The First Unintended Horror Film (1895)?

A contribution (which we always welcome) from one of our readers in Romania:

“The brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière created the first publicly shown movies, the first documentaries and, with this 50-second film shot at a Provence railway station, the first horror picture. It is said that as Paris audiences watched the train chug toward the screen, they believed it was about to crash out of the frame and into the auditorium, and ran out screaming. True or not, the story indicates the power the medium would wield over its audience.

The 50-second silent film [L'Arrivée D'un Train En Gare De La Ciotat] captures the entry of a steam locomotive into the train station in the French coastal town of la Ciotat. Like most of the other early Lumière films, L’Arrivée d’un train consists of a single, unedited ‘view’ illustrating an aspect of everyday life.”


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