This is the first horror movie ever made
First Horror Movie – Scary or horror movies are often associated with the celebration of Halloween and many people around the world have observed the tradition of watching this genre of films during this time of the year.
With the technology in filmmaking decades ago, the first-ever horror movie made is maybe no longer considered scary nowadays. French filmmaker Georges Méliès released the Le Manoir du Diable in 1896. In the United States of America, this was released as The Haunted Castle.
The scary movie was about a bat that turns into the titular devil Mephistopheles. Méliès created this movie with cutting-edge special effects during that time.
Back then, he was the first filmmaker to create narrative movies. He was known for experimenting with storylines and special effects within the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
On YouTube, the soundtrack sounds like a weird little lullaby and this did give the scary atmosphere that the movie should had. However, the movie features some fun 19th-century special effects. A few of which may be the first ever to appear on film.
Some of these scenes were Mephistopheles summons a fair maiden out of a large cauldron to kick off the story, people appear and disappear in clouds of smoke, bats suddenly take human forms, and our protagonist dons a cloak of invisibility and vanishes. However, some scenes were leaning toward the funny side such as the scene when Mephistopheles’s demon friend pokes people in the butt.
At that time, Méliès contemporaries, like the Lumière brothers and Thomas Edison, were more on documentary-style films. Nowadays, Méliès’s films are less famous than the work of Edison but the former’s works were more entertaining. Edison’s films featured subjects like a dancer named Carmencita, Annie Oakley demonstrating her sharp-shooting skill, Eugen Sandow flexing his muscles, and an anonymous couple sharing the first screen kiss.