At the 82nd annual Golden Globes held on January 5, Demi Moore, who has been working steadily in Hollywood for decades, won the first ever competitive acting award thanks to Coralie Fargit's horror hit "The Substance."

Moore beat out some strong competition to win Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, including Cynthia Erivo in Wicked: Part One and Mikey Madison in Anora, and her powerful speech about how women in the entertainment industry are constantly trying to measure up to a truly impossible standard was nothing if not deeply inspiring. Despite apparently being told by some stupid studio executives that she would never be anything more than a "popcorn actress," Moore stood proudly on stage at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, telling women around the world, "In those moments when not "I think we're smart enough or pretty or skinny enough or successful enough or basically just not enough - I had a woman say to me, 'Just know, you'll never be enough, but you can know the value of your value if you just lower the measuring stick.''

All of which means that, thanks to her absolutely stunning performance as fading star Elizabeth Sparkle in The Substance and her galvanizing awards speech, Moore has a very real shot at earning an Oscar nomination for her role. If it did, it would mean that the star of a horror movie could achieve this prestigious acting accolade, defying them the Academy's longstanding bias against horror. In recent years, the incredible performances of Toni Collette in Hereditary, Lupita Nyong'o in Us and Florence Pugh in Midsummer have all been dismissed.

If Moore continues to win An Oscar for "The Substance," she will join a very small group of performers who have received their statuettes for horror films. Here are the only six actors who have ever accomplished this very specific feat.

The Academy Awards held its first ceremony in 1929, and just a few years after that, the first actor to win for a role in a horror film took home an award. Specifically, Frederick March, a wildly versatile performer known for his roles in A Star Is Born (the 1937 version with Janet Gaynor) and 1951's Death of a Salesman. However, before any of those projects, March won two Oscars for his starring role in 1931's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a classic horror film directed by Rouben Mamoulian. (Technically, March tied up for an Oscar with Wallace Beerywho appeared in "The Champ", which is definitely a throwback.)

If you're a horror fan, you're probably at least a little familiar with the story of mild-mannered Dr. Henry Jekyll, who works in Victorian England and strongly believes in the dichotomy between good and evil—and who also creates a terrifying potion that turns him into the vile, evil Mr. Edward Hyde. As Hyde, the good doctor does all kinds of horrible, horrible things... and there's no doubt that March, who perfectly embodies Jekyll and Hyde in the film, deserves an Oscar - for a horror film, no less! — in the first decade of the award's existence.

Based on Ira Levin's 1967 novel of the same name, Rosemary's Baby - directed by the now disgraced Roman Polanski - is undoubtedly one of the best and most important horror films ever made, and also features one of the only horror film performances to ever win an Oscar. Mia Farrow stars as Rosemary Woodhouse, who moves into a luxury Manhattan apartment building with her husband Guy (John Cassavetes) and finds herself surrounded by a group of people who seem a lot interested in the lives of Guy and Rosemary. That cabal includes husband and wife Roman and Minnie Castvet, played by Sidney Blackmer and Ruth Gordon, who give Rosemary a talisman necklace and a slightly drugged chocolate pudding that eventually allows the vow to impregnate Rosemary with the devil's child. .

It's Gordon unbelievable creepy as Ruth, who hovers around Rosemary and pretends to be a motherly companion until her true, sinister game is revealed. Even though Roman ostensibly runs the coven, it is Minnie who controls Roman and thus controls absolutely everything in the overall narrative. Gordon absolutely deserved this Oscar.

Kathy Bates is one of the most respected actors in all of Hollywood, and there's no denying that her portrayal of Annie Wilkes—the deranged, obsessive fan of author Paul Sheldon (James Caan)—made sure everyone knew exactly how good she was. is at her job. Rob Reiner and William Goldman, who previously worked together as director and screenwriter on The Princess Bride (a a lot different movie, to be sure), adapted Stephen King's 1987 novel of the same name to great effect, and the film wouldn't succeed if the performer playing Annie wasn't top-notch. Fortunately, Bates is.

We first meet Annie after Paul, who is traveling through dangerous weather from Colorado to New York City after working on his latest book—he's known for a series of romance novels centered around a character named Misery Chastain—ends up in the car. Annie, who is a nurse, takes him in and promises to help him get well soon. Unfortunately for Paul, Annie reads his latest manuscript, Misery Chastain, and realizes that he's killing off the character in hopes of moving on to more serious work. Outraged, she keeps him in prison and forces him to revive the character and write a new book. Bates' performance as Annie is truly the stuff of legend, making it relatively unsurprising that she won an Oscar for the role - even though it was in a horror movie.

Anthony Hopkins made a complete upset in 2021 when he won an Oscar for playing a cognitively challenged old man in The Father, but it wasn't his first Oscar win. He won that award for a much more outstanding role. In Jonathan Demme's 1991 horror masterpiece The Silence of the Lambs, Hopkins plays psychiatrist-turned-serial-killer (and cannibal) Hannibal Lecter, who agrees to sit down with FBI agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster, and we we'll get back to her in just a moment) to discuss the new serial killer on the block. The new guy, Jaime "Buffalo Bill" Gumb, is based on Ed Gein, and if you're on everyone familiar with Gein, you'll know how depraved Buffalo Bill is even if you haven't seen this movie.

Hopkins is undeniably brilliant as Hannibal, a calm, cool and collected man who can read Clarice like a book. After another inmate attacks her during her visit to the prison, Hannibal becomes strangely protective of Clarice and even confides in her after she manages to escape from the prison. Hopkins went on to play Hannibal again in 2001's Hannibal and 2002's The Red Dragon - which, along with The Silence of the Lambs, were based on the Thomas Harris novels - but he only won an Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs ", and it's easy to see why.

Anthony Hopkins is undeniably great in The Silence of the Lambs, but he's lucky to have a pretty phenomenal co-star in Jodie Foster, who took home Best Actress the same night Hopkins won Best Actor. I've already explained that Clarice begins the film by sitting down with Hannibal Lecter while he's in prison to try to gain some insight into the killer's mind, and although many viewers may associate the film with just Hopkins and Hopkins, the guy appears on screen only in Jonathan Demme's film about sixteen minutes. This is truly a Foster film.

Foster has been acting since she was three years old - debuting in A healthy ad for Coppertone - and with The Silence of the Lambs, she cemented her place in Hollywood history and made sure no one would ever doubt her immense talent. As Clarice, Foster serves as the audience's surrogate and the hero of the story, who eventually found and brought down Buffalo Bill, and even saved his latest victim in the process. Foster actually won a Golden Globe for True Detective: Night Country the same night Demi Moore took home the award, proving the actress is as well-regarded as ever. Perhaps Moore will join Foster in the exclusive club of Oscar-winning horror actors.

The latest Oscar-winning horror performance is also one of the most disturbing — and to be honest, Natalie Portman's incredible turn in 2014's Black Swan paved the way for roles like Elizabeth Sparkle in Substance. " In Darren Aronofsky's deeply disturbing ballet thriller, Portman plays Nina Sayers, a prima ballerina desperate to play the dual lead in the New York City Ballet's latest production of Swan Lake. Unfortunately, the company's artistic director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) doesn't think so. that she can achieve it. As she tells Nina, she is perfectly capable of dancing Odette, the gentle, graceful White Swan, but he doesn't think she has the necessary darkness to play Odile, the wily and cunning Black Swan.

Nina throws herself into training like crazy - spurred on by her ambitious stage mother Erica (Barbara Hershey) - but when new dancer Lily (Mila Kunis) joins the company and Thomas immediately praises Lily's smooth performance style, it puts Nina on the edge. She begins experiencing terrifying visions and hallucinations, especially after a wild night out with Lily. In case you haven't seen the surreal ending of Black Swan, I won't spoil it here. Suffice it to say that Portman, a Hollywood veteran, absolutely deserved an Oscar for her outstanding performance.