10 must-see scares at the Academy Museums killer new horror exhibit

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Set us as preferred When it comes to scary movies, the motion picture academy has historically been a bit squeamish.Horror has been a cornerstone of the industry since the beginning, but Oscar voters have rarely embraced it.

Only one horror film has ever won best picture: 1991’s “The Silence of the Lambs.” Even “Sinners,” which made history this year with a record 16 nominations, couldn’t close the deal.Now, though, horror has gotten inside the house.Opening Saturday and running through July 25, 2027, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’ new exhibition, “The Horror Show,” explores more than a century of horror, from silent-era landmarks “The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari” (1920) and “Nosferatu” (1922) through “Psycho” (1960) and “The Exorcist” (1973) to “Midsommar” (2019) and “Weapons” (2025).

Drawn from the academy’s collection and 62 private lenders around the world, it brings together costumes, props, prosthetics, creatures and production art.Introducing the exhibition at Thursday’s press preview, Robert Englund, who played the razor-fingered Freddy Krueger in the “Nightmare on Elm Street” films, recalled how the genre was once regarded in Hollywood.“Back when I started, we would sort of get the lousy table in the commissary by the kitchen door,” he said.

Now, with the academy mounting an exhibition devoted to horror and the genre continuing to thrive at the box office, Englund added, “I think we’re getting some respect.”Rather than a simple chronological tour through the genre’s history, the exhibition is organized into six themed “chambers” devoted to Gothic horror, psychological horror, science, slashers, religion and ghosts, with settings ranging from a shadowy crypt to a killer’s house and a haunted living room.Senior exhibitions curator Jessica Niebel sa...