The Time Before Horror Films

Welcome everyone, I am your host the Historian of Horror and I would like to begin by stating a fact, I am not an expert on horror cinema. I would consider myself a student and fan of the genre, having viewed over 1000+ films and read as much literature on the subject that I can find. However, the fact remains that I am not an expert in a scholastic sense. The goal of this series is to share my findings and research as I go from year to year highlighting and discussing horror cinema, a genre that I love so much. I will be including some sci-fi, fantasy, and thriller titles as the lines of horror can be blurred and are ultimately subjective. As you go on this journey down horror lane with me I hope you will share your thoughts and correct me if I misspeak or provide incorrect information, I am always looking for the truth.  

Today’s article will focus on the time before the release of the first known horror film in 1896  Manoir du diable or The House of the Devil aka The Haunted Castle (US).

As long as humans have been able to communicate we have been sharing stories that scare us. Across every form of media, horror has found its place; literature, folklore, radio, theatre, paintings, etc. I will save the in depth analysis of these other media sources for a different series as each one presents an entire history to explore.While I am focusing strictly on film in this series, I feel it is important to mention some of the highlights of how we arrived at this iconic genre in film.

Ancient Horror 

The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest known surviving story in the world, tells a tale of a hero and king (Gilgamesh) who teams up with a half man/half beast (Enkidu) to journey through a forest and defeat the great guardian Humbaba the terrible, a huge monster that breathed fire and was hideous to look at. The Epic also details the Gods sending down a great bull of heaven to defeat the heroes as well.

From the Ancient Greeks there were tales of horror portrayed through poetry and epics as hideous monsters such as the Medusa, Hydra and Minotaur terrified readers of the ancient world. The god of the underworld Hades was commonly included in stories in great detail which provides plenty of terrible images of what we think of as hell.

The Egyptians believed heavily in the afterlife as shown through hieroglyphics, the design of the pyramids, mummification of their dead and their gods. Anubis, the god of the dead, is a monstrous half jackal/half man that resembles a creature similar to our modern werewolf.  

This tradition of terror has always been maintained through most religious texts with the descriptions of hell, demons, ghosts, witches, vampires, werewolves, etc all described with the intent to keep people from entering down an unrighteous path. Dante Alighieri’s Inferno offers one of the most disturbing descriptions of hell with plenty of horrid imagery as the sinners are sent to specific levels/circles where the punishments are much worse than humans can imagine.  

Every culture has passed down numerous ideologies, mythologies and folklore that are too numerous to mention here, but it is crucial to understand that the tradition of sharing fear and horror have always been with us since the beginning of time. 

Horror Literature in the 1800’s

With thousands of years of various myths, books, folklore and religious influences leading up to the 1800’s the popularity of the Gothic Horror genre had some real momentum in the world of literature.

Gothic Horror

Gothic horror is typically defined as a genre that combines fiction and horror, death, and at times romance. Its origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto. A large number of well known legends and horror icons were created during this period  from famous authors such as;  

  • The Brothers Grimm’s “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” (1812-1858)
  • Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818)
  • Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820)
  • Jane C. Loudon’s The Mummy! (1827)
  • Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831)
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850)
  • The works of Edgar Allan Poe
  • Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), 
  • Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
  • H. G. Wells’ The Invisible Man (1897)
  • Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897)

As you can see from this list, some of the most influential horror icons were created during this period. The majority of these works are still being referenced or re-imagined in today’s media, with film, video games, literature and television shows. 

In addition to the rise of the Gothic Horror genre there were also…

Penny Dreadfuls

Penny Dreadfuls were another popular form of literature in the United Kingdom. These serial books were also referred to as the penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood. The term typically referred to a story published in weekly parts, each costing one penny. First published in the 1830s, penny dreadfuls featured characters such as Sweeney Todd, Dick Turpin and Varney the Vampire. The Guardian described penny dreadfuls as “Britain’s first taste of mass-produced popular culture for the young.” 

With the literary world filled to the brim with stories of horror it only made sense that other emerging technologies would join the fray. 

Horror in Photos

Spirit photography refers to a specific type of photography that seems to portray a spectre at given times. What is really going on, is that the photographer is using double exposures or super impositions to depict these images that we call Ghosts” within a frame of film. This trick photography was popular from the 1860’s onwards, not only among Spiritualists but also among stage musicians and their audiences, who delighted in fakery as entertainment. 

These specialty types of techniques would be mastered by few and adopted onto bigger screens.

Emergence of Cinema

In the late 1800’s the film industry was truly in its infancy as the first major breakthrough came from France, when the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière developed a lightweight, hand-held motion picture camera called the Cinématographe. This device allowed the user to project images onto a large screen. This discovery culminated in the public screening of the Lumière brothers’ short films in Paris on December 28th, 1895. There had been other films made prior to this, however the quality of the Lumiere films surpassed everyone else. 

With the emergence of this technology in cinema and so many rich stories/folktales to pull inspiration from, it seemed only fitting for this red hot genre to make an appearance on the big screen. But first, there needed to be a way to showcase these fantastic stories, and what better way than with theatrical illusions, camera tricks and of course some special effects.

The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots 

Released in 1895, The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots may not be horror in the typical sense but it was the first depiction of a beheading, the first use of trained actors for film and possibly the first use of editing for the purposes of special effects. It was Directed by Alfred Clark and produced by Thomas Edison. Even though the film is only 18 seconds long this was quite shocking for the time as many audience members thought a real woman was beheaded during filming. 

Dawn of the First Horror Film

With the release of The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots film and the fact that many other directors/producers were beginning to enter into the world of cinema, there was plenty of room to try different camera techniques or other tricks commonly utilized in the production of plays. The “first” horror film was around the corner and it would come to us from the legendary Georges Méliès.

That will conclude today’s episode, I hope you enjoyed yourself and will come back as we dive into 1896 and the first horror film The House of the Devil aka The Haunted Castle. 

Sources

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