Silent Film Review: The Haunted Castle

I wanted to take a look at another silent film, (1896) directed by George Melies. This time more horror-focused, though this film isn’t really scary. Its origins in the genre are important and I want to talk about why here. I’m going to spoil the movie anyway since this film is super short.

George Melies’  three-minute film opens up in a medieval castle where we are greeted with a giant flying bat who transforms into Mephistopheles ( played by either George Melies himself or Jules - Eugene Legris), who is a demon according to German folklore. He makes a cauldron and his assistance, who helps him make a woman (played by Jeanne D’Alcy) appear out of the cauldron. The demon hears two men walking by and vanishes his creations out of the room. Meanwhile, Mephistopheles’ assistant decides to have some fun with the two men by playing tricks on them to spark some ghostly confusion.  As one of the men decides to run away, the other stays. Unfortunately, we watch him fall for more of the demon’s assistance trickery. Then, a skeleton appears. The man prepares to fight him until the skeleton transforms into a bat and then into Mephistopheles.  The demon fights back by summing four phantoms, which is one of my favorite scenes in this picture, who get the man to back down. The woman from the cauldron comes back and the man, who is still recovering from what he witnessed, is enamored by her. It seems as though the demon isn’t too happy about this so he turns her into an old woman and brings back the four spirits to torment him once again. The film, as you can probably tell, is not really a horrific tale. It feels more comedic. It is believed that Melies’ made the film to amuse his audience instead of scaring them to death. However, the film’s horror themes are present throughout. It’s all about human interaction with demons and ghosts. The entrance of the four Phantoms really made the film feel dreadful.

The opening scene with the bat transforming into Mephistopheles not only shows the wonders of early film-making but also introduces the idea of a malevolent or demonic presence taking shape in animal form to blend in with the physical realm. The ending of the movie (again, spoiler alert!) is what makes Melies’ film the starting point for the horror genre, at least according to film historians. The man who’s been battling it out with Mephistopheles decides to end this for all by taking out a crucifix, causing Mephistopheles to flee.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I love a good vampire film. F.W. Murnau’s 1922 film , the first vampire flickbeing one of them. I’m also a fan of horror movies, other than the Exorcist, about demonic possession. It’s cool to see how this film could be the first horror film. In regards to the use of the crucifix, a holy object, it seems to be the first to show one being used as a weapon to keep a demonic entity at bay. I said “at bay” because in the movie we see Mephistopheles back away, not necessarily perish; but we see this move all the time in both demonic possession and vampire films today. In fact, it holds up the vampire European folklore. in this case, crucifixes are used to repel vampires not kill them. While watching this I was curious about what inspired him to tell this story in the first place, besides amusing viewers with stop-tricks. Maybe I will find more info on this. If not, that’s fine. George Melies’  is still a fine piece of cinematic history for horror fans to enjoy.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)