The horror genre in film is nearly as old as film itself. The first exploration of supernatural events appear in several of the silent shorts created by film pioneer Georges Melies in the late 1890s. The earliest horror-themed feature films were created by German film makers in the early 20th century, many of which were a significant influence on later Hollywood films.

Paul Wegener's The Golem (1915) was seminal; in 1920 Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was both controversial with American audiences, due to postwar sentiments, and seminal in its Expressionistic style; the most enduring horror film of that era was probably F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), the first vampire-themed feature, an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Early Hollywood dramas dabbled in horror themes including versions of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Monster (1925) (both starring Lon Chaney, Sr., the first American horror movie star). His most famous role, however, was in The Phantom of the Opera (1925), perhaps the true predecessor of Universal's famous horror series.

In the era of silent film the outstanding fantasy films were Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungin (1925).