AMIA Spring 2021

This presentation channels the spirit of the Library of Congress Mostly Lost film identification workshop. About 70% of American silent feature films no longer exist. While the loss of so many silent films is a tragedy, it has been especially devastating for the horror genre. For almost any horror character icon you can think of—Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, or even general creatures like mummies and werewolves—the very first appearance of that character on screen is lost. Lost along with them is the genre’s history. How different might werewolf movies be today if the very first werewolf film made had survived? The loss of 101 Bison’s 1913 film The Werewolf means few people are aware that film’s first wolfman was actually a wolfwoman. This talk by long-time Mostly Lost attendee Kelly Robinson will bring to light this and other lost film stories, changing the way we perceive horror history.