The House of the Devil

Le manoir du diable (1896)

*** (out of 4)

aka The House of the Devil

Early Georges Melies trick film has a bat appearing inside a castle when it then transforms into the Devil himself. Soon this creature is using spells to make other creatures come to life. LE MANOIR DU DIABLE is going to be a big interest to those Melies die-hards such as myself but I think horror fans will also get a real kick out of this. To say this isn't one of the earliest examples of a horror film would be rather crazy because not only do we get the Devil and black magic but there are also ghosts, a skeleton and various other ghastly images. When viewed against today's technology I'm sure there are some that might laugh at these effects but once you consider these were being done in 1896 you really can't help but applaud them. Melies was clearly years ahead of everyone else and the effects still hold up quite well today. I really loved how the different people began to appear even though the editing effects are quite obvious. Another nice touch was some of the black comedy thrown in and for just one example check out how the skeleton is used. Another major plus is that Melies plays the main character so well and with such energy.

The opportunity to watch a film from 1896 is astonishing in itself even if the film is the same repeated magic trick and edits. I wouldn't call it comic per say like a view of the previous reviewers thought but a film to try and get a thrill out of an audience. Georges Melies with his little gem may have kick started the horror genre to a place it may not be at with this type of movie. House of the Devil has horror elements and essentials such as ghosts, witches, skeletons and the devil himself in form of a bat. It's an easy three minute watch, with some cool tricks, but its nothing too extraordinary. Take a look if you want to watch something very old and neat from a time way way forgotten.

I saw this for the first time recently. If this film is not the first horror film at least it is the first vampire film n it includes the first transformation, that too of a human turning into a bat. A skeleton turning into a bat n then into a demon.

The plot is about a demon who disguised as a bat enters a castle n turns into a demon who produces a large pot n an assistant. Aft some mumbo jumbo a woman appears from the pot. Later kingsmen enter n they r harassed by the demon's assistant.... This film was supposed to b a fantasy amusement but the gothic feel n the transformation is truly that of a horror film.

this film, although generally seen as the first horror, was in fact originally intended to amuse rather than scare. its only when you look at it with todays understanding of horror conventions that we see it as such. yes, it does correspond with the whole dark and impending thing and have aspects of the supernatural and creatures that we, as a modern cinema going audience connect automatically with horror, but if you view it as those at the time would have, you start to see that contrary to being a fear inspiring piece, it is actually a very interesting and cleverly put together series of artistic images. also, bearing in mind the level of filmic technology available at the time, is a fairly superior piece, but most definitely not a horror.

This Georges Melies film is one of the very first films to dip into the horror genre. As was usual for a Melies production it's full of visual trickery and invention, while obviously being stagey and crude due to it's incredibly old age. It certainly must be one of the first films to make reference to vampires with its bat that turns into Satan. The simple narrative involves this character manifesting himself in an old castle and then conjuring up a cauldron, a young woman and old man. A heroic knight appears shortly afterwards and thwarts the villain. Like all of Melies films, this one isn't about story-lines. Cinema back in the earliest years of the medium never was. It actually took a while before it became obvious that the medium would even be any good for telling stories. And it took many years for both audience and film-makers to work out how to do it. So these early films like the Melies ones were mainly a means of showcasing visual trickery, a way of letting people see the impossible. Hence their extremely short running times too. But I always sort of marvel at the ingenuity of those guys from over 100 years ago. Right from the offset they had loads of crazy ideas of how to present images in creative and interesting ways. It's well worth any fan of cinema taking a few short minutes of their time out to watch these ancient films, not only because they are the very first primitive twitches of cinema but also because they are fascinating historical documents in themselves.