In this updated version of Elliot Passantino’s History of Horror film lecture, our journey through the roots of horror film begins with Mary Shelley and her writing of “Frankenstein”. We then jump a few decades to the Grand Guignol plays in Paris where psychologists help craft dozens of now archetypal horror plots. Simultaneously, Georges Melies invents cameras to direct the first ever silent films, mostly innovative exercises in short horror film storytelling. Moving into the 20th century, Melies inspires silent film classics like “Nosferatu”, “ The Golem” and “Haxan” while an unknown background actor from Colorado climbs the Hollywood studio ranks to become the man of a thousand faces, Lon Chaney. Studios like Universal and RKO boom turning Chaney’s protégées Karloff and Lugosi into box office stars. Horror then reinvents itself  with the advertising tricks of William Castle, fact based terror of "Psycho” and post modern doom of Polanski’s “Rosemary's Baby“. Closing out the program we will see how the politically sensitive independent filmmakers of the 70s like Craven, Hooper and Carpenter transcend traditional horror elements into creating modern classics. Sponsored by the Upstate Independent Filmmakers Network.