Throughout the world, people have always held a strange fascination for the macabre and the fantastique. Ghosts, demons, witches, the undead, and other nightmare inducing entities and beings have materialized in traditional oral storytelling, songs, paintings, plays, literature, magic shows, and marvelous 19th Century inventions that are now considered building blocks to the evolution of celluloid cinema. Optical devices, such as the camera obscura, the Laterna magica, and the wonder drums, were used to create the illusion of moving images that both entertained and frightened gullible spectators of yesteryear. With the earliest production of crude filmmaking and film projecting inventions (such as the Edison Manufacturing Company's Kinetograph, the Lumière brothers' Cinématographe, Robert William Paul's Theatrograph, Leon Gaumont's Chronotograph, and Edison's Vitascope), wondrous and uncanny characters came to life right before the viewers' eyes. Of course, it was French filmmaker Georges Méliès who seemed to have the most stamina to create hundreds of wickedly delightful short fantasy, horror, and science fiction films during the early years of movie making. Here, Sicko-Psychotic has put together a list of the first movie spectacles to deal with subjects of both horror and the fantastique.
Trilby Death Scene (a.k.a. Death Scene) (1895; Edison Manufacturing Company) -- lost film
Le Cauchemar (a.k.a. A Nightmare) (1896; Star Film) -- a dreamer's hand is bitten by the moonDix Chapeaux en 60 Secondes (a.k.a. Conjurer Making Ten Hats in Sixty Seconds) (1896; Star Film) -- lost film
Escamotage d'une Dame au Théâtre Robert Houdin (a.k.a. The Conjuring of a Woman at the House of Robert Houdin) (1896; Star Film) -- magician transforms a woman into a skeleton
Le Fakir, Mystère Indien (1896; Star Film) -- lost film
La Fée aux Choux (a.k.a. The Cabbage Fairy) (1896; Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont)
Le Manoir du Diable (a.k.a. The Devil's Castle; The Haunted Castle) (1896; Star Film) -- featuring a demon, gnome, living skeleton, ghosts, and witches.
Nain Grotesque (a.k.a. Tom Old Boot) (1896; Star Film) -- lost film
Un Petit Diable (a.k.a. A Little Devil; A Little Rascal) (1896; Star Film) -- lost film
Rip Meeting the Dwarf (1896; American Mutoscope Company) -- part 2 of movie serial based on 'Rip Van Winkle'
Exit of Rip and the Dwarf (a.k.a. Rip and the Dwarf) (1896; American Mutoscope Company) -- part 3 of movie serial based on 'Rip Van Winkle'
Rip Leaving Sleepy Hollow (1896; American Mutoscope Company) -- part 4 of movie serial based on 'Rip Van Winkle'
Rip's Toast to Hudson and Crew (1896; American Mutoscope Company) -- part 5 of movie serial based on 'Rip Van Winkle'
Rip's Twenty Years' Sleep (1896; American Mutoscope Company) -- part 6 of movie serial based on 'Rip Van Winkle',
Séance de Prestidigitation (a.k.a. Conjuring) (1896; Star Film) -- a seance is depicted; lost film
Select Scenes from 'The Corsican Brothers' (1896; Edison Manufacturing Company) -- based on Alexandre Dumas Père's classic novel; lost film
Une Nuit Terrible (a.k.a. A Terrible Night) (1896; Star Film) -- giant bug gets revenge
You Dirty Boy (1896; Robert W. Paul) -- a statue comes to life; lost film
Le Cabinet de Méphistophélès (a.k.a. The Devil's Laboratory; The Laboratory of Mephistopheles) (1897; Star Film) -- a demon & ghost terrorize two cavaliers, lost film
Le Château Hanté (a.k.a. The Devil's Castle) (1897; Star Film) -- a ghost, living skeleton, and demon appear
Chez le Magnétiseur (a.k.a. At the Hypnotist's) (1897; Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont)
Chirurgien Américain (a.k.a. A Twentieth Century Surgeon) (1897; Star Film) -- mad doctor switches body of unsuspecting derelict, lost film
The Dancing Skeleton (1897; American Mutoscope Company) -- lost film,
Faust et Marguerite (1897; Star Film) -- lost film
Hallow-e'en in Coon-Town (1897; American Mutoscope Company) -- lost film
Hänsel und Gretel (1897; Messter Film) -- lost film
The Haunted Castle (1897; G.A.S. Films) -- lost film
L'Alchimiste (1897; Pathé Frères) -- lost film
L'Auberge Ensorcelée (a.k.a. The Bewitched Inn) (1897; Star Film) -- poltergeist activity
L'Hallucination de L'Alchimiste (a.k.a. An Hallucinated Alchemist) (1897; Star Film) -- star with female heads & a giant face vomiting people from its mouth are featured; lost film
Le Magnétiseur (a.k.a. The Hypnotist at Work) (1897; Star Film) -- woman is magically unclothed while under a trance; lost film
Le Malade Imaginaire (a.k.a. An Imaginary Patient) (1897; Star Film) -- lost film
Rapunzel (1897; Messter Film) -- lost film
Le Squelette Joyeux (a.k.a. The Dancing Skeleton) (1897; Lumière) -- fantasy
The X-Ray Fiend (a.k.a. X-Rays) (1897; G.A.S. Films) -- two skeletons are exposed when Professor zaps unaware couple with X-ray device
Aladdin (1898; G.A.S. Films) -- lost film
The Cavalier's Dream (1898; Vitagraph Company of America) -- features a demon & a witch; lost film
La Caverne Maudite (a.k.a. The Cave of the Demons) (1898; Star Film) -- lost film
Cinderella (a.k.a. Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother) (1898; G.A.S. Films) -- lost film
The Clown Barber (1898; Williamson Kinematograph Company) -- lost film
The Corsican Brothers (1898; G.A.S. Films) -- lost film
Créations Spontanées (a.k.a. Fantastical Illusions) (1898; Star Film) -- lost film
La Damnation de Faust (a.k.a. Damnation of Faust) (1898; Star Film) -- lost film
Ella Lola, a la Trilby (1898; Edison Manufacturing Company) -- dance based on George L. Du Maurier's 'Trilby'
The Fairy (1898; Robert W. Paul) -- lost film
Faust (1898; G.A.S. Films) -- based on Johann Wolfgang Goethe's classic novel; lost film
Faust and Mephistopheles (1898; G.A.S. Films) -- second Faust film by director George Albert Smith; lost film
Le Grotte du Diable (1898; Star Film) -- lost film
Guillaume Tell et le Clown (a.k.a. Adventures of William Tell) (1898; Star Film) -- fantasy-comedy
Un Homme de Têtes (a.k.a. Four Heads Are Better Than One) (1898; Star Film) -- fantasy-comedy
Illusions Fantasmagoriques (a.k.a. The Famous Box Trick) (1898; Star Film) -- fantasy
La Lune à un Mètre (a.k.a. The Astronomer's Dream) (1898; Star Film) -- fantasy-comedy
Le Magicien (a.k.a. Black Magic; The Magician) (1898; Star Film) -- fantasy-comedy
Magie Diabolique (a.k.a. Black Art) (1898; Star Film) -- lost film
Masked Procession (1898; Edison Manufacturing Company) -- costume documentary; lost film
Masque Diabolique G. Méliès (1898; Star Film) -- lost film
The Mesmerist (a.k.a. The Mesmerist; or, Body and Soul) (1898; G.A.S. Films) -- lost film
Photographing a Ghost (1898; G.A.S. Films) -- lost film
Les Rayons Röntgen (a.k.a. A Novice at X-Rays) (1898; Star Film) -- sci-fi; lost film
Rêve d'Artiste (a.k.a. The Artist's Dream) (1898; Star Film) -- lost film
Satan Contorsionniste (1898; Pathé Frères) -- lost film
Scène d'Escamotage (a.k.a. Disappearing Act) (1898; Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont) -- magician turns a woman into an ape-like creature
Skeleton Dance, Marionettes (1898; Edison Manufacturing Company) -- lost film
La Tentation de Saint-Antoine (a.k.a. The Temptation of St. Anthony) (1898; Star Film) -- biblical
Walküre (1898; Messter Film) -- lost film
Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (1899; G.A.S. Films) -- lost film
La Belle et la Bête (a.k.a. Beauty and the Beast) (1899; Pathé Frères) -- lost film
Un Bon Lit (a.k.a. A Midnight Episode) (1899; Star Film) -- lost film
Cendrillon (a.k.a. Cinderella) (1899; Star Film) -- fantasy
Le Chevalier Mystère (a.k.a. The Mysterious Knight) (1899; Star Film) -- fantasy
Cléopâtre (a.k.a. Cleopatra's Tomb) (1899; Star Film) -- horror
La Colonne de Feu (a.k.a. Haggard's She: The Pillar of Fire) (1899; Star Film) -- a demon appears
Le Diable au Convent (a.k.a. The Devil in a Convent) (1899; Star Film) -- horror
Dick Whittington (1899; G.A.S. Films) -- lost film
Évocation Spirite (a.k.a. Summoning the Spirits) (1899; Star Film) -- a ghost & demon are featured
Les Farces de Satan (1899; Pathé Frères) -- lost film
The Haunted House (1899; S. Lubin) -- featuring a ghost & a demon; lost film
L'Illusionniste Fin de Siêcle (a.k.a. The Conjurer) (1899; Star Film) -- fantasy
Le Miroir de Cagliostro (a.k.a. Cagliostro's Mirror) (1899; Star Film) -- features a demon; lost film
The Miser's Doom (1899; Robert W. Paul) -- a ghost appears; lost film
Neptune et Amphitrite (a.k.a. Neptune and Amphitrite) (1899; Star Film) -- lost film
La Pierre Philosophale (a.k.a. Miser's Dream) (1899; Star Film) -- lost film
La Pyramide de Triboulet (a.k.a. The Human Pyramid) (1899; Star Film) -- fantasy
Salle à Manger Fantastique (a.k.a. A Dinner Under Difficulties) (1899; Star Film) -- lost film
Satan Conformist (1899; Pathé Frères) -- lost film
Les Spectres (a.k.a. Murder Will Out) (1899; Star Film) -- lost film
La Statue de Neige (a.k.a. The Snow Man) (1899; Star Film) -- lost film
Strange Adventure of New York Drummer (1899; Edison Manufacturing Company) -- fantasy-comedy
Upside Down; or, The Human Flies (1899; Robert W. Paul)
A Visit to the Spiritualist (1899; Edison Manufacturing Company) -- lost film
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