The First Horror Film

Apr 26, 2024

While we did not use the term "horror film" at the time, tales of terror and intrigue have been put on film as long as the medium has existed.

Regardless of genre, all early film looks creepy. The image is shaky and flickering and the playback speeds are often incongruous with how real people move in the world. Early film audiences wrote about how creepy film was

Last night I was in the Kingdom of Shadows.
If you only knew how strange it is to be there. It is a world without sound, without color. Everything there—the earth, the trees, the people, the water and the air—is dipped in monotonous gray. Gray rays of the sun across the gray sky, gray eyes in gray faces, and the leaves of the trees are ashen gray. It is not life but its shadow, it is not motion but its soundless specter.
-Maxim Gorky, 1896

According to film historian Karina Wilson, early films adapted stories and techniques that were first used in phantasmagorical theater that was popular in mid-late 19th century Europe and North America.

In the final decade of the century, films were small vignettes capturing a scene or exploring what the new medium could do.

Historians of the genre often cite Le Manoir Du Diable (1896) as the earliest known horror narrative on film.

The 3 minute film uses acting styles, props, sets, and puppetry of theater. The film creates a sense of fantasy rather than horror. While the horror genre wouldn't solidify for another few decades, retrospectively we identify this short film as horror. In fact, the film evokes images of fantasy and wonder, more than fear. But themes of devils and demons get chucked into the Horror genre, regardless of intent. I personally don’t think it’s a horror film. I understand the eagerness to shove this fantasy short into that genre box, but it doesn’t invoke horror to me. I’d argue that early adaptions of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein should be credited with being the first horror picture. It’s impossible to truly decide what the ‘first horror film is” because the horror genre did not exist yet. Scary stuff has been at the core of stories as long as people have been communicating with each other, but the tropes of a genre take time to establish themselves and, even today, plays and film may bend genre in ways that defy category.

In Le Manoir Du Diable, you'll notice that the entire film is shot by a single stationary camera. Early cameras were huge and required a lot of light on the scene to capture an image. It is through these technical limitations that filmmakers continued to explore and expand upon what could be achieved in the medium.

Early film technology did not have the capacity to capture or play back audio recordings alongside the image. The earliest films used dramatic acting and gestures to convey meaning, as the actor's dialogue could not be captured. In Le Manoir Du Diable, you will notice the actors pantomime shock and awe at the sudden appearances and disappearances of various figures with acting that is much more dramatic and less realistic than today's film acting.

The "title card" or "inter-title", a frame of text with dialogue or plot points written on them, were not utilized until 1903.

However, technology was being developed by the same creatives and inventors who shot the films. Le Manoir was made by Georges Méliès, famous for his contributions to film effects. Méliès had a career as a stage magician, and explored using film as a medium to convey similar illusions. One of the most famous images in film history is Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage Dans la Lune). These Méliès films were more about inventing illusions than narrative.

A Trip to the Moon – Georges Méliès (1902) – Filmy Things for Filmy People

Thank you so much for reading!

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