Major Filmmakers Are Finally No Longer Ashamed To Make Horror Movies

Last night was the debut of the 2025 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, the annual celebration and honoring of the outstanding achievements in horror film and television. It's also the home where grave injustices are often remedied. For example, after Toni Collette was snubbed by the Academy Awards for her brilliant performance in Ari Aster's "Hereditary," she was awarded Best Actress at the Chainsaw Awards in 2019. The following year, Lupita Nyong'o was similarly honored for her equally snubbed by the Oscars performance in Jordan Peele's "Us." This year, Demi Moore took home the Chainsaw for Best Lead Performance for her career-best (so far) performance in "The Substance," a doubly exciting honor considering the Chainsaws no longer separate performance awards based on gender.

Major awards bodies have consistently struggled to recognize the accomplishments of talent found in horror movies, and while there were certainly signs of improvement this year, the negative bias continues to motivate marketing teams to try and distance themselves from the stigmatized label by classifying their stories as "thrillers" or the dreaded "elevated horror." Too many people falsely conflate "horror" with "lowest-common-denominator slop," despite it historically being the most vocally political and profitable to the point of industry-saving subgenres of all time.

This discourse started kicking up earlier this year with the release of Ryan Coogler's "Sinners," undoubtedly one of the best films of 2025, and a movie that people have been quick to try and say "isn't a horror movie," although it's a story about vampires. Debating whether or not "Sinners" is actually a horror movie is pointless, because do you know who does think "Sinners" is a horror movie? Ryan Coogler, who, along with his team, accepted four major wins at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards last night: Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Wide Release, and Best Score.

Nicolas Cage, an Academy Award winner who also previously won the Best Actor Chainsaw Award for his performance in "Mandy," was awarded the Best Supporting Performance statue this year for his role as the titular character in "Longlegs." Cage not only submitted a video acceptance speech for the show directed by Michael Varrati, which is now available to stream on Shudder, but also took the time in his speech to acknowledge why he views the award as such an honor.

"I think that the horror filmgoing community is amongst the most discerning fans and the purest in filmmaking enthusiasts, cinema-going enthusiasts," Cage said. "Whether it's in the construction or just viewing and enjoying the film, you are the purest and most discerning fans, so it means a lot." Cage is a Hollywood institution in and of himself and has achieved the kind of career most people can only dream of having. If he's willing to go to bat for horror, there's absolutely no existing justification for anyone else in the industry to look down their nose at it.

Pierre-Olivier Persin, the Academy Award and BAFTA Award-winning special effects artist of "The Substance," won the Chainsaw Award for Best Creature Design, while he and Stéphanie Guillon took home the award for Best Makeup FX. In Persin's acceptance speech, he mentioned how difficult it was growing up for him to get his hands on a copy of Fangoria Magazine in France, but that once he got his hands on one, he'd devour the images. "I still cherish those issues," he said. "And they made me dream big time." Had he not been exposed to the behind-the-scenes monster making that Fangoria embraces, it's difficult to say whether or not Persin would have actually pursued the art of practical effects and become an Oscar winner.

The big winner of the night was Ryan Coogler, who not only made sure every award was received and thanked by a member of the creative team, but also presented an award along with his producing partner, Sev Ohanian. Two-time Academy Award-winning composer Ludwig Göransson also provided an acceptance speech for winning Best Score, but the real magic was watching Coogler thank influential filmmakers during his acceptance speech for Best Director — namedropping the legendary Ernest Dickerson — only to moments later, be informed by Dickerson himself, that "Sinners" had won Best Wide Release.

This is a man who was named the runner-up of TIME's Person of the Year in 2018, has been the recipient of 10 NAACP Image Awards and four Black Reel Awards, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Grammy Award. And yet the joy on his face when delivering his acceptance speeches was palpable. He thanked his crew, his cast, his supporters, his inspirations, and the horror fans who have supported him. "Thanks for making my first horror script so successful," he said, indicating that "Sinners" won't be the last time Coogler plays in the scary sandbox.

Oscar nomination voting doesn't begin until January 12, 2026, but "Sinners" already has massive buzz surrounding it, and Coogler isn't trying to hide the fact that the film is firmly a part of the horror genre. Plenty of actors got their start in the industry working in horror, but have been conditioned to look back on those years with embarrassment at best or ignominy at worst. In reality, there is no shame in working in horror, and folks should be proud to have contributed to the genre. If folks like Cage and Coogler aren't sheepish, there's no reason for anyone else to be.