kathy Bates, who elevates the material with her powerful portrayal of a broken and fractured mind. Bates received acclaim for her performance as the unhinged fan and won the Best Actress award. Misery remains the only movie adapted from a Stephen King book to win an Oscar.

9 'Get Out' (2017)

Award Won: Best Original Screenplay

In this thought-provoking horror movie, nothing is as it seems. Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) visits the family of his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams) but discovers that they are hiding an awful secret. Exploring racial tension with a satirical slant, Get Out was a critical and commercial success. The film played a pivotal role in ushering in the modern era of psychological "elevated horror", balancing out horror and deeper philosophical themes to create a powerful viewing experience.

The film made massive waves upon its release not only financially, but critically, becoming one of the most acclaimed and beloved movies of the year, let alone one of the most beloved horror flicks in recent memory. The movie snagged four Oscar nominations in major categories: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Writer-director Jordan Peele became the first Black winner of the Original Screenplay Award.

8 'Jaws' (1975)

Awards Won: Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score

This summer horror movie will make you think twice before going to the beach! Steven Spielberg's Jaws takes place at the resort town of Amity Island, where the beachgoers are under attack by a great white shark. Police chief Martin Brody (Roy Schneider) teams up with marine biologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and shark hunter (Robert Shaw) to catch the ocean predator before more people are killed.

Jaws has continued to sustain a powerful legacy over the years as one of the most impactful and iconic horror movies of all time, ushering in a new era of blockbuster filmmaking in the process. Even upon its release, the film was widely recognized and beloved for the brilliance of its craft on display. The iconic score by John Williams especially is a significant influence on the terror-stricken scenes, so it was not a surprise when it won Best Original Score. The movie also won two other Oscars for film editing and sound and was nominated for Best Picture.

Rent on Amazon Prime

7 'Rosemary's Baby' (1968)

Award Won: Best Supporting Actress

Rosemary's Baby takes a chilling look at motherhood, patriarchy, and the occult. Mia Farrow plays Rosemary, a pregnant woman who becomes suspicious of her neighbors' behavior. After she starts having bizarre dreams, she believes her neighbors are part of a Satanic cult that is after her baby. Her situation worsens when her husband Guy (John Cassavetes) dismisses her worries. Even over 55 years after its release, the film still holds an undeniable ability to unnerve and prey upon the deepest fears of audiences.

While Rosemary's Baby is more commonly recognized nowadays for its insurmountable impact and legacy on the adult themes and powerful messaging of horror movies, it only received two nominations from the Academy. Ruth Gordon won Best Supporting Actress for her role as Minnie, one of Rosemary's devious neighbors. The movie was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay as it was attributed to perfectly adapting the themes and messages of Ira Levin's classic novel of the same name to the big screen.

6 'Black Swan' (2010)

Award Won: Best Actress

Black Swan follows the story of Ballerina Nina (Natalie Portman), who gets the chance to perform the dual roles of White Swan and Black Swan for her ballet company's presentation of Swan Lake. But she's threatened by the new dancer Lily (Mila Kunis). Nina begins hallucinating visions as the pressure mounts, eventually losing her grip on reality. The film combined aspects of horror movies and dramatic thrillers to create an emphatic experience that the academy felt more comfortable recognizing than a standard horror film.

While the film would only end up winning a singular Academy award, its multitude of nominations paints a greater picture of the Academy's love for the film as a whole. Portman's haunting performance in the film won her the Best Actress Oscar, as she was able to effectively tap into the terror and self-destruction that come from a toxic mentality for dedication and perfection. The psychological horror movie was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director for Darren Aronofsky, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing.

5 'Aliens' (1986)

Awards Won: Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects

After surviving an alien attack that destroyed her ship and slaughtered her crewmates, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) returns to fight the extra-terrestrial beings accompanied by a troop of space marines. The sequel to Alien, Aliens, was able to defy the odds and live up to the massive success of the original film, upping the scares and firepower with fierce action sequences and intense set-pieces. While the original film is often considered the better of the two, the Academy was certainly making up for their snubbing of the original with such a high amount of nominations for the sequel.

Like its predecessor, Aliens' technical achievement was awarded the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. However, unlike the original film, which only won one award, it also won Best Sound Editing and was nominated in other specialized categories, including sound, score, film editing, and art direction. Weaver's powerhouse performance as the now-iconic movie heroine earned her a Best Actress nomination, a rarity not only for horror films, but especially for horror films with such a prominent action angle.

4 'The Fly' (1986)

Award Won: Best Makeup

The Fly is a remake of the 1958 film where a scientific experiment gone wrong leads to the creation of a bizarre creature. Scientist Seth (Jeff Goldblum) invents a teleportation device and tests it on himself. He doesn't realize that a housefly is in the machine with him. As a result, he turns into a ghastly man-insect hybrid to the horror of his girlfriend, Ronnie (Geena Davis). To this day, the practical effects used in The Fly still hold up spectacularly and were subsequently awarded by the Academy Awards as a result.

Directed by David Cronenberg, the movie showcases outstanding makeup design and effects in portraying Seth's transformation, living up to Cronenberg's status as the master of body horror. While body horror as a whole is often ignored by the Academy Awards because of its uncomfortable nature, the mastery on display in The Fly was simply too high quality to be ignored. The film subsequently won the Oscar for Best Makeup.

Rent on Amazon

3 'The Silence of the Lambs' (1991)

Awards Won: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay

Serial killers have never been more menacing than in The Silence of the Lambs. Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee on the trail of a killer of women. She consults the intimidating Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a psychiatrist imprisoned for murdering (and eating!) multiple victims. Their intense conversations make for plenty of suspenseful scenes. The film was a monumental cultural phenomenon of the era, with the unanimous love and success for the film most prominently taking place at the Academy Awards.

Adapted from the novel by Thomas Harris, The Silence of The Lambs has the honor of being the only horror movie in Oscars history to have won Best Picture. It also swept the major categories by winning Best Director for Jonathan Demme, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay, becoming one of only three movies to accomplish such a feat. The only other movies to have done this were It Happened One Night in 1934 and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975, and no film has come close to repeating the feat since.

2 'The Omen' (1976)

Award Won: Best Original Score

Kate (Lee Remick) gives birth to a baby boy, but the child dies unbeknownst to her. Her husband Robert (Gregory Peck) secretly adopts a baby and pretends the child is theirs. As the boy grows older and several unexplained events and violent deaths occur around the family, they soon begin to suspect that he is the Antichrist. The Omen was one of the biggest and most defining horror movies of the 70s, with its spread and influence even finding its way into an Academy Award win.

The creepiness that surrounds The Omen is amplified by reports that the set itself was cursed, yet the movie was able to maintain a powerful legacy thanks to the strengths of the filmmaking on display. The movie was a massive commercial success and spawned an entire franchise, with easily the most iconic aspect of the film being its haunting and powerful score. The film was able to win Best Original Score at the Oscars with a nomination for Best Original Song.

Rent on Amazon

1 'The Exorcist' (1973)

Awards Won: Best Sound, Best Adapted Screenplay

Widely recognized as one of the scariest horror movies ever made, The Exorcist is a terrifying depiction of demon possession. Chris (Ellen Burstyn) notices that her 12-year-old daughter Regan (Linda Blair) behaves strangely by speaking in tongues and exhibiting abnormal strength. She seeks the help of two priests, Father Karras (Jason Miller) and Father Merrin (Max von Sydow), to save Regan by performing an exorcism. The film is arguably one of if not the biggest and most recognizable horror movies of all time, creating a powerful legacy that would be continued at the Academy Awards.

The Exorcist has the distinction of being the first horror movie ever nominated for Best Picture, a feat that has only happened six times in the history of the Academy Awards. It received an impressive ten nominations at the Oscars, including Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Actress, and Best Director for William Friedkin. The movie took home Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay for William Peter Blatty, who wrote the screenplay based on his 1971 novel.

NEXT: Horror Movies More Deserving of the Best Picture Oscar Than the Winner