This is the simplest age to define because the words definitively describe it. The movies in this era are all silent. The first horror film is usually considered to be the 1896 Georges Melies short, Le Moanoir du diable (The House of the Devil), released in the UK as The Devil’s Castle in December of 1897, and in the United States as The Haunted Castle. Like it, other early horror films were shorts that either depicted supernatural events or were adapted from literature; for example, by Edgar Allan Poe and Dante.
Horror characters that remain iconic in horror today first appeared during the Silent Age and have been made (and remade) over and over again:
Frankenstein (1910). Based on the novel by Mary Shelley (16 min.)
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1912). Based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson (12 min.)
Nosferatu (1922). Unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (94 min.)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923). Based on the novel by Victor Hugo (133 min.)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925). Based on the novel by Gaston Leroux (93 min.)
German Expressionist filmmakers were influential during the early years of horror with productions such as:
Der Student von Prag (1913). Directed by Paul Wegener and Stellan Rye (60 min.)
Der Golem (1915). Directed by Henrik Galeen and Paul Wegener (60 min.)
Des Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920). Directed by Robert Wiene (76 min.)
Waxworks (1924). Directed by Leo Birinski and Paul Leni (65 min.)
Nosferatu (1922). Directed by F.W. Murnau (94 min.)
Though many of these were not considered “horror” movies at the time, they nevertheless contained horror themes, with macabre elements included within them. Looking back on them now, we consider them, at least in part, to be horror films. For example:
The Unholy Three (1925). Directed by Tod Browning (86 min.)
The Magician (1926). Directed by Rex Ingram (83 min.)
The Cat & the Canary (1927). Directed by Paul Leni (82 min.)
The Man Who Laughs (1928). Directed by Paul Leni (110 min.)
Because he frequently portrayed disfigured characters utilizing groundbreaking makeup that he designed himself, Lon Chaney was known as “The Man of a Thousand Faces,” and was the first horror star. He was Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera, as well as a number of other misshapen human creatures.
Balaoo the Demon Baboon (1913)
The Blackbird (1926)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
The Cat & the Canary (1927)
Der Golem (1915)
Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920)
Destiny (1921)
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1920)
Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922)
Eerie Tales (1919)
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
Faust (1926)
The Haunted Castle (1921)
Haunted Spooks (1920)
Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922)
He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
The Last Man on Earth (1924)
The Lodger, A Story of the London Fog (1927)
London After Midnight (1927)
The Magician (1926)
The Man Who Laughs (1928)
Metropolis (1927)
The Monster (1925)
Mr. Wu (1927)
Nosferatu (1922)
A Page of Madness (1926) aka Kurutta Ippeiji
The Penalty (1920)
The Phantom Carriage (1922)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
The Show (1927)
The Student of Prague (1913)
The Unholy Three (1925)
The Unknown (1927)
Waxworks (1929)
West of Zanzibar (1928)
Woman in the Moon (1929)
Classic Horrors Club 