10 Horror Films That Actually Won Oscars

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

Also Nominated For: Best Sound, Best Film Editing

The first movie since One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest to bag all the top Oscars, Silence is, like all trendsetting movies, both the best and worst thing that ever happened to the genre. While it raised the bar for what a horror could be (who’d have thought you could win an Oscar for biting a guy’s face off?), it also paved the way for Hannibal (2000), Red Dragon and Hannibal Rising. Which frankly is unforgivable.

Hard to believe now, but when Silence was was first unleashed on American audiences (it was released on Valentine’s Day 1991!), a movie where the FBI hunt a serial killer seemed like a novelty. On top of that, it was difficult not to be charmed by Anthony Hopkins portrayal of Hannibal Lecter as witty and urbane.

His grace and good humor will win you over in a heartbeat, but as Jodie Foster discovers in one of the most famous (and quoted) scenes, if you get too close he’ll consume your organs with fava beans and a nice Chianti. Hopkins may have been parodied more than any Oscar winner since Marlon Brando in The Godfather, but that just proves how persuasive he is in the role.