The Academy used to respect horror films, to a degree.

In 1931, they at least let Fredric March’s Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde turn tie with Wallace Beery’s The Champ for Best Actor.

These days, Daniel Day Lewis’ Jason Vorhees could bear down on Oscar holding a bloody machete and a bunch of flowers and the golden bugger wouldn’t so much as glance in his general direction.

But what if things were different? What if the Academy had always held horror flicks to its sentimental old heart? We reckon past winners would suddenly look a lot like this.

Halloween (1978)

Should’ve Won: Best Director – John Carpenter

Who Actually Won That Year: Michael Cimino for The Deer Hunter

Why Carpenter Deserved It More: The Deer Hunter is a film full of performance powerhouses. Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep, all at the summit of their skills. A headless giraffe could point a camera at that trio and get a decent film from the footage.

John Carpenter, on the other hand, managed to take a cast of unknowns – including one wearing a William Shatner mask and create one of the most influential films of all time.

We’d wager you’ve seen Halloween more times than you can count, whereas you can probably add the amount of Deer Hunter viewings you’ve had on the two fingers we’d like to give the Academy for ignoring JC's masterpiece.

What Carpenter Should Have Done: Included a scene where Myers takes off his mask and gives a lengthy speech about his tour of duty in ‘ Nam.

Either that or included a scene where Myers makes a couple of his victims flip a coin to decide who gets a knife to the forehead first.