For centuries, man has been fascinated by horror, the macabre and the obscure. But telling horror stories hasn’t satisfied our appetite for fright. In the 19th century, an attraction appeared that brought together storytelling and the immersive experience. It was the famous haunted house, which still strikes fear even today during the Halloween period.
The date is 31 October. Scary costumes and horror film marathons punctuate this period of terror. And while the little ones take their pumpkin-shaped buckets to collect sweets in their neighbourhood, the older ones experience Halloween in the attractions. The haunted house is undoubtedly the best known of the parks. And its history goes back a long way. Since the dawn of time, the idea that spirits reside in old family homes has both galvanised and terrified the public.
An attraction to the macabre
While the haunted house is rooted in the imagination for some and reality for others, this phenomenon was materialised in a unique attraction in the 19th century. In 1802, Marie Tussaud exhibited wax sculptures of decapitated French figures such as Robespierre, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette in London. These death masks featured in her ‘Chamber of Horrors’ exhibition, which has remained associated with the wax museum ever since.
Horror films encouraged this attraction to fear, such as Le Manoir du diable (1896), which can be considered the first horror film, and La Caverne maudite (1898), Fantômas (1913) and Les Vampires (1915).
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