It didn't take long after the advent of motion picture technology in the late 19th century for filmmakers to dabble in the horror genre, as witnessed by French director Georges Méliès' 1896 short The House of the Devil, often credited as being the first horror movie. Although America was home to the first Frankenstein and Jekyll and Hyde movie adaptations, the most influential horror films through the 1920s came from Germany's Expressionist movement, with films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu influencing the next generation of American cinema. Actor Lon Chaney, meanwhile, almost singlehandedly kept American horror afloat, with The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Phantom of the Opera and The Monster, which set the stage for the Universal dominance of the '30s.
1896: The House of the Devil
1910: Frankenstein
1913: The Student of Prague
1920: Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
1920: The Golem: Or How He Came into the World
1920: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1922: Haxan
1922: Nosfertu
1923: The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1924: The Hands of Orlac
1924: Waxworks
1925: The Monster
1925: The Phantom of the Opera
1926: Faust
1927: The Cat and the Canary
