The Phantom Carriage opens across Sweden in 1921. The silent horror film about the driver of a ghostly carriage on New Year’s Eve — essentially the Grim Reaper — is one of multiple films coming out of Europe during the silent era that draws the blue prints for how horror films will be made. It would arrive in the U.S. a year later.
This Day in Halloween: Influential silent horror film "The Phantom Carriage" -- about the Grim Reaper -- opens across Sweden in 1921. / Illustration by Sam Chavez