Anyone have anything to add to this list with some discussion of its place in the history of horror? Items suitable for people without much exposure to silents? I once dragged the father to see Fairbanks' ROBIN HOOD and he thought the Merry Men were all about "leaping and hopping". Which is not a completely inaccurate assessment...you made the mistake of asking me about silent horror movies. That is, alas, a fairly open-ended question. I think among the earliest works in the field with a claim to being a horror film is one of Georges Melies' trick films, "The Haunted Castle from 1896, which can be seen on Youtube at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfHQw6wT89c" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank
and his successors. Alas, by 1912, this style of film-making was ended. Melies' work was stage work with camera tricks -- he was also a stage magician -- and that's not how films have been made since. While we can admire works like this and Melies' still famous A TRIP TO THE MOON, for most people it's like listening to a song in a foreign language; it may sound/look pretty, but what does it mean? The earliest film in the horror field that makes any sense is the 1910 version of Frankenstein...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qBmZW7QNEs" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank
... and not because it has any particular virtue, but because it's Frankenstein. However, take a look; you may like it.
The roots of modern horror films is generally said to be German in origin, and I can't really argue with this. According to this theory they derive from Gothic tales of terror and legends, like Paul Wegener's THE GOLEM (1915 and 1920) , F..W. Murnau's NOSFERATU (1922) and German Expressionism and the destruction of trust in authority/the Universe like Robert Wiene's THE CABINET OF DOCTOR CALIGARI (1920) and THE HANDS OF ORLAC (1924).
You can see a lot of German talent in the Universal horror movies of the 1930s, mostly because in the 1920s the Hollywood producers went to Europe and hired everyone they thought worthwhile. However, just because a lot of them wound up involved in the horror genre, don't assume they particularly liked it. Karl Freund, who was the cameraman of a lot of horror movies in the 1930s and even directed one or two like MAD LOVE (1935) was later the cameraman for I LOVE LUCY!
Once the Hollywood producers began raiding Continental talent, a lot of the techniques began to appear in American movies. Among the most famous horror movie actors was Lon Chaney Sr., famous for his extreme make-up work. He starred in and effectively directed THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925), which was so successful that there have been at least two sound remakes and an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Talk about horror! Chaney went to MGM, where he worked a lot with Tod Browning, who would later direct DRACULA and FREAKS. They did one vampire movie, LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT, which was famous for being lost -- ask your father about Forrest Ackerman.
One other late silent director whom you should consider investigating is Paul Leni. He died in 1929, and so you've likely never heard of him, but he made a genuinely funny horror movie, based on the "Old Dark House" trope, called THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1927). This was later reshot as a scary comedy starring Bob Hope.
I'm sure that someone who knows more on the subject could offer you a much more extensive list with plenty of antecedents. Perhaps if you find the subject of silent horror sufficiently interesting to follow up this brief list, you will someday offer me yours.
Bob
