Have you ever watched a movie or a TV show where the story continues from one episode to another? That's like a serial film.
A serial film is a story that is told in parts or episodes, so you have to watch each one to understand the whole story. It's like a long book that's split into chapters.
Serial films were very popular in the early 1900s when movies were first becoming popular. People would go to the movie theater every week to watch the latest episode, just like we might binge-watch a series on Netflix today.
The episodes usually ended with a cliffhanger, which means the story would stop at an exciting moment, leaving the audience wanting more. This made people come back to the movie theater week after week to find out what would happen next.
Serial films were sometimes called "chapter plays" because they were literally like a book with chapters. They would have exciting adventures, like cowboys and pirates, and they were a lot of fun to watch.
Even though we don't really have serial films today like they used to, we still have TV shows that are kind of like modern-day serials. So, the next time you watch your favorite show and want to know what happens in the next episode, think of it like a serial film.