Early Terrors: The Sealed Room (1909)

Directed by D. W. Griffith
Written by Frank E. Woods
Starring Arthur V. Johnson, Marion B. Leonard, and Henry B. Walthall
One of the first films of the great silent director D. W. Griffith, The Sealed Room is more of a melodrama than a straight horror film, painted only darker by its grim ending. A count has a private room built especially for his beautiful wife. But what the good count doesn't suspect is that his darling wife enjoys meeting with her lover, the handsome minstrel, within the room to play music and frolic in their secret love.
Too bad for them that the count eventually discovers their affair. But instead of running them through with a sword, the count devises a more terrible fate and has the only opening sealed with bricks and mortar. Drawing obvious inspiration from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe and the prevalent fears of premature burials, the short film manages to be an entertaining drama of that oft-told story of a scorned lover�s revenge. It�s still amazing that the cheating couple wasn�t able to hear those bricks being placed though, isn�t it?

Labels: 1900S, D.W. Griffith, Early Terrors, Premature Burial, Revenge, The Crypt