The origins of the horror film are hazy. Although solidified as a genre name in the early 1930s, the ideas that eventually led to horror movies probably began with the 1896 George Méliès offering “The House of the Devil” (“Le Manoir du diable”). This trick film features many of the macabre elements that would later become horror. The Devil enters an old castle in the form of a bat. We see him conjuring all kinds of magic—an Igor-like assistant, a cauldron, a skeleton, ghosts, and witches. So much of what would feature as the genre developed is here already. Others have pointed out that Méliès didn’t produce this film with the intention to scare. It was a three-minute set of trick photography with typical exaggerated gestures and stage-magician tricks. Still, there’s something there for horror fans. Especially those of us pressed for time.
Image credit: George Méliès, public domain via Wikimedia Commons
The film itself is easily and freely found on the internet. It is sometimes mistaken with “The Haunted Castle,” which was a remake lasting only 45 seconds, that came out the next year. George Méliès was a visionary in many ways and his techniques in this film would pave the way for both independent producers and Hollywood studios as the early forms of the genre appeared. “House of the Devil” also shows several tropes that will become standard vampire fare. The Devil transforms from a bat, he wears a cape, and is frightened off by a cross held aloft. This was a year before Bram Stoker’s Dracula was published. The idea of making films scary in their own right would be a later development, but these early pieces of cinema contain many of the elements we would later associate with horror.
It’s difficult to imagine these days, but in the 1920s the Disney short “Skeleton Dance” was considered too macabre for children. (I discuss this in my book, Sleepy Hollow as American Myth.) There was furor after the release of Dracula in 1931 with some critics finding no redeeming value in it. Horror films had a difficult road to acceptance, which is still true today. They weren’t regularly called horror films until the early thirties, although they existed before that. Some are for lighter entertainment, like Méliès’ work. Comedy horrors are a popular sub-genre. Even today they continue to be made and are more funny than scary. Think Scary Movie, Shaun of the Dead, Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter. And many, many others. George Méliès showed what film could do. And he inadvertently created the first horror movie.
