365 Days of Horror: Day 1 - The First Horror Movie

by Justine Norton-Kertson

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365 Days of Horror

It’s a new year, and this time around I’m trying out a different take on the old new year’s resolution. Normally NYRs are all about making changes, cleaning up your act, cutting back on sugar or finally sticking to an exercise routine for more than a week. But instead—now stay with me on this one—what if instead of being a slog, new resolutions were actually fun?

With that in mind, my new year’s resolution for 2025 is to watch a horror movie every day of the year. I’d certainly say I’ve watched a good solid few dozens of horror movies, but I’m the first to admit that I’m by now means the most versed horror film officiando out there. Maybe this experience will change that. After all, if I can stick to this grueling task for the entire year, then I’ll be able to boast having watched almost 400 horror movies.

That’s a lot of horror movies. Certainly more than a few dozen. Will I then be an official horror nerd? Am I already? I don’t know. But I do know that this is definitely a nerdy resolution worthy of the nerd horror moniker. I also thinks it’s worth writing about, and so I’m also going to write an article about each of the movies, my experience watching them, and my thoughts on them.

To add just a touch more nerdiness to the whole endeavor, I’m going in chronological order. I’m not trying to watch every horror movie every made. That’s way, way more than 365 movies. But the films I do watch will be watched in chronlogical order, starting with the one that is widely considered to be the first horror film ever made, the 1896 short french film, Le Manoir du Diable.

The First Horror Movie

Watching Le Manoir du Diable (The House of the Devil) is like peering through a portal into the origins of cinema itself. This three-minute short film, was shot and directed by Georges Méliès in 1896 and holds the distinction of being the first horror movie ever made (so far as we know). And it came in 1888, only a few short years after Louis Le Prince invented the first motion picture camera and shot the very first motion picture that wasn’t made exclusively via stop motion photographic techniques.

Le Manoir du Diable was originally intended as a lighthearted and even amusing piece of entertainment. It’s even more significant then that it’s considered to be the first horror movie. Comedy’s influence on the horror genre is undeniable.

The three minute long short film opens with the sudden appearance of a bat, which transforms into Mephistopheles, the Devil himself. Inside a medieval castle, the Devil conjures a series of supernatural occurrences from a giant cauldron, including the summoning of skeletons, ghosts, and witches. These apparitions seem to both terrify and amuse the humans who wander into the scene. The climax features the Devil being banished by a crucifix-wielding hero, a staple trope that would later define the battle between good and evil in horror films.

Groundbreaking Production Techniques

Méliès, a magician-turned-filmmaker, brought his flair for illusion to this pioneering special effects work in the film. He employed stop-motion substitution—one of the earliest cinematic special effects—to create seamless transitions between forms. For example, the bat's transformation into the Devil is achieved by stopping the camera, replacing the bat prop with an actor, and resuming filming. This technique, revolutionary for its time, allowed Méliès to create startling visual tricks that at the time delighted and mystified his audience.

The castle interior, though minimalistic by today’s standards, featured theatrical props that added an atmospheric quality to the film. The painted backdrops provided a gothic aesthetic that has since become synonymous with horror. Méliès’s background in stage magic and theater is evident in the film’s composition and pacing. The exaggerated gestures and expressions of the actors bring a vaudevillian charm to the proceedings, underscoring the playful tone of the story.

A Horror-Comedy Hybrid

While modern audiences may not find Le Manoir du Diable particularly frightening, its historical importance as the first horror film is cemented by its subject matter and its intent to amuse through supernatural imagery. At Nerd Horror, we’re huge fans of horror-comedy, and Le Manoir du Diable demonstrates how humor and horror have and continue to coexist. The film’s playful tone and whimsical approach to the macabre paved the way for later horror films that blend scares with laughs, from Evil Dead 2 to Shaun of the Dead, and even films like A Nightmare on Elm Street that use one-lineers to create levity between gorey kills.

In that same way, the comedic elements in Le Manoir du Diable serve as more than mere entertainment—they offer a counterbalance to the “macabre” supernatural imagery. Brief moments of levity can heighten tension and make scares more impactful. As any horror fan knows, the best films in the genre don’t rely solely on relentless terror. They mix moments of humor or humanity to let the audience catch their breath before plunging them back into fear. This ebb and flow of emotion creates a richer and more memorable experience.

More than a century after its release, Le Manoir du Diable remains a testament to the ingenuity and creativity of early filmmakers. It reminds us that the line between horror and comedy is delightfully thin, and that even in the midst of scares, a good laugh can be the perfect counterpoint. Whether you’re watching it for its historical significance or its sheer charm, Le Manoir du Diable offers a glimpse into the birth of horror cinema and its enduring legacy.

At Nerd Horror, we celebrate films like Le Manoir du Diable not just for what they were, but for what they continue to teach us about storytelling, innovation, and the power of blending emotions to create something truly unforgettable.

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Check back tomorrow for my take on film #2 in my 365 Days of Horror.