Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: Literature
Chapter 2: Theatre
Chapter 3: Visual Culture
Chapter 4: Moving Pictures
Chapter 5: Devils
Chapter 6: Witches
Chapter 7: Ghosts
Chapter 8: Supernatural Creatures
Chapter 9: Death, Murder, and Execution
Chapter 10: Evolution and Devolution
Chapter 11: The Other(s)
Chapter 12: The Powers of the Mind
Chapter 13: Mad Scientists
Chapter 14: American Literature Onscreen
Chapter 15: Exhibition and Reception

About the Author

Gary D. Rhodes, Ph.D., currently serves as Postgraduate Director for Film Studies at the Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is the author of Lugosi (1997), White Zombie: Anatomy of a Horror Film (2002), Emerald Illusions: The Irish in Early American Cinema (2012) and The Perils of Moviegoing in America (2012). Rhodes is also the writer-director of the documentary films Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula (1997) and Banned in Oklahoma (2004). Currently he is at work on a history of the American horror film to 1915, as well as a biography of William Fox.

Reviews

In a remarkable work of historical research, Gary Rhodes provides what must certainly be the definitive study of the origins of the horror film genre. First, he traces the manifestations of “horror-themed” material well back into the 18th century, considering literature, theater, graphic arts, freak shows, lurid news stories—anything likely to raise a thrill of horror. He then turns to early cinema—the peep shows, the nickelodeons—covering its development from 1895 to 1915. Most popular of the horror figures were witches, ghosts, and devils, but almost all future familiar frights were represented—vampires, werewolves, mummies, monsters, mad scientists, mesmerists, somnambulists, aliens, sinister “others.” The only horror missing from the period was the zombie. Rhodes also enumerates the films based on the works of Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and—especially—Edgar Allan Poe. The sheer volume of films produced is astonishing. Most are lost, of course, but Rhodes does a magnificent job of resurrecting them, using advertising copy, publicity stills, trade magazines, and film criticism to recuperate plots and some notion of style.
*CHOICE*

The Birth of the American Horror Film is a handsome book filled with reproductions of film stills, photographs and illustrations. Rhodes’ work triggers a cumulative effect of wide-ranging association. One is left with a comprehensive overview of numerous related topics in the service of a measured thesis. I read with interest and pleasure, as Rhodes’s prose if remarkably lucid, his considerations important.
*Monstrum*

This is a meticulous study of the intermedial roots and manifestations of horror-themed cinema in all its varieties prior to 1915. The depth and scope of Rhodes’ erudite scholarship make this an indispensable read for everyone interested in one of the most persistent features of American cinema of all ages: horror.
*Professor Jan Olsson, Stockholm University*

A fascinating and overdue study. This book demonstrates the multiple different contexts out of which the horror film was born. Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of horror film
*Professor Mark Jancovich, University of East Anglia*