Last night was the start of the 2025 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, the annual celebration and tribute to outstanding achievements in horror film and television. It is also the place where serious injustices are often remedied. For example, after Toni Collette was snubbed at the Oscars for her brilliant performance in Ari Aster’s “Hereditary,” she received the Best Actress award at the Chainsaw Awards in 2019. The following year, Lupita Nyong’o was also honored for her Oscar performance in Jordan Peele’s “Us.” This year, Demi Moore won the Chainsaw for Best Lead Performance for her career-best performance (so far) in “The Substance,” a doubly exciting honor considering that the Chainsaws no longer separates performance awards based on gender.
Major awards bodies have historically struggled to recognize the achievements of talent found in horror films, and while there are certainly signs of improvement this year, negative bias continues to motivate marketing teams to try to distance themselves from the stigmatized label by classifying their stories as “thrillers” or dreaded “thrillers.”pupil horror. » Too many people mistakenly confuse “horror” with “lowest common denominator slop”, despite it being historically the most political and profitable subgenre of all time, to the point of saving the industry.
This discourse began earlier this year with the release of Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” undoubtedly one of the best films of 2025, and a film that people were quick to try to say “isn’t a horror film”, despite it being a vampire story. Wondering whether or not “Sinners” is In fact a horror movie is useless, because do you know who do Do you think “Sinners” is a horror film? Ryan Coogler, who, along with his team, won four major awards at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards last night: Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Wide Release and Best Music.
Real artists understand that “horror” is not a bad word
Nicolas Cage, an Academy Award winner who also won Best Actor in Chainsaw for his performance in “Mandy,” received this year’s Best Supporting Actor statue for his role as the title character in “Longlegs.” Cage not only submitted a video acceptance speech for the Michael Varrati-directed show, which is now available to stream on Shudder, but also took time in his speech to acknowledge Why he considers this award such an honor.
“I think the horror movie community is some of the most demanding and purest fans of cinema,” Cage said. “Whether it’s in construction or just watching and enjoying the film, you are the purest, most discerning fans, so it means a lot.” Cage is a Hollywood institution in his own right and has achieved the kind of career most people can only dream of. If he’s willing to fight for horror, there’s absolutely no justification for anyone in the industry to look down on him.
Oscar- and BAFTA Award-winning special effects artist Pierre-Olivier Persin for “The Substance” won the Chainsaw Award for Best Creature Design, while he and Stéphanie Guillon won Best Makeup. In his acceptance speech, Persin mentioned how difficult it was for him growing up to get his hands on a copy of Fangoria magazine in France, but that once he had one, he would devour the images. “I always cherish these questions,” he said. “And they made me dream big.” Had he not been exposed to the behind-the-scenes monster creation that Fangoria embraces, it’s hard to say whether Persin would have actually pursued the art of practical effects and become an Oscar winner.
Sinners won big and deserves an Oscar repeat
The big winner of the night was Ryan Coogler, who not only ensured that each award was received and thanked by a member of the creative team, but also presented an award alongside his producing partner, Sev Ohanian. Two-time Academy Award-winning composer Ludwig Göransson also gave an acceptance speech for the Best Score award, but the real magic was seeing Coogler thank influential filmmakers during his acceptance speech for Best Director – naming the legendary Ernest Dickerson – moments later. by Dickerson himself, that “Sinners” had won the award for best broadcast.
This is a man who was named a finalist for TIME’s Person of the Year award in 2018, received 10 NAACP Image Awards and four Black Reel Awards, and was nominated for two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Grammy Award. And yet, the joy on his face during his acceptance speech was palpable. He thanked his crew, his cast, his supporters, his inspirations and the horror fans who supported him. “Thank you 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.
Voting for Oscar nominations doesn’t begin until January 12, 2026, but “Sinners” is already making a lot of noise around it, and Coogler isn’t trying to hide the fact that the film is firmly in the horror genre. Many 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’s no shame in working in horror, and people should be proud to have contributed to the genre. If people like Cage and Coogler aren’t sheepish, there’s no reason anyone else should be.
