Shudder Should Bring Back the Scream Awards
It might surprise some of you to find out that I had quite the overactive imagination as a young child. Alright, maybe I still do? Have you ever remembered something from your youth and wondered if maybe it was just a fever dream? For instance, when I was six, I got this gnarly stomach virus and the medicine they gave me knocked me out and made me insanely loopy. I could only remember odd occurrences my parents told me about. Like how in the middle of the day in July, I leapt up on the couch and began jumping up and down, demanding my Halloween candy. When I was informed that Halloween was still a ways off and I had no such thing, I retreated back to my blanket cocoon and cried about how much I missed Halloween. (I think we all can relate to six-year-old Violet there) Or how one night I had fallen asleep to my Darkwing Duck cartoons and awoke to RoboCop crawling out of my TV. I was petrified of RoboCop up until I was about twenty-two and gave the movie its well deserved re-watch. I honestly can’t believe it took me that long.
Anyways, something I constantly find myself wracking my brain over was an awards show on Spike T.V. that started in 2006. (I saw in some instances that it started in 2005, but I couldn’t find any solid evidence of that) The Scream Awards were so very special to me. Even as a big movie buff, I have always found the Oscars and SAG awards just mediocre, especially with not including my favorite genre of movie in more instances than not. I remember the Scream Awards shedding light and honor to horror, fantasy, sci-fi, and comic book movies that the other shows just didn’t give credit to. With awards such as most memorable mutilation, scream queen, and the holy shit / jump from your seat- why wouldn’t any horror fan be glued to their screen? The Devil’s Rejects took home best horror film that year along with the gushing eye removal from Eli Roth’s Hostel as most memorable mutilation and the holy shit award. In all fairness, have you ever been able to look at any homogeneous yellow sauce the same since?
In 2007, the Scream Awards shortened their name to simply Scream 2007 and continued to dominate my attention as the intro was an audience participation Saw trap. If the audience could stay silent for 10 seconds, the man would live and of course, what horror junkie audience wanted to let that happen? Shia LaBeouf presented and he was recognized for his work in Transformers and Disturbia as he announced Harrison Ford had one the very first instances of the Hero Award. His acceptance speech started with, “This is not your mama’s award show” before going on to appreciate how thankful he was to have a show such as Scream, to acknowledge films that the academy didn’t even know existed. He was right and still is. Kevin Smith followed him up to announce the best female superhero. The night carried on as musical acts Avenged Sevenfold, Ozzy Osbourne and a collaboration of Slash, Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie undoubtedly knocked everyone’s socks off.
Unfortunately, in 2011, the Scream Awards aired for the last time on Spike T.V. No musical guests performed, but Nicholas Cage was awarded the ‘Maverick Award’. If only the awards show could have seen his performance in Mandy and Color Out of Space. Let Me In won best horror movie, Darren Aranofsky won Best Director for Black Swan, and the most memorable mutilation of the year was the motor boat scalping from Piranha 3D. The night came to a close, and the awards show was never heard from again.
This awards show was used to promote genres that deserved to be recognized. Whose actors would never walk an awards show carpet and were given awards that may not have meant fuck all to the academy, but should have been a showing to the creators. Horror has become a little more accepted in the film society, with Get Out winning Best Screenplay and The Shape of Water winning Best Picture. Yet we see films like Hereditary, The VVitch, and numerous other horror films with great performances, writing, visuals, and special effects- get passed up year after year after year.
In conclusion, I think things like the Chainsaw Awards and various websites, podcasts, and YouTube channels that bring light to horror and science fiction films are great! But wouldn’t it be something to tune into Shudder TV for a live stream of an awards show for horror and things of the like? I for one would be ready to break the internet again like Joe Bob Brigg’s return to the drive-in did, if it meant watching directors, actors, writers, and stunt people being graced with the credit that they more than deserve for their hard work in horror.
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