During the Silent Era, when most films dealt with dramatic or comedic takes on the
boy meets girl, boy loses girl
theme, there were also quite a few motion pictures that dared to tackle such topics as rejuvenation, revivication, mesmerism, the supernatural and the grotesque. A Daughter of the Gods (1916), The Phantom of the Opera (1925), The Magician (1926) and Seven Footprints to Satan (1929) were among the unusual and startling films containing story elements that went far beyond the realm of
highly unlikely.
Using surviving documentation and their combined expertise, the authors offer their thoughts on these departures from the norm in this encyclopedic discussion on the American view of cinematic horror, science fiction and fantasy in the years between 1913 and 1929.