History of Horror – Part 1 (The Beginning)

Horror cinema is in a way as old as cinema itself. This is often a grey area and highly debated, with many different opinions on what is actually the first ‘Horror Film’. The term horror movie probably didn’t enter our vocabulary or become its own entity until the Universal Monster movies of the 1930’s. However if we refer to the term as drawing on Gothic elements, the intent to shock or surprise, and the supernatural, then we can certainly trace it back to the early years of film making.

I could ramble on in detail about the history of cinema, the history of gothic literature, folklore and so on but if I did that then it would be a never ending saga and would potentially take years just to reach Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931)! I did debate, but the starting point of this series just became further and further in the past. So I am purely going to concentrate on the history of horror as portrayed in movies and in cinema (and maybe tv). I can always delve further back at another time.

As I mentioned this is very much a matter of opinion, but if pressed on the question, I would probably quote The Execution of Mary Stuart (1895) as the beginning of horror cinema. Literally a few seconds long, it depicts the titled queen being beheaded at a public execution, although not particularly historically accurate.

It was produced by Thomas Edison – Yes that’s right the famous inventor was also head of one of the first film distribution companies, Edison Manufacturing Company as well as the first official film studio. The Black Maria in New Jersey, was built and opened in the early 1890’s. They went onto release many important films in the history of cinema over the next decade or two, such as Frankenstein (1910) which will revisit, and The Great Train Robbery (1903).

Now The Execution of Mary Stuart wasn’t meant to terrify viewers even back then, and was intended to be more of an entertaining shock than anything. Films were still very much a new medium at the time, and these shorts were often viewed in fairs and the like individually through a peep-hole, or as part of a variety act or vaudeville show. And so their intent was to draw people in and entertain for a short amount of time, before the punters moved on to the next act or stall. However, I find this one important in relation to cinema history, especially horror, for two particular reasons (and this is probably why it is still widely known today):

1 : Jump Scare

You could argue the unexpected and shocking beheading was the beginnings of the modern jump scare. Although not meant to terrify, the impressive effect on film meant the audience would have probably been caught by surprise, followed by the grim image of the executioner holding up poor Mary’s head. Although a jump scare is almost impossible to pull off without more time to set up the tension, and without a sudden loud musical sting, the intent is definitely here over 125 years ago.

2 : Special Effects

As far as we can tell, this was also the first example of a special effect in film. Using the classic ‘stop trick’ technique, the camera was stopped before the axe came down. The actor was then replaced with a dummy, camera started again, as the axe came down and removed the head. To think it was one of if not the first venture into these kind of tricks, it still holds up as a fairly seamless transition in my opinion. This makes the short film not only important in horror circles, but also for cinema in general as this would be the beginning of one of the most famous special effect techniques that would dominate the next few decades. Although others would also find this method independently themselves, more on this later. Interestingly it is also widely suggested it was the first film to use trained actors, but this is very difficult to confirm.

Edison, along with the Lumière Brothers and Georges Méliès, dominated the turning of the century, each with their own areas of development and expertise. Although I’ve referenced The Execution of Mary Stuart in this post, Méliès would go on the following year in 1896 to create what is probably more often regarded as the ‘first horror film’. We’ll delve into this and more of Méliès in the next post.

Stay tuned.

TCM

Recommended Viewing:

• The Execution of Mary Stuart (1895)