Ep. 4: From Magic Tricks to Trick Films: The Transition of Georges Meliese
Rhapsody in 35MM
Although horror may seem easy to identify, early cinema complicates genre classification because it lacked many formal tools—such as sound, editing techniques, close-ups, and artificial lighting—while emerging alongside an already well-established literary and theatrical tradition of horror and the supernatural. Using Georges Méliès’ work as a case study, the episode argues that many early “magical,” “phantasmagoric,” or “trick” films are often misidentified as horror simply because they feature dark imagery like skeletons, bugs, decapitation, or death, when in fact their...
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Ep. 3: Sunday in the Dark with Georges – Melies’ The House of the Devil
Rhapsody in 35MM
Ep. 3 traces humanity’s long fascination with horror and spectacle—from ancient theatre, folklore, and public executions to phantasmagoria and magic lantern shows—and argues that these pre-cinematic forms directly shaped early horror film, culminating in Georges Méliès’ 1896 short Le Manoir du Diable (The House of the Devil), often cited as the first horror film. Rooted in Méliès’ background as a stage magician and illusionist, the film draws on Faustian literature and theatrical trickery, using bats, demons, witches, skeletons, transformations, and magical effects to frighten...
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Ep. 2: A New Dimension in Terror: Tropes and Techniques
Rhapsody in 35MM
This episode explores what distinguishes horror from adjacent genres like the thriller by examining the specific cinematic techniques and thematic elements that define it, focusing on how film uniquely manipulates image, sound, perspective, and narrative to create sustained unease and fear. Horror relies on the strategic withholding of information through lighting, shadow, framing, camera angles, depth of field, editing, and point of view to heighten tension and suggest unseen threats, while sound—both diegetic and non-diegetic, including dissonant music, nonlinear noise, and low-frequency...
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Ep 1: What's in a Name? The Etymology and Science of Horror
Rhapsody in 35MM
Horror is a genre that reflects the darkest aspects of human nature, history, and imagination, mirroring societal fears born of violence, war, scientific ambition, and anxieties about the future, while also confronting the inner duality of the human soul. From revolutionary atrocities and Frankenstein’s cautionary tale of unchecked progress to atomic-age monsters shaped by nuclear terror, horror repeatedly transforms real-world anxieties into symbolic narratives. Rooted etymologically in physical reactions like shuddering, bristling, and fear—captured in the Greek concept of phrikē and...
info_outlineThis episode explores what distinguishes horror from adjacent genres like the thriller by examining the specific cinematic techniques and thematic elements that define it, focusing on how film uniquely manipulates image, sound, perspective, and narrative to create sustained unease and fear. Horror relies on the strategic withholding of information through lighting, shadow, framing, camera angles, depth of field, editing, and point of view to heighten tension and suggest unseen threats, while sound—both diegetic and non-diegetic, including dissonant music, nonlinear noise, and low-frequency tones—works in tandem with visuals to provoke physiological and emotional discomfort. These formal techniques support recurring horror themes such as the supernatural, monstrosity, duality, obsession, revenge, transformation, isolation, and humanity’s desire to control nature or transgress moral boundaries. Whether through tragic victims, invasive monsters, psychological killers, or forces rooted in culture, religion, or science, horror consistently seeks not just to thrill, but to disturb—using atmosphere, ambiguity, and fear itself as its defining currency.
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