One of the first special effects was The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots (1895). Inventor and moviemaker Thomas Edison substituted a dummy for the actress. In the movie, Mary knelt down and put her head on the block. An executioner raised a large axe. When the axe came down, Mary’s head rolled off the chopping block. But it was the dummy’s head! When the audiences saw the scene, they were horrified. Since then, filmmakers have used tricks like this. They make people see things that didn’t happen in real life.