Add to ORKGIn his seminal article “The Cinema of Attractions: Early Film, Its Spectator, and the Avant-Garde” (1986), Tom Gunning writes that the “relation between films and the emergence of the great amusement parks, such as Coney Island, at the turn of the century provides rich ground for rethinking the roots of early cinema.” While Gunning’s work situates early cinema in general within modern forms of mass popular entertainments, I carve out a slightly narrower path arguing that the long history of displaying cultural attractions that tap into the public’s desire for the odd, the curious, the “abnormal,” and the horrific—what I call grotesque attractions—at institutions such as carnivals, circus sideshows, and dime museums serves as a crucial influ...