I'm McGaris and this is post-mortem.

For as long as I can remember, horror has been the red-headed stepchild of cinema.

It's a gutter genre, not respectable, and certainly not worthy of serious consideration.

The authors of scary books, the writers and directors of horror films and television, even the

actors who portray them, were never held in the same esteem as those in the world of respectable drama.

That never really bothered me.

From the time I embraced the genre as a child all the way to now, I've always felt like an outsider,

and that's okay. I never expected our genre to be embraced by the normal trappings of Hollywood adulation and awards. That's why our genre exists, isn't it? To confront us with the unsavory, the unsafe, and the uncomfortable.

Would gowns and tuxedos be a bad thing for horror? Well in a way, yeah, I think they

would. In 1992, however,

however, Silence of the Lambs, a movie no one could deny was a horror film,

swept the Academy Awards.

Yes, it had movie stars, Anthony Hopkins and Jody Foster, among others, and was based on a best-selling novel, but still.

It was about serial killing, cannibalism, and deep dark shit.

It was great for the genre, but it really didn't change things.

But this year, not only did a horror film win best picture,

but it was a monster movie.

Germo del Toro's brilliant The shape of water even had monster sex in it.

Guillermo won for best director too.

But wait, there's more.

Jordan Peels trenchant, funny, frightening shotgun blast to racism was nominated in several

categories and one best original screenplay.

...