What was the first ever horror movie?
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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. 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. 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. 
In 1897, the accomplished American photographer-turned director George Albert Smith created "The X-Ray Fiend" (1897), a horror-comedy that came out a mere two years after x-rays were invented. The film shows a couple of skeletons courting each other. An audience full of people unaccustomed to the idea would have found it frightening and otherworldly. The next year, Smith created the short film "Photographing a Ghost" (1898), consisdered a precursor to the paranormal investigation subgenre. The film portrays three men attempting to photograph a ghost, only to fail time and again as the ghost eludes them and throws chairs.
Japan also made early forays into the horror genre. In 1898, Japanese film company Konishi Honten released two horror films both written by Ejiro Hatta; "Shinin No Sosei" (Resurrection of a Corpse), and "Bake Jizo" (Jizo the Spook) "Shinin No Sosei" told the story of a dead man who comes back to life after having fallen from a coffin that two men were carrying. (the writer Hatta played the dead man, while the coffin-bearers were played by Konishi employees.) Though there are no records of the cast, crew, or plot of "Bake Jizo", it was likely based on the Japanese legend of Jizo statues, believed to provide safety and protection to children. The presence of the word bake—which can be translated to "spook," "ghost," or "phantom"—may imply a haunted or possessed statue. (In Japan, Jizō, or respectfully as "Ojizō-sama", is a beloved divinity who is seen as the guardian of children, and in particular, children who died before their parents. He has been worshipped as the guardian of the souls of "mizuko", the souls of stillborn, miscarried, or aborted fetuses.)
Spanish filmmaker Segundo de Chomón is regarded as the most significant Spanish silent film director in an international context. He was popular for his frequent camera tricks and optical illusions, an innovation that contributed heavily to the popularity of trick films in the period. His famous works include "Satán se divierte" (1907), which translates to "Satan Having Fun", or "Satan at Play"; "La casa hechizada" (1908), or "The House of Ghosts", considered to be one of the earliest cinematic depictions of a haunted house premise; and "Le spectre rouge" (1907) or "The Red Spectre", a collaboration film with French director Ferdinand Zecca about a demonic magician who attempts to perform his act in a mysterious grotto.
Horror film
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This period saw the popularity of horror films in India increasing, with a number of popular titles. "Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche" (released in 1972 and directed by the Ramsay brothers) proved successful, laying the foundation for horror films in the following years. 1976 saw Bollywood's first-ever combination of horror and fantasy in Rajkumar Kohli's "Nagin". The star-studded film proved a major box-office hit. Two years later, Kohli gave Bollywood one of its biggest hits in "Jaani Dushman". It is considered to be the biggest horror movies to have come out from Indian film industry to date by many experts. The film proved to be a cult one and gave inspiration to the upcoming horror movies. Other horror movies released at this time were "Darwaza" (1978), "Jadu Tona" (1977), "Aur Kaun?" (1979) "Saboot", "Gehrayee", "Red Rose", "Guest House", "Dahshat" and "Sannata" (all 1980). "Gehrayee" (inspired by "The Exorcist") saw Padmini Kolhapure playing a young girl (Linda Blair's character in "The Exorcist"), while Rajesh Khanna played a psychotic killer in "Red Rose".
List of Indian horror films
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His first book, "A Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema 1946 – 1972" (1973), the first book-length survey of the British horror film, has according to Kim Newman in 'Sight and Sound' "long been regarded as a trail-blazing classic" and is described by SFX as among the small category of essential books on horror cinema. In it he analyses the films of Hammer and Amicus, and other British horror phenomena, including the works of Michael Reeves and what Pirie referred to as Anglo-Amalgamated's "Sadean Trilogy", beginning with "Horrors of the Black Museum" in 1959. An updated version of Pirie's book, entitled "A New Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema" was published in 2008. Film-maker Martin Scorsese described it as "the best study of British horror movies and an important contribution to the study of British cinema as a whole". Pirie's other film related works include "The Vampire Cinema" (1975) and "Anatomy of the Movies" (1981, as editor).
David Pirie
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The first real horror movie made by the Indian film industry was Kamal Amrohi's "Mahal" in 1949. The film (which starred Ashok Kumar and Madhubala in leading roles) proved a major box office hit, leading Madhubala and Lata Mangeshkar into stardom. Hemant Kumar's "Bees Saal Baad" (released in 1962) was another film which proved to be a box-office success. This film ignited the huge increase in popularity of horror-genre movies in the following years. "Gumnaam" (1965) and "Bhoot Bungla" (also 1965) were some of the other major horror movies which were seen in theaters at this time.
List of Indian horror films
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Blaxploitation is a mix of the words black and exploitation. It makes a point to enforce stereotypes that have been afflicted on African Americans by the so-called white media. The first movie to be considered blaxploitation was "Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song" (1971). Melvin Van Peebles directed, produced, and took the lead role of this hyper sexual film. It is about a male prostitute who is out to fight "[the man]" (white oppression). It spanned a new type of film genre that evolved all the way to what is now the urban blaxploitation horror films of the 21st century.
Blaxploitation horror films
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Michaels' first documentary was "Vampira: The Movie", which profiled Maila Nurmi, the first horror host. The film featured testimonials by Sid Haig, Julie Strain, Kevin Eastman, Forrest Ackerman, Debbie Rochon, John Zacherle, Lloyd Kaufman, Bill Moseley, Cassandra Peterson, Jami Deadly, Jerry Only and horror historian David J. Skal. The score was written and performed by Ari Lehman, the first Jason Voorhies of Friday The 13th. Premiering in October 2006, "Vampira: The Movie" was released on DVD in September 2007 by Alpha Video, and won a Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award in 2008 for Best Independent Production.
Kevin Sean Michaels
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The 1980s saw a wave of gory "B movie" horror films – although most of them were poorly reviewed by critics, many became cult classics and later saw success with critics. A significant example is Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" movies, which were low-budget gorefests but had a very original plotline which was later praised by critics. In the Philippines, the first "Shake, Rattle & Roll" (1984) was released. The horror anthology film became a behemoth franchise in the country in the next decade.
Horror film
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It was at the Mar del Plata Film Festival where Parés met Filipe Melo, creator of the first-ever Portuguese horror short "I'll See You In My Dreams". After meeting the Plaga Zombie crew, Melo invited Parés to his home in Mouraz, Portugal to collaborate on a film script. The two wrote a first draft of what would become "The Adventures of Dog Mendonça & Pizzaboy" in 15 days.
Plaga Zombie (film series)
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Fisher's career changed direction permanently when Hammer asked him to direct "The Curse of Frankenstein" (1957), their first colour horror film. It was the company’s most important project to date, and Fisher was hand-picked by Hammer management to helm the movie as he had a reputation for reliability. Working from a script by Jimmy Sangster that re-imagined the lengthy original novel as a gruesome, morally ambiguous chamber piece, the film saw British TV star Peter Cushing cast as Baron Victor Frankenstein whilst the then little-known supporting actor Christopher Lee portrayed the Creature. It was a handsome-looking, quality production and an international box office smash; alarming British critics and raising the standard for what was acceptable in terms of on-screen violence and gore, the movie established Hammer as a leading brand name in the British film industry.
Hammer had even more financial success with Fisher’s second gothic horror film "Dracula" (1958), starring Lee in the title role and Cushing as his adversary Doctor Van Helsing. Once again reducing the scope of its source novel in line with Hammer’s budgetary constraints, the screenplay minimised both the geographical settings and the number of characters, and the result was a compact, atmospheric and action-packed chiller in which Lee portrayed the figure of the vampire Count Dracula as having an animalistic sexuality that had never before been presented on screen. It is today regarded as a trailblazer in the horror movie genre, the archetypal Hammer movie, and the greatest of Fisher’s directorial efforts.
Terence Fisher
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The first feature-length films to include what are regarded as monsters were often classed as horror or science fiction films. The 1915 German silent film "The Golem", directed by Paul Wegener, is one of the earliest examples of film to include a creature. The German Expressionist "Nosferatu" in 1922, and the depiction of a dragon in Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen in 1924, followed tradition. In the 1930s, American movie studios began to produce more successful films of this type, usually based on gothic tales such as "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" in 1931, both heavily influenced by German Expressionism, followed by "The Mummy" (1932) and "The Invisible Man" (1933). Classified as Horror films, they included iconic monsters.
Monster movie
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Nurmi made television history as the first horror movie hostess. In 1957, Screen Gems released a syndicated package of 52 horror movies, mostly from Universal Pictures, under the program title "Shock Theater". Independent stations in major cities all over the U.S. began showing these films, adding their own ghoulish host or hostess (including Vampira II and other lookalikes) to attract more viewers.
Maila Nurmi