The In Memoriam section of the Academy Awards is an annual acknowledgement of industry figures who died in the previous year. This year’s rundown, however, has people talking for its high number of glaring omissions. Audiences picked up on several prominent names left off the reel, such as Luke Perry, Cameron Boyce and Jan-Michael Vincent, and one oversight that has genre fans particularly incensed was that of Sid Haig.
Haig, who sadly passed away in September, may not be a name that every film fan can immediately place, but he’s highly regarded among the genre community for a career that spanned sixty years and is approaching 150 separate credits. And his exclusion, whether by intent or oversight, is being taken as a further example of the horror genre being treated with disdain by those who make ‘proper’ and ‘true’ cinema.
I hate to bitch about the In Memoriam segment of the #Oscars every year so I'm not even going to. Just want to say RIP Sid Haig, an acting legend who will be forever missed by so many. Never forget Sid Haig. pic.twitter.com/nPMfYBu6zU
— John Squires 🎃 (@FreddyInSpace) February 10, 2020
We all know what Captain Spaulding's response to Sid Haig being left off the tribute would be – "Fuck yo mamma! Fuck yo sister! Fuck yo grandma! But most of all… FUCK YOU!” #AcademyAwards #Oscar2020 #oscars #inmemorium pic.twitter.com/5bUlHHj4nM
— Colin C (@RealDealColin) February 10, 2020
Fuck you @TheAcademy. You forgot SID HAIG! The man worked in film for over 50 years and had over 100 credits to his name! He was a national treasure. You should be ashamed of yourself. pic.twitter.com/FWRDp9Wy9M
— Jason Baker (@bakingjason) February 10, 2020
The Oscars forgot this guys picture during showing those who left us since the last Oscars ceremony. Sid Haig. pic.twitter.com/k0N3Bhykpd
— Lance (@itslanceypants) February 10, 2020
#Oscars didn't even include Sid Haig in the segment of the actors that passed. I mean, like what?
— Rube Waddell (Insert Blue Check) (@BKsquadx5) February 10, 2020
https://twitter.com/evil_dead_queen/status/1226830458945724416
If you can’t include everyone in a memoriam video at the Oscars then you probably shouldn’t do it at all. Sid Haig and Luke Perry were ya know… kinda big deals.
— Mike Settle Jr (@settleml92) February 10, 2020
I knew the Oscars was gonna be trash when they didn't put Sid Haig in the memorial slide show they do.
— Auvers Blue (@CoopNyl) February 10, 2020
https://twitter.com/HallowQueen666/status/1226837990267334657
https://twitter.com/Raddish72/status/1226852713574604800
RIP Sig Haig who is a horror icon and should have been mentioned in the Oscar tribute<3 #horror #MutantFam #Oscars pic.twitter.com/AyFOGhgbgV
— Adrian Podilla (@Mr_CoCoNutss) February 10, 2020
https://twitter.com/Milwaukeezack/status/1226840995658182656
Of course, hundreds of people involved in the film industry die each year, some tragically, most naturally, and to feature every single one of them would be impractical. That said, the number of people who were left out this time is certainly indicative of something having gone wrong in how the list was compiled. Often, many people featured will be unfamiliar to contemporary audiences, but even that isn’t an excuse, what with Haig’s increased presence in recent years with his role as Captain Spaulding in Rob Zombie’s saga of the murderous Firefly clan: House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects, and to a reduced extent 3 From Hell.
Despite his passing, there are still two further movies he completed before his death that’ll be released posthumously this year, the Jewish-focused slasher flick Hanukkah and horror Abruptio, meaning Sid Haig will still be remembered by the people who were actually invested in his career, even if mainstream Hollywood wasn’t.