What Was the First Horror Movie? Méliès, 1896 and the Rivals
The first horror movie is usually named as Le Manoir du diable (1896), a three-minute short by the French filmmaker Georges Méliès that crams a devil, ghosts and skeletons into a haunted castle. That makes horror almost as old as the movies themselves, and the whole tradition behind HorroRated's haunted house horror movies traces back to the castle Méliès filmed 130 years ago. Whether that little film really counts as the first horror movie depends on what you mean by horror, so here's the case for it, the films that challenge it and where HorroRated lands.
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Contact HorroRatedKey Takeaways
- The first horror movie is usually named as Le Manoir du diable, a three-minute trick film by Georges Méliès that premiered in Paris on December 24, 1896.
- It was made to amaze audiences rather than frighten them, which is why some critics name a later film. Roger Ebert made the case for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).
- Much of early horror is fragile: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1908) has no known copy, and Méliès's film itself was missing until a print turned up in New Zealand in 1988.
- Neither Psycho (1960) nor Nosferatu (1922) was the first horror movie, though each one marks a turning point for the genre.
- HorroRated's take: Méliès made the first horror movie, and Caligari made the first one built to disturb you.
Le Manoir du Diable: What Méliès Put on Screen in 1896
Le Manoir du diable ("The House of the Devil") is a silent short of a little more than three minutes, made by the French filmmaker Georges Méliès and first shown at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin in Paris on December 24, 1896 (source). Guinness World Records lists it as the first horror movie, and most film histories start in the same place.
What's on screen is pure spectacle. Méliès himself plays the demon Mephistopheles, who summons skeletons, ghosts and monsters to scare a young man, and a devilish figure turns into a bat. The tricks are substitution splices: the camera stops, something is swapped in or taken out, and filming carries on, so characters pop in and out of existence in a puff of smoke (source).
Part of the confusion around the film is its name. In English it often goes by "The Haunted Castle," and so does Le Château hanté, a 45-second remake Méliès made the following year. The two are easy to mix up: the remake is the one that runs just 45 seconds and was colored by hand (source).
Watch it now and the surprise isn't how scary it is. It's how familiar it looks: a creature that becomes a bat, ghosts in white shrouds, a crucifix, a castle that doesn't want you there. A lot of the tropes horror still leans on were already in place in the first three minutes the genre ever made.
Was the First Horror Movie Meant to Scare Anyone?
Probably not. Méliès made trick films to make audiences gasp, and even Guinness World Records says the film's "shaky and simplistic presentation would have been unlikely to have scared anyone" (source). In 1896, it was seen as an impressive technical feat, not a fright.
So why do most histories start here? Because it's the first film to put horror's images on screen. Guinness admits there's no universal definition of a horror movie, but says a film with "devils, witches, ghosts and skeletons in a haunted castle" is "a fairly cut-and-dried example of the genre." The BFI agrees on the date: "Horror cinema didn't begin in 1922. There were ghosts in the machine as early as 1896" (source).
The argument underneath the question is what makes a film horror: the monsters and haunted places on screen, or the effect it's trying to have on you. It's the same line HorroRated draws between horror rather than just scary: horror is a genre with its own conventions, and scary is a feeling a film gives you.
HorroRated's rule: the first horror movie is the first film to put horror on screen, and that's Méliès's 1896 short. The first horror movie built to disturb you came later, and it gets its due in the next section.
Which Other Films Claim to Be the First Horror Movie?
Three films come up most often: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1908), Edison's Frankenstein (1910) and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). Each one was first at something different, and one of them is gone for good.
| Film | Why it gets named | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Le Manoir du diable (1896) | Devils, ghosts and skeletons in a haunted castle; Guinness World Records' pick | Made to amaze, not to frighten |
| Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1908) | Some accounts call it the first horror movie | No known copy survives |
| Frankenstein (1910) | The first film of Mary Shelley's novel | Only one print is known |
| The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) | Roger Ebert's case for "the first true horror film" | Earlier ghost films came first |
| Nosferatu (1922) | The oldest horror film many fans have seen | Came 26 years after Méliès |
| Psycho (1960) | Where modern horror begins | Came 64 years after Méliès |
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1908) premiered in Chicago on May 21, 1908, and The Saturday Evening Post calls it "the film many consider to be the first horror movie." There are no known copies of it left (source), which puts it among the many silent horror films that vanished before anyone thought to save them.
It's far from alone. The Library of Congress found that 70% of American silent feature films are completely lost, as HorroRated's horror movie statistics lay out. If the first horror movie had been made in that era, there's a real chance nobody could watch it today.
Frankenstein (1910) is the first film made from Mary Shelley's novel, produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company. For decades its only known print belonged to a collector who took it to film festivals and monster conventions but wouldn't let anyone preserve it. The Library of Congress bought his collection in 2014 and restored the film (source). The most famous monster in horror very nearly became a lost film himself.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) is the strongest rival. Roger Ebert wrote that "a case can be made that 'Caligari' was the first true horror film," because earlier ghost stories still played out in "a recognizable world," while Caligari builds what he called "a mindscape" (source). That's the second half of HorroRated's rule: Méliès made the first horror movie, and Caligari made the first one built to get inside your head.
Psycho, Nosferatu and the Films People Think Came First
Two famous films get mistaken for the first horror movie more than any others. Both were firsts of a kind, just not that kind.
Was Psycho the First Horror Movie?
No. Psycho (1960) came out 64 years after Le Manoir du diable. People reach for it because it's where modern horror starts. In a 1994 Sight and Sound essay, Linda Williams wrote that horror fans see Psycho as "the moment when horror moved from what is outside and far away to what is inside us all and very close to home" (source). That's also why Psycho is often called the first slasher movie, though it's better described as the slasher's ancestor.
It even changed how people went to the movies: Alfred Hitchcock insisted that no one be admitted once the film had started (source). HorroRated rates Hitchcock's 1960 shocker Legendary and a HorroRated Pick, and its entry puts the case in one line: "Norman Bates gave us modern horror."
Is Nosferatu the First Horror Movie?
No. Nosferatu (1922) arrived 26 years after Méliès, but it's often the oldest horror film people have actually sat through, so it feels like the beginning. Even the BFI's list of a great horror film for every year starts in 1922, while pointing out that horror itself started in 1896 (source).
Its survival is a horror story of its own. Bram Stoker's widow, Florence, sued the film's production company for copyright infringement, and a court ordered every print destroyed. As the BFI puts it, "Luckily this was never achieved" (source). A century later, Robert Eggers's Nosferatu (2024) went back to Murnau's story, and HorroRated rates it Legendary and a HorroRated Pick.
Horror's Other Firsts: Color, Sound and the First Oscar
Horror was being colored by hand within a year of its first film, talking by 1928 and winning an Oscar with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931). Here are the milestones searchers ask about most, with what the records actually show.
| Milestone | Film | What the record shows |
|---|---|---|
| Early color, painted by hand | Le Château hanté (1897) | Méliès's 45-second remake was hand-colored by Elisabeth Thuillier |
| First horror remake | Le Château hanté (1897) | Guinness calls it "generally regarded as the first film remake" |
| First Frankenstein film | Frankenstein (1910) | Made by Edison's company; one print survives |
| A talking picture, if it counts as horror | The Terror (1928) | Warner Bros.' second all-talking feature; the AFI files it as a mystery melodrama |
| First horror Oscar | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) | Fredric March won Best Actor at the 5th Academy Awards |
The sound question is the trickiest. The Terror (1928), a murder mystery set at an old English inn, was Warner Bros.' second all-talking feature, after Lights of New York (source). Whether it's horror is up for debate: the American Film Institute's catalog files it as a mystery and melodrama.
The Oscar is easier. Fredric March won Best Actor for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at the 5th Academy Awards, which honored films released between August 1931 and July 1932, sharing the award with Wallace Beery for The Champ (source). No horror film had won at the first four ceremonies.
Sound also brought the studio monsters. Universal's Dracula and Frankenstein, both from 1931, set the castle-and-fog look that still defines gothic horror on screen.
Where HorroRated's Archive Picks Up the Story
HorroRated's archive starts in 1956, so it's the place to see what horror became rather than where it began. Every film here carries a HorroRated verdict, and together they make a good walk forward from those first ghosts:
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Legendary, HorroRated Pick: the oldest film in the archive and, in its entry's words, "one of the most quietly terrifying films ever put on screen."
- Psycho (1960), Legendary, and Black Sunday (1960), Highly Recommended: the BFI counts 1960 among horror's vintage years (source). Black Sunday is Mario Bava's directing debut, the film HorroRated credits with launching Italian gothic horror.
- Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Rosemary's Baby (1968), both Legendary and HorroRated Picks: one year, two foundations. HorroRated calls Night of the Living Dead "the secret engine of every zombie story since" and Rosemary's Baby "one of the foundational texts of modern psychological horror."
- Frankenstein (2025), Legendary, HorroRated Pick: Guillermo del Toro's version arrived 115 years after Edison's, proof the first monsters never really left.
Related Resources
- Every Psycho film in order: all five films, from Hitchcock's original on
- Frankenstein's mad-scientist descendants: 23 curated picks about science that goes too far
- Anthology horror: what the format means and where it started
Where to Go Next
The haunted castle never really went away; it just got better lighting. HorroRated's curated gothic horror films pick up the thread Méliès started, from crumbling mansions to cursed bloodlines.
Frequently Asked Questions About the First Horror Movie
What is considered the first horror movie?
Le Manoir du diable (1896), a three-minute short by the French filmmaker Georges Méliès, is usually considered the first horror movie. It fills a haunted castle with a devil, ghosts and skeletons, though it was made to amaze audiences rather than scare them. Roger Ebert made the case for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) as the first true horror film.
Who made the first horror movie?
Georges Méliès, the pioneering French filmmaker, made Le Manoir du diable in 1896. He also plays the demon Mephistopheles in it.
When was the first horror movie made?
In 1896. Le Manoir du diable premiered at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin in Paris on December 24, 1896, and runs a little more than three minutes.
Is the first horror movie lost?
No, though it was for a long time. Le Manoir du diable was thought lost for almost a century, until a single print turned up in a collection in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1988.
What was the first American horror movie?
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1908), which premiered in Chicago, is often named, but no copy of it is known to survive. Edison's Frankenstein (1910), the first film of Mary Shelley's novel, does survive in a single print that the Library of Congress has restored.
What was the first horror movie with sound?
The earliest candidate is The Terror (1928), a murder mystery set at an English inn and Warner Bros.' second all-talking feature. Whether it counts as horror is debatable, since the American Film Institute's catalog files it as a mystery melodrama.
What was the first horror movie to win an Oscar?
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931). Fredric March won Best Actor for it at the 5th Academy Awards, sharing the award with Wallace Beery, and no horror film had won at the four ceremonies before.