RetroClips

This is the first-ever film adaptation of Frankenstein, made by Thomas Edison's own studio just twelve years after cinema itself was born. Director J. Searle Dawley created the monster's creation scene by burning a papier-mache dummy in a controlled fire and filming it, then running that footage in reverse, so the creature appears to assemble itself out of smoke and flame rather than fall apart. It's one of the earliest documented in-camera special effects in film history, and the only surviving print for decades was a private collector's copy, not rediscovered by the public until the 1970s.