User reviews

I noticed the other reviewer talked about how Segundo de Chomón imitated Georges Méliès. When he used many of Georges Méliès' trick camera tricks (such as starting and stopping the film to make things 'appear' or 'disappear'), I often liked his films as he STILL managed to make them his own. Sadly, sometimes Chomón simply stole Méliès work (a great example is his "Excursion to the Moon" which was an outright copy)--and I have a hard time enjoying these ersatz films. As far as this film goes, I would definitely put it in the former category--as it uses some of the other artist's techniques but is essentially Chomón's film from start to finish.

The film consists of three folks coming to an old haunted house. For the rest of the film, the house torments them and many of the tricks it plays are funny, though the movie ends with a scary demonic face that probably sent a few shivers down the spines of audiences at the time. Today, it all just looks silly--but in an enjoyable way. Clever and funny--and worth your time.

Segundo Víctor Aurelio Chomón y Ruiz (17 October 1871 in Teruel - 2 May 1929) was a pioneering Spanish film director. He produced many short films in France while working for Pathé Frères and has been compared to Georges Méliès, due to his frequent camera tricks and optical illusions.

I was surprised by this one. I've been searching for old movies for quite a while and often I found interesting movies based on how many years they have. But this one (we are talking 106 years ago!) is actually entertaining. A refreshing use of camera tricks for its time and a good 6 minutes watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo2EKNRIQlE&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Segundo de Chomon directed this version of Georges Melies' most imitated movie, THE BEWITCHED INN. Versions were made by every film producer in the decade after Melies' 1897 version, including several remakes by Melies.

The story is relatively simple: some travelers stop at a house or inn for the evening. Clothes vanish, chairs disappear when they try to sit down, food cooks itself and eventually the Devil -- who is responsible for this -- kicks them all out. It's a combination of stage and film illusion that is still engaging more than a century later.

De Chomon's handling here is both more realistic than Melies' -- the first scene shows our travelers tramping about a real landscape -- and much more stagebound -- the sets are not as realistic looking as Melies, the characters are stock Irish characters. The increasing disquietude and terror is punctuated by jokes, as when a bit of sausage, which has been cut off in an elaborate stop-motion sequence, attempts to escape from the plate.

By making the terrifying sections less realistic and breaking them occasionally for comedy, de Chomon was trying to disengage the audience from the events, to make the work sustainable for greater length than unrelieved terror. It was a valiant attempt to see if techniques from other arts would work in the new medium. Although it was not immediately successful, it would bear fruit in a couple of decades. The scary comedy is still a popular genre. Just ask Kennan Ivory Wayans.

At its heart, this is a variation on one of Melies' most imitated -- especially by himself -- shorts: some travelers enter an abandoned house, and then, inside, everything goes all pear-shaped, as chairs vanish, the house rocks back and forth and the travelers are, eventually, scared out of their wits.

As such, it is not much. However, its director, Segundo de Chomon, elaborates the theme enormously. First, this one is shown in a dozen separate scenes, as first we see the travelers approaching the house and the spirit haunting the place is shown. In the middle are two major stop-motion pieces as food is carved by invisible hands.. The camera also moves, showing the house rocking back and forth.

But although this is much more elaborate than the usual Melies pieces, it does not depart from the basic situation. It uses the tricks, largely, for their own sake. It would be in the next couple of couples that these camera tricks would cease to be the point of the film and become part of the grammar of cinema.

The film is known in English as The House of Ghosts or The Haunted Hotel.

It's not a bad 6 minute watch. Great stop motion for the time era - that took a lot of work to pull off the ghosts serving breakfast. There isn't much of a story line to this short - that is my disappointment with the film. It seems the film is mainly to show off the superb stop motion they learned during the time era.

7/10.

'The House Of Ghosts (1906)' (listed as 1906 here, 1907 on 'Letterboxd' and 1908 on 'YouTube', where I watched it) is also known as 'The Haunted House' or 'The Enchanted House' and is apparently often misattributed as being the lost film 'The Haunted Hotel (1906)' (also known as 'The Haunted House'). Confused yet? I suppose confusion is to be expected here; the precise history of a film from over a hundred years ago is bound to be a little hard to come by, especially when that film has so many titles. Anyway, this affair is considered by many to be one of the very first examples of a haunted house in cinema, though the concept had obviously been readily explored in literature by this time. It tells the tale of a trio of travellers (two of whom have very strange heads) who come across an abandoned house and decide to rest there, unaware of the ghosts within. Its most impressive sequence is undoubtedly one in which a poltergeist prepares breakfast - consisting of sliced sausage, bread and either tea or coffee - in splendid stop-motion style. It's a wonderful little scene that's integrated into the live-action elements surprisingly well, with fluid animation that feels believable despite its unreality. The rest of the picture makes use of more standard, yet still impressive, special effects; ghosts appear in windows, sheeted spirits dance around, objects vanish without a trace and the room itself tilts and spins with glee. It's an energetic and action-packed short, for sure. It isn't even close to scary and its atmosphere is more manic than anything else, but it feels as though it's actively trying to be amusing so its lack of horror doesn't really matter. It's much more of a predecessor to something like 'Evil Dead II (1987)' than anything more serious. In the end, this is an entertaining affair that is undeniably a little dated but is still impressive considering its post-centennial status. It's enjoyable for what it is. 7/10.

La maison ensorcelée is a remake of J. Stuart Blackton's The Haunted Hotel, which, at the same time, Chomón would remake more ambitiously the following year under the title The Electric Hotel. These remakes were the norm back in those days; as a consequence, copyright issues would arise but, until then, life was all a bowl of cherries to filmmakers.

Blackton's film was so successful in Europe, Pathé ordered Chomón to make a version of it and, even though some of the scenes (especially the one containing food being served on the table all by itself) are copied frame by frame, it isn't fair to give all the credit to Blackton since Segundo de Chomón had released his La maison hantée a year before The Haunted Hotel appeared. Who should we thank then? Méliès again. A bunch of tourists being harassed by spirits at some inn was certainly a recurrent subject matter in his movies, take The Black Devil as an example.

Regarding this movie, the two first scenes (introducing the atmosphere) are quite impressive: it's raining, the trees move as the wind blows and rays were added to the print causing a really shocking effect. It does look like a hell of a night (which couldn't be easy to portray so well in silent films). Three travelers take shelter in a house by the woods in which every kind of funny thing is going to happen: a ghost appears, clothes begin to fly all of the sudden, a painting comes to life, the house starts shaking up and so on.

The copy I had the chance to view came from the Nederlands Filmmuseum and I must say it was pretty neat and very well conserved too. The effects are very successful, scary even to this day; performances are good too, but once again it lacks originality. Chomón was an expert in imitating things and even though he did not invent anything, he helped to develop some important techniques. His use of the stop-motion in this movie is amazing. This is a great film I could watch all over again and again.

Solomon Roth

The existence of films with very similar titles and with alternative titles on very similar subjects causes immense confusion, especially with the films by or attributed to Segundo de Chomón.

Ever since Méliès Manoir du diable back in 1896, haunted house films had enjoyed a particular popularity and naturally the films made in the genre all tend to have rather similar titles - the haunted house, the bewitched inn and so on.

The film that has been reviewed here by "Zbigniew" is in fact La Maison ensorcelée - the bewitched house - by Segundo de Chomón, made not in 1908 but in 1907. There are many more reviews of the film under the correct title. That film was a remake commissioned by Pathé of J, Stuart Blackton's extremely successful The Haunted Hotel of 1906, which is the first film to really contain a substantial sequence of figure-animation (the famous dinner that serves itself). De Chomón's version is however a distinct important on Blackton's. There is more of a story to it, the characters are more interesting, it is better photographed and the all-important figure-animation sequence is more extended and far slicker. The film also has quite a spooky surreal finale which is entirely De Chomón.

To confuse matters more, De Chomón had also himself made a much less interesting trick-film called La Maison hantée - the haunted house - just the year before (1906). I do not know whether this film survives or not; I suspect it is lost. There are however quite a number of reviews of that title. Once again the are, one and all, reviews of La Maison ensorcelée of 1907.

As for La Maison morcelée, I rather suspect this does not exist and has never existed but is just the result of someone slightly deaf doing the transcription. One can imagine the scene. Did you say "morcelée"? No, I said "ensorcelée". Oh, good, morcelée it is then....

To dot the i's and cross the t's, there is and has probably never been such a film as La Maison morcelée. La Maison hantée (1906) very probably does not survive. There is therefore just one film in question - La Maison ensorcelée (1907).

Sometimes amusing modelwork and primitive stop-motion effects highlight this older than dirt short-film, about three people who stumble into an old house during a rainstorm. Once inside, their bags crawl out the door of their own free will, the three cower under the furniture as a clawed demon appears at the window, clothing gets up and walks out the door, and a huge white ghost appears and dances in the middle of the room. Or, maybe it was just a sheet caught in updraughts.

The trio has worked up an appetite by then, and decide on having dinner in the room, where the table sets itself and meat and bread both slice themselves.

Film gets surprising and most amusing in the final 60 seconds, when the room starts tilting from one side to the other, a feat which was doubtlessly achieved by tilting the camera at 45 degree angles while furniture is pulled from one side of the room to the other, before tiny little fireballs appear-- only to disappear before the clawed demon creature returns to scoop up the trio, and the final two seconds shot which is too bizarre to even describe. Was there additional footage explaining the final shot, which is now lost for all ages?

I'm not certain if this was meant to scare the viewer, to make them laugh, to be a fantastical story, or just an excuse to use trick photography. Either way, it's amusing for fans of early cinema and since it is available on youtube, it's now easy to find and have a laugh with.

The film's entire cast and majority of the crew remain unknown; the only technical credits are: La maison morcelée (1908) Produccio: Pathe (1.996) Direccio, argument, foto i trucatges: SEGUNDO DE CHOMON. Procendeccia de la copia: NEDERLANDS FILMMUSEUM, Amsterdam.

I don't why only about 50 users have rated it. It's in my opinion better then "A trip to the Moon" which way more people have seen.

This movie features some of the greatest special effects. The story is good. It's actually somewhat creepy and the visuals look good. When it comes to shorts it's in my opinion a must watch.

Now let's go a little more in to depth: The best thing about the movie are the special effects which nicely fit into the movie. They either add something really great to the picture or make the entire picture. All special effects are really well done and none are unnecessary. The special effects really work here. The people who made this movie knew how to make good special effects and how to put them into a movie to make the most out of them. The special effects make the story and thats great. Concerning this it's the Space Odyssey of it's time in some way. I'll highly recommend you to watch this.

I'm really loving going through these old shorts and seeing these very surreal ones. I love the very strange sets they used back then and seeing directors experimenting with film at the birth of it's inception is quite entertaining.

The only goal here is to freak out the audience as much as the hapless and helpless characters here: three people traveling stop at a cabin that in this particular moment has a demonic-supernatural entity running roughshod. They three characters go in and all kinds of madness happens to them: their clothes become alive when they take off their coats and hats; the table with all the food becomes animated and a knife cuts salami by itself; the entire cabin ends up rocking back and forth like the demon is playing a roll of dice with the thing. This is an extraordinary little silent short that seems like one of those templates for many horror movies to come (Evil Dead comes to mind through the animation and the sort of constant f***ery that the thing is doing to the characters). I also love the freakish look of the beast and how seamless the effects were; logically I know how the tricks were done in camera, through cuts that happen without any jarring feeling. I don't know if it's meant to be knock-off Melies, but if it is it's a knockout besides. It keeps moving, it has actual terror for its characters, and if you put on some good heavy metal it adds a little extra kick watching it on youtube.

It's good to see that the tradition of people in horror films making bad choices goes back to at least 1906. Here the characters decide to stay in a haunted house overnight, eating dinner, and even trying to sleep as though they are in a regular inn. What is very odd is that the main characters are made up to look like clowns in a circus with false noses and makeup rather than just normal people.

Melies had been making films with these kinds of "tricks" in them for some time, but this was an early attempt to use these tricks to tell a story versus just demonstrating the odd effects.

What is particularly well seen in this film is that humans, although immersed in a non-human universe, continue to behave quite normally as humans, as if nothing had happened, that is to say say notwithstanding the horror.

A great lesson that horror cinema will take hold of is that there are only two ways for cinema heroes to fight against terror: either to become terrible themselves or to take refuge in everyday gestures. But horror cinema can only lay claim to humor by adopting this second path; the human must be surprised in his derisory daily existence for the terror to reach the laughable.

Progressive, as one of my lecturers majored in cinema still use the method that this short movie tries to use hundred years ago, cutting the scenes and reviving the image with the creation of moving pictures. "La maison ensorcelée" is probably more successful in that regardless of its lack about being scary..

Even so, I even felt something like fear in the beginning, with that picture turning into a scary woman. Also, the part they move camera to show the effect of the house being swayed is impressive.

Probably my favorite short horror film from this era that I've seen so far. The effects are abundant and well-executed, especially the stop-motion animation. A must-see for horror enthusiasts.

1906 and 1908 that's what is said that this one was shot but who cares really, it's an early funny and even creepy flick made full of effects, easily done and also done by using as effect only the camera which shows if you watch it closely but it's an effect used way up to the sixties.

Two scene's are notorious, the table coming to life done in stop/motion and the demon at the end which scared people back then.

Nice attempt to make a combinationn between a comedy and horror and a jumpscene;

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 5/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 1/5

In this 1906 horror film, three unsuspecting characters enter the titular abode, intending to spend the night. Unbeknownst to them, they're not alone, and are in for a very long evening.

Director Segundo de Chomon's THE HOUSE OF GHOSTS is more than just a quaint, cinematic artifact. It's a short cavalcade of inventive, even ingenious, camera work and special effects.

For its era, this is astonishing stuff! Especially the tabletop stop-motion sequence, featuring a delightful display of supernatural shenanigans. The various specters and fireballs are also impressive. The house-tilting finale is quite a feat for this time period.

Highly recommended for fans of spooky fare, as well as those who love vintage films...

La maison Ensorcelée (1908)

*** (out of 4)

This French film is yet another one influenced by the work of the great Georges Melies. This one here comes from director Segundo de Chomon who took Melies ideas and made them a little bigger. The story is pretty basic as three people are stranded walking in the rain so they enter an old house and it turns out to be haunted. Inside the house the trio have visions appear, chairs and other furniture disappear and they even face a demon. LA MAISON ENSORCELEE isn't a masterpiece and I'd say it's not quite as good as Melies' best work but fans of trick films will still want to check this out. I think the best thing in the film is the wonderful looking demon that pops up at the end. With the ugly teeth, messed up face and weird horns, this demon is something I'm sure scared the hell out of people back in 1908. I also liked another scene that was previously done in 1907's THE HAUNTED HOTEL and that's a table of food and coffee that comes to life. The sequence is somewhat different in this film but it's nicely done and quite effective. The director also manages to build up a rather good atmosphere that helps the film.

The basic virtue - the innocence. It is a very early short horrors using the theme of haunted house and using it in admirable manner, reminding german dark old tales, giving anthological scenes and an admirable end. And, sure, not ignoring the humor. Short, just delightful. Fascinating, for the resurrection of childhood thrills, in same measure.