Oscars 2014: July Preview

The Conjuring

Release date: July 19 Oscar prospects: Bad In the hierarchy of genre, horror maybe regulated to levels below even action-comedy in the eyes of the Academy. Only on the rare occurrence when a film in the horror genre becomes a cultural phenomenon too big for the Academy to ignore, as were the cases for The Exorcist and The Sixth Sense, has the Academy seen fit to nominate a fright film for Best Picture, and unless you widen the definition of the genre to include serial killer suspense films (a la The Silence of the Lambs), the Academy has never crowned a horror film the Best Picture of the year. Particularly in the last decade though, as the "torture porn" sub-genre has grown in popularity, the release of horror films have been total non-events in the eyes of the Academy. Ironically though, the director who started the boom of "torture porn" with the never-ending Saw series, James Wan, has a chance to bring back some honor to the genre with his newest horror film, The Conjuring. Starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as a married couple who also happen to be experts in the ethereal, the paranormal pair take on one of the more interesting cases of their careers when they offer to help get to the bottom of some disturbing haunting inside an old Rhode Island farmhouse. The early buzz on the film, especially for a horror film, has been exceptionally good. Critics have praised the film's ability to build suspense and apprehension without overly relying on an abundance of gore to chill its audience. In this way, many have been comparing the film to some of the old-fashioned classics of the genre that helped build the genre's popularity in the first place. I haven't seen the film myself yet, but I sure do hope the advance good word is true, because God knows the genre could use some reinvigorating. Even if the film is one of the best horror films in some years, I highly doubt it will be name checked by the Oscars come nomination time. Only if the film proves to be a surprise hit on an enormous level, and I'm talking pretty massive here, does it have a chance in hell of attaining awards plaudits. Possible nominations: Best Original Screenplay (Chad and Carey Hayes)