Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920)

Paul Wegener and Carl Boese's film of the Prague legend. Rabbi Loew shapes a man from clay and animates him by sealing a word into an amulet on his chest; remove the amulet and the thing goes still.

⭐⭐ THE OLDEST SPECIAL EFFECT IN THIS APP IS A HEBREW WORD. A century of screen automata — every robot with an off switch, every AI with a shutdown code — descends from a rabbi taking a piece of paper out of a chest. The film is public domain and the Expressionist sets are worth the ninety minutes on their own.