81 years before The Omen, the first decapitation was put on screen.
The horror genre can be traced way back to 1896, with French special effects pioneer Georges Melies’ three-minute long film Le Manoir Du Diable (The Devil’s Castle) widely considered to be the very first horror film ever made. But the year before Melies brought a flying bat to the screen, Thomas Edison produced a short film that broke new ground in a much more horrifying way.
Directed by Alfred Clark, the 30-second short The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots recreated the real-life beheading of Mary Stuart, which was carried out in 1587. Released in August of 1895, the film saw Mary’s head being put on a chopping block and then severed clean off by an executioner’s axe, and the effect was pulled off with an edit so clever that audiences at the time were convinced the footage was real; the actor who played Mary (it was actually a male performer) was swapped out with a dummy, and the two shots edited together so as to hide the trick.
Editing techniques such as this have been used to great effect throughout the history of the horror genre – the aforementioned decapitation in The Omen being a great example, and who could ever forget the “jaw-rip” scene from Hatchet? – but it goes without saying that a seamless and very realistic-looking decapitation in 1895 was something very new and very scary to see.
What you’re about to watch is the very beginning of practical gore effects. Enjoy.