Caligari вЂњwas the first true horror filmвЂќ-a вЂњsubjective psychological fantasyвЂќ in which вЂњunspeakable horror becomes possible.вЂќ Perhaps.

MurnauвЂ™s terrifying silent Nosferatu from 1922 (and the real life horror of its deceased directorвЂ™s missing head).ДЄnd what about German expressionism? вЂњA case can be made,вЂќ argued Roger Ebert, that Robert WeineвЂ™s 1920 The Cabinet of Dr. But nowadays when we think of horror, we usually think of film-and all of its various contemporary subgenres, includingВ creepy psychological twists on good-old-fashion monster movies, like The Babadook.Д«ut from whence came the horror film? Was it 1931, a banner horror year in which audiences saw both Boris Karloff in James WhaleвЂ™s Frankenstein and Bela Lugosi in Tod BrowningвЂ™s Dracula? Certainly classic films by masters of the genre, but they did not originate the horror movie. Without Walpole, and better-known gothic innovators like Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker, weвЂ™d likely never have had Edgar Allan Poe, H.P.

In literature, graphic descriptions of menace and dismemberment by monsters are as old as Beowulf and much, much older still, though it wasnвЂ™t until Horace WalpoleвЂ™s 18th century novel The Castle of Otranto inspired the gothic romanceВ novel that horror-qua-horror came into fashion.

The hunted castle