10 Amazing Horror Movie Performances That Should've Won Oscars
2. Willem Dafoe - The Lighthouse
Willem Dafoe proved himself to be a perfect match for Robert Eggers' deliciously archaic dialogue style in The Lighthouse - one of cinema's most evocative and emphatic depictions of isolation and insanity.
If there was any justice in the world, this would've been the film to finally clinch Dafoe the Oscar that has eluded him his entire career, but alas, he wasn't even nominated.
As flatulent lighthouse keeper Thomas Wake, Dafoe runs the full gamut of human emotion. This isn't merely an excuse for him to unleash a barrage of Big Acting - it also gives Dafoe the floor to mine the innate sad desperation of his manic character, perhaps best exemplified by a certain line about a lobster.
At the same time, WillemDafoe certainly gets to swing for the fences during Wake's most volcanic freakout scenes. After all, who among us could resist shouting "Hark!" everywhere they went for weeks after watching The Lighthouse for the first time?