Director
Segundo de Chomón
When I saw it back in 2015, I watched it primarily for its scare and horror factor, but left not feeling very satisfied. Since then, I've come across a lot of praise for "The Babadook," directed by Jennifer Kent. While I love the premise of the movie, I admit I certainly missed something. The movie doesn't rely on jump scares and thrills. There's a lot of substance within.
Film critic Glenn Kenny, writing for rogerebert.com, called this movie "...the finest and most genuinely provocative horror movie to emerge in this still very-new century." So, yes...I need to watch "The Babadook" one more time.
A 2014 article from shutterstock.com cites 10 films that "Scared 'Babadook’ Director Jennifer Kent Into Filmmaking." Among those titles is a French silent film from 1906 titled "La Maison Ensorcelée" or "The Bewitched House" according to Google translate, directed by Spanish film director Segundo de Chomón. It's also known as "The House of Ghosts."
The film is approximately six minutes long, but there's a lot happening within those few minutes. It's considered one of the earliest films set within a haunted house.
The movie opens with three travelers - two men and a woman - walking along a river trail in the woods before they stumble upon a small house.
Lightening strikes the house three times before the façade transforms into a face.
When the three travelers barge into the house, all sorts of typical ghostly activity takes place. Their baggage begins moving on its own. A painting of a nature scene on the wall comes to life as some kind a demon appears within the frame. This is likely the most notable moment in the short film.
Film critic Glenn Kenny, writing for rogerebert.com, called this movie "...the finest and most genuinely provocative horror movie to emerge in this still very-new century." So, yes...I need to watch "The Babadook" one more time.
A 2014 article from shutterstock.com cites 10 films that "Scared 'Babadook’ Director Jennifer Kent Into Filmmaking." Among those titles is a French silent film from 1906 titled "La Maison Ensorcelée" or "The Bewitched House" according to Google translate, directed by Spanish film director Segundo de Chomón. It's also known as "The House of Ghosts."
The film is approximately six minutes long, but there's a lot happening within those few minutes. It's considered one of the earliest films set within a haunted house.
The movie opens with three travelers - two men and a woman - walking along a river trail in the woods before they stumble upon a small house.
Lightening strikes the house three times before the façade transforms into a face.
When the three travelers barge into the house, all sorts of typical ghostly activity takes place. Their baggage begins moving on its own. A painting of a nature scene on the wall comes to life as some kind a demon appears within the frame. This is likely the most notable moment in the short film.
The furniture starts disappearing. Their wardrobes emerge from their bags and begin dancing around. And ghosts begin to take on physical manifestations.
Despite all these paranormal shenanigans, the trio stick around. When they set a table to have some food, a knife takes on a life of its own and starts slicing up meat and bread by itself. Also, an unseen force begins to pour each of them a cup of coffee. When their meal is ready, the food along with the table disappears.
The longer they stay, the worse things get. When they retire to bed, the entire house rocks back and forth cause the bed to slide from wall to wall. They all hide under the blanket in a huddled ball.
The rooms stops rocking, and the demon that appeared earlier in the painting looms over the bed.
It picks up the lodgers still wrapped in the blanket, plays around with it for a moment in an act of torment, and places them in a tree back out in the woods.
Similar to an earlier horror film I discussed called "House of the Devil" (1896) from Georges Méliès, "The House of Ghosts" is more of a showcase of special effects than it is an actual story. The story is secondary. It's there to support the effects, which were certainly very novel at the time. They're the foundation for later cinema.
Despite all these paranormal shenanigans, the trio stick around. When they set a table to have some food, a knife takes on a life of its own and starts slicing up meat and bread by itself. Also, an unseen force begins to pour each of them a cup of coffee. When their meal is ready, the food along with the table disappears.
The longer they stay, the worse things get. When they retire to bed, the entire house rocks back and forth cause the bed to slide from wall to wall. They all hide under the blanket in a huddled ball.
The rooms stops rocking, and the demon that appeared earlier in the painting looms over the bed.
It picks up the lodgers still wrapped in the blanket, plays around with it for a moment in an act of torment, and places them in a tree back out in the woods.
Similar to an earlier horror film I discussed called "House of the Devil" (1896) from Georges Méliès, "The House of Ghosts" is more of a showcase of special effects than it is an actual story. The story is secondary. It's there to support the effects, which were certainly very novel at the time. They're the foundation for later cinema.
And the effects still succeed in impressing. Some, of course, are very simple. The film cuts to depict furniture suddenly vanishing. And the use of stop motion depicts unseen forces manipulating mundane objects.
What's truly impressive about the stop motion is the fluidity of how things move. In particular, the knife that slices through sausage, and cuts the bread by itself, is stunning to watch. The fluidity of this animation is impressive.
The final slice of the sausage tries sliding itself off the plate and makes the knife chase it around the table.
Once it succeeds, a linen napkin nicely rolled up in a napkin ring climbs out of a coffee cup, then out of the ring, and unrolls itself to wipe off the knife blade before rolling itself back up, sliding back into the ring, and finally back into the cup.
The napkin later does this again in order to sweep the breadcrumbs into a nice pile and onto the floor. Effects such as these still amaze. The attention to detail in these effects, and the way they add to the frantic tone of the picture is great.
I'm not surprised Jennifer Kent names "The House of Ghosts" as one of the horror movies that inspired her into film making. So much so, she evidently included the film in a scene in "The Babadook."
Such camera work and optical effects are very similar to the works of Georges Méliès.
"The House of Ghosts" mixes paranormal horror with comedy seen in the actions and demeanor of the three characters. Segundo de Chomón mixes his comedy style with fantasy in his 1907 film, "Hôtel électrique." He also utilizes a lot of stop motion in that film as well.
It seems he uses film splicing or overlapping in "The House of Ghosts" to pull off the effect of making the painting spring to life with the image of a demon. It's very similar, if not identical, to a movie he filmed in 1906 called "A Funny Shave" which I've seen on a variety of silent film and public domain YouTube channels.
"The House of Ghosts" is truly a foundational picture that stands out among the rest!
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