10 Landmark Movies That Were The First Of Their Kind

10. The First Horror Movie - The Haunted Castle

Decades before Frankenstein and Dracula became the first household names in horror films due to their hit 1931 movies, George Melies created the first horror film in 1896. Essentially it€™s about a warlock/vampire in a pretty modest castle who creates some monsters in a cauldron and then menaces an everyman hero before being subdued by a cross. Today it seems more like a play by particularly enthusiastic high school students than a horror film, particularly when you consider that at about three minutes into the running time part of the set starts to fall over. Still, using the trick of €œstop the camera, change something, start the camera again€ to make skeletons and beasts suddenly appear is a nice touch, and the film offers photographic proof that the sort of jump scares favoured by the horror crap of today like the Paranormal Activity movies really are the oldest trick in the book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPmKaz3Quzo
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

A librarian, but don't hold that against him.