By Tim Lambert
The idea of zombies is old in Haiti. However, it was unfamiliar to most people in Western countries until 1929 when W B Seabrook published a book about his travels in Haiti. It was called The Magic Island and it was a best seller. It introduced many people to the idea of zombies. The first film about zombies was called White Zombie. It was made in 1932. However, the film that made zombies a popular theme was Night of The Living Dead, which was made in 1968.
The first English novel about a vampire was The Vampyre by John Polidori, published in 1819. It was about an aristocratic vampire.
Elizabeth Caroline Grey was the first woman to write a story about vampires in 1828. She wrote a story called The Skeleton Count or The Vampire Mistress.
Dracula by Bram Stoker was published in 1897. A film called Dracula’s Death was made in Hungary in 1921. It was the first film to mention Dracula but it bore little resemblance to Bram Stoker’s story. Dracula was shown as a mysterious, Devil-like figure rather than a classic vampire. Arguably, the first real vampire film was Nosferatu, made in 1922.
In 1803, a man named George Foster was hanged for the murder of his wife and child. An Italian named Galvani had recently made a dead frog’s legs move by touching them with a wire carrying an electric current. Surgeons experimented with the dead body of Foster. When his arms and legs were touched with electrified wires they moved. When his head was touched an eye opened.
Public executions went on in Britain until 1868. They were a popular form of entertainment and they were free. Some people sold food and drink to the crowds. And some lucky people had houses overlooking the gallows. They charged people to stand in a bedroom for a better view.
In the 16th century and 17th centuries, many people believed that human beings people could use witchcraft to transform themselves into animals, including wolves. Being a werewolf was punishable by death. In France, Germany, and other parts of Europe, several men were convicted of being werewolves and executed. The first known case was a Frenchman in 1521. The last known case was in 1691 when 1691 a Latvian named Theiss confessed to being a werewolf. But Theiss was lucky. He was only sentenced to 20 lashes.
The first film about a werewolf was made in 1913. It was just called ‘The Werewolf’.
One of the oldest ghost stories was told by the Roman writer Pliny in the 1st century AD. He claimed that a house in Athens was supposed to be haunted. The owner was so afraid he put the house up for sale at much less than its market value. When a philosopher called Athenodorus heard about it he decided to investigate and spent the night in the house. He heard the rattling of chains and saw a ghost. He followed the ghost into a garden where it disappeared. Athenodorus marked the spot where the ghost disappeared. He told a magistrate who dug at the spot and found the remains of a man wearing chains. The unfortunate man was given a proper burial at public expense and the haunting ceased. Of course, whether the story is true is another matter!
People once believed that people who killed themselves would walk the Earth as ghosts. Suicides were buried at crossroads because people believed their ghosts would be confused and would not know which direction to take.
Warblington Castle is about 2 miles east of Havant in Hampshire. It was built in the early 16th century but now only one tower remains. Its first owner was a woman called Margaret Pole. In 1541 Henry VIII had her beheaded for treason. Unfortunately, the executioner was inexperienced and he took a long time and several blows to cut her head off. Her headless ghost is supposed to haunt Warblington Castle and the nearby churchyard.
The last woman in England to be beheaded was Alice Lisle, in 1685. She was beheaded in Winchester. Before the execution, she was held prisoner in the Eclipse Inn. On the day of her execution, she stepped out of a window of the inn onto the scaffold.
The first story about a mummy coming back to life was written by a woman. In 1827 a woman named Jane Webb wrote a story called The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty Second Century.
The first film about an Egyptian mummy coming back to life was made in France in 1899. It was called Robbing Cleopatra’s Tomb.
In 16th century England pieces of Egyptian mummy were used as medicine. You were given a piece to swallow.
From the 16th century to the early 20th century Egyptian mummies were ground up and used to make a pigment for paint. It was called mummy brown.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was published in 1818. The first film version was made in 1910. A famous film version starring Boris Karloff was made in 1931. The film had a soundtrack but the monster does not speak, although he is intelligent and can talk eloquently in the novel.
The last person to be executed for witchcraft in Britain was Janet Horne. She was burned in Dornoch, Scotland in 1727. Her daughter had some abnormalities in her hands and feet. Neighbours said they looked like hooves. They claimed Janet turned her daughter into a pony and used her for transport when she was and about practicing witchcraft. But the girl had not turned back completely into a human being.
In England, the first law against witchcraft was passed in 1542. It was repealed in 1547 but was replaced by a new law in 1563. The first person in England to be executed for witchcraft was Agnes Waterhouse in 1566. Sadly, many other men and women followed.
In May 1944 Helen Duncan became the last person in Britain imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act of 1735, which made it a crime to fraudulently claim to summon up spirits. Duncan was a medium and she held seances above a shop on Copnor Road in Portsmouth. She was sentenced to 9 months in prison. However, the last person to be CONVICTED under the act was another medium, Jane Rebecca Yorke. In September 1944 she was fined 5 pounds (a large sum of money at that time). The act was repealed in 1951.
On 18 August 1634, a French Catholic priest named Urbain Grandier was burned to death after being convicted of witchcraft. He was supposed to have caused a group of nuns to become demon-possessed. In 1971 a movie called The Devils was made about it.
The last trial for witchcraft in the USA was in 1878. A man was accused of harming a woman from a distance using ‘mesmerism’. The case was dismissed.
Pumpkins are native to Central America. Columbus brought pumpkin seeds back from his first voyage in 1493. They soon became popular in Europe and Shakespeare mentioned them in his play The Merry Wives of Windsor. The Irish used to carve turnips but in the 19th century when large numbers of them emigrated to the USA they began carving pumpkins.
The French film Le Manoir du Diable (The House of the Devil) made in 1896 is widely considered to be the first horror film.