What was the first ever horror movie?
Horror film
The first depictions of the supernatural on screen appear in several of the short silent films created by the French pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès in the late 1890s. The best known of these supernatural-based works is the 3-minute short film Le Manoir du Diable (1896), also known in English as The Haunted Castle or The House of the Devil. The film is sometimes credited as being the first ever horror film.[7] In The Haunted Castle, a mischievous devil appears inside a medieval castle and harasses the visitors. Méliès' other popular horror film is La Caverne maudite (1898), which translates literally to "the accursed cave". The film, also known for its English title The Cave of the Demons, tells the story of a woman stumbling over a cave that is populated by the spirits and skeletons of people who died there.[7] Méliès would also make other short films that historians consider now as horror-comedies. Une nuit terrible (1896), which translates to A Terrible Night, tells a story of a man who tries to get a good night's sleep but ends up wrestling a giant spider. His other film, L'auberge ensorcelée (1897), or The Bewitched Inn, features a story of a hotel guest getting pranked and tormented by an unseen presence.[8]
Scream queen
The use of women in horror films dates back to the silent film era, with films such as "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920) and "Nosferatu" (1922). George Feltenstein, film historian and senior vice president of theatrical catalog marketing at Warner Home Video, states, "Women screaming in terror has been a Hollywood mainstay — even when films were silent". One of the first scream queens in the talkies was Fay Wray, as her character in "King Kong" (1933) spent a good part of her interactions with the ape shrieking in terror. Barbara Steele, who is best remembered as Mario Bava’s muse in the Italian gothic horror masterpiece, "Black Sunday" (1960), can also be considered as one of the greatest scream queens in horror history due to her constant appearances as the female protagonist in Italian horror films. She was adept at playing the damsel in distress or the monster, and her exotic looks separated her from the stereotypical blonde starlets featured in countless horror films.