Sometimes the movie is interesting, and sometimes beautiful, all people have different interests and different sense of beauty.
And in this tape of 1896, everything is beautiful, the bat is beautiful, which by its appearance from the very first seconds determines our mood, the mouse is so ridiculous, so simplely executed that nothing can cause even the most serious viewer anything but fun. It would be very interesting to see the reaction of the first viewers, what was it: irony, surprise at what he saw or still fear?
While some cinematographers rushed around the world with a camera to capture everything bright and unusual for the European audience, others quickly realized what extraordinary opportunities the camera opens before them. And the very first effect that was adopted was the sudden appearance or disappearance of objects or people. And since we have succeeded in such a miracle, we will use it to the fullest, thought the creators of the tape.
The entire three-minute plot is based on the appearance/disappearance of dark forces in a mysterious castle, in which two hunters accidentally glanced, judging by their specific costumes. And here, as I said, everything is beautiful - and the first special effects, and the first scenery and acting and the uncomplicated pranks of the servants of darkness! And, of course, an instructive finale!
The filmmakers probably didn’t know they had created the first horror movie in human history.
Of course, to call “Devil’s Castle” a horror movie is only possible with a great stretch, since many of its moments cause laughter, not fear. But this film is delightful as the first film with an abundance of special effects, as well as the first in which vampires appeared. And vampires in our modern view.
An insidious and evil creature penetrating the castle, conjures and frightens people for three minutes - for 1896, this is perhaps the record for duration. But what exactly happens is not so easy to understand, because the film is silent, and for some reason there are no subtitles between the frames. Most likely, the vampire kidnapped the girlfriend or wife of one of the guards, judging by the outcome, although the motive was clearly not jealousy. Having summoned an assistant-dwarf and a magical cauldron, the main character prepares a prank for an unsuspecting guard, who will then be frightened. The Guardian's reaction is a comedy! The theatricality of what is happening here is such that even the first viewers probably laughed when watching. What was later formed in comedy, at the dawn of cinematography was perceived as a special language of art, so many non-documentary films of the XIX century can be safely considered comedies. Especially since ghosts are depicted with the help of white sheets. Naive, but incredibly interesting!
Apparently, it is the “Devil’s Castle” that we owe to the fact that the image of a vampire, capable of turning into a bat, firmly entrenched in the mass consciousness. A sophisticated viewer will easily guess that the mouse is not real, but if you imagine that at the time of 1896 there were no video recordings of animals at all (except for horses), then this impression made the strongest. The first primitive special effects, created with the help of such “magic” as turning the camera on and off, also cause a condescending smile. But I must say that thanks to high-quality editing, an unprepared viewer is unlikely to guess about the falsification of what is happening - so successfully the actors disappear in moments of transformation or entry into the painted depressions.
The starting point for “technical” horrors, which left proof that even in the XIX century, the audience was attracted by fear, albeit mixed with humor.
10 out of 10
The world's first horror movie! First in fantasy history! What titles are awarded to this film by aspiring director Georges Méliès (although in 1896 all directors were beginners). The stretch is akin to saying that rock paintings are the first comics. It's ridiculous, in a word. With the same success and ' The arrival of the train' you can call horror. People came out of the room screaming.
Personally, I appreciate this movie for something else. Have you ever seen a child who finally received a coveted toy for his birthday and now can not play with it, comes up with more and more new ways to use it, and you, looking at him, charge yourself with this genuine enthusiasm. This is how I see Georges Méliès and his first work.
' The Devil's Castle' in this sense, especially stands out, because here, intoxicated by absolutely childish fantasy, the director dispersed not in a joke. In the four-minute timekeeping, he tried to accommodate as many “wonderful transformations” & #39; as possible. Simple as three pennies editing technique, opened in 1895 by Alfred Clark - stop frame, at a click turns the bat into the Devil, and the girl into a ghost. And in all this there is a sincere excitement of the magician, who suddenly found a magic wand (cinema camera) and learned to create real magic (cinema).
Méliès will fully reveal his creative potential a little later, but his early works fully allow you to feel the absolute delight with which this amazing fate man approached his films. Without such people, cinema, which had not yet become an industry, simply could not have grown stronger and developed into what it is today.
Of great merit is at least the fact that Mr. Meles, in contrast to his colleagues-contemporaries William Dixon and brothers Lumière, was the first to try to use prototypes of modern cinema cameras for their intended purpose. Namely - to shoot a real feature film, with a plot, scenery and the most authentic actors. Of course, the movement from theatricalization to the cinematography itself came not immediately, but gradually. But the foundation was laid, and this risky step was a legendary step.
This work is based on old biblical and folk motifs about Lucifer and all kinds of evil. Since the beginning of his creative path, the director unevenly breathed to the cinema as to art, therefore, he implemented his crazy ideas in every possible way. In particular, in the “Devil’s Castle” you can see the first “special effects” with the disappearance and inhuman makeup of the acting characters – Mephistopheles and his hellish servants.
Simplicity of the plot here is clear to any viewer, all graphic "devils" are just as trivial (in the modern sense), but history keeps the most banal parable. Only faith can help fight evil. And the presence of such a mundane (but deep) axiom makes you believe that everything begins somewhere from here, from the IXX century, really being a cultural object. This is a very respectable and respectable age.
There is no doubt, specially climbed through the expanses of cinema, tried to find a horror short film, which appeared before - found nothing. It was Georges Méliès who jumped into the river first. The Devil’s Castle came out in 1896. The plot is not really, lasts 3 minutes, Méliès shot the picture in his pavilion.
In 1895, director Alfred Clarke directed The Execution of Mary of Scotland, which featured a beheaded man. The film is credited with the horror genre, but Méliès in “Devil’s Castle” is specifically mystic. We see on the screen a bat that transforms into Mephistopheles. Large cauldron, strange creatures, skeleton, etc.
You know? He kind of pushed the boundaries of the real (he said something similar in the review of the science fiction film Méliès – Journey to the Moon). He experimented with various special effects at the time. The short film looks funny, but it can not be adjusted to real life. And "The Execution of Mary of Scotland" is easy! Even under another genre, historical film, for example. Executing a man for a historical film is quite a common thing.
So, all horror fans, let's shake George's bony hand together and kiss his skull. Yes, he was criticized for allegedly parodying the Lumiere brothers (Mélies apparently got angry, started creating genres, ahaha). Yes, it's full of tapes that will quietly jump "Devil's Castle." Yes, this is far from "Journey to the Moon", the scope is much more modest.
But thanks to Jora and his "Devil's Castle" - we have a whole genre. Chic genre, the coolest genre in cinema. Don't forget George. It is impossible to forget such people if you consider yourself an admirer of horror!
7 out of 10
The Devil's Castle. This is an incredible creation in the history of world cinema. Cinema itself, as we know it today, owes to people like Georges Méliès. Méliès was at the Lumiere Brothers' first film screening. He even offered them a lot of money for a camera projector. But, dreaming of becoming monopolists in their business, the brothers refused to “upstart”. Time has shown that the world has acquired a new most important filmmaker for the history.
In 1896 (120 years ago from this year) Georges shoots the world's first horror film "Devil's Castle", where he uses in addition to the developments of the plot the first special effects: "stop camera", slow and accelerated shooting, frame-by shooting and double and multiple exposure.
And we inherited a picture of a little more than 3 minutes, where first in the image of a bat, then a man in an ancient, spider-web castle was granted by Mephistopheles himself. Only he appeared as he began to conjure up various things and devilry, confusing people and frightening them. This is how we see the cauldron from which spirits and ghosts climb. The cauldron disappears. People appear, they are more frightened than before by the “narrative” of the evil one.
And, of course, today it seems, at least naively. But imagine what Mephistopheles' last client felt like! When there is a skeleton, then witches appear, then disappear, as through the earth fall. Then again the devil turns into a bat (aka Dracula, which gives the right to some publicists and film critics to believe that this is the first film about vampires). As long as there is no solution in the mind of a tortured soul. (Again, so simple today...) But! Then the stamps simply did not exist! << /i>
Georges Méliès himself here and noted himself as the devil himself. There is also a woman named "Jeanne D'Alcy". But it is obvious that more people took part in the shooting. The same evil in white sheets, the same devil with pitchforks.
This is how the whole short film came out. It's a real milestone. Of course, to make out anything here, even because of the quality of the shooting is very difficult. But somewhere in the third time it will still work. I have, by the way, successfully found, perhaps, a somewhat digitized video. And I also came across a musical arrangement. But, of course, I understand that all this is the wisdom of contemporaries. The viewers of Robert Houdin in Paris did not feel it. But they felt different. They were present at a real miracle demonstration!
And the corner of the eye was very curious to watch a certain French broadcast, which showed the very place in which the film was shot!!! Well, guys, isn't that a miracle? ? ?
Georges Méliès’s film “The Devil’s Castle” is significant in that: firstly, this is no longer a documentary first shoot (Lumière pearls, so to speak), but an artistic film; and, secondly, it can be positioned as the first horrors!!!
The director himself, and Jeanne d'Alcy, that's all the actors! And these are really actors, not stealthily filmed people at the station.
There is no plot in the film. Is there anything to say about any delights, when before the eyes of the pioneer not only the genre of horror (in the usual sense of us), but even the pioneer of the first films in general?
It's more of a sketch, going a little over three minutes. Where is Lucifer, who, in fact, in the familiar form of Mephistopheles (for some reason, Mephistopheles is always recognized!) terrorizes, therefore, Christian souls.
Here, the honest word (here's a cross!), appeared on the soul a kind of anxiety when evil spirits began to climb out of the cauldron on the screen.
Of course, to say that the film directly caught up with fear is simply slying. But this is a film experiment. Here, as it were, the entire cardboard image of the devil and ravens with pitchforks causes a more smile. It's kind of a blackish, mystical half-comedy.
As for the special effects (and in this film - in the first where they appeared), then we understand what and how they were made. That the bat flew through the castle by pulling the ropes of the aki puppet, and the magical disappearances and appearances of (ghosts, skeletons ...) is nothing but montage.
The movie itself is more like a show on stage. But it's a movie! And a movie with a claim. Do not forget that this is not only a silent movie, but even a movie without musical arrangements. And without music, it is impossible to transmit suspense. This is what the year 1896 showed us!
9.5 out of 10
The main task of cinema has always been to entertain the public. The immortal creation of the Lumière brothers quickly conquered the whole world. Since the memorable year 1895, when the first public paid film show took place in the basement of the “Grand Cafe”, films of the most diverse directions are poured on their audience as if from the Horn of Plenty. Well, one of the first in the history of recognized masters of cinema was a wonderful compatriot of the Lumière brothers, Georges Méliès, who during his career had a hand in creating more than five hundred films. It is quite natural that almost the entire filmography of Méliès consisted of short films, because at the turn of the 19th-20th century it was very difficult to remove a tape lasting at least one hour. But after all, from the newly born cinema, no one expected an impressive timekeeping, because the very fact of the revived pictures simply amazed the imagination.
However, the Arrival of the Train and other simple documentary film segments will not hold the public for long. People demanded more diversity, paying attention to the fact that the same literature is full of genres and plots, and therefore filmmakers have aspirations. But the phenomenon of Georges Méliès is that he didn't need a public push to act! He himself became so fond of the art of making films that he eventually became one of the engines of progress, and simultaneously the ancestor of many genres and sub-genres of cinema. Unfortunately, most of his paintings were lost due to improper storage and tragic events of the First World War, but some masterpieces still survived. And all of them are fairly included in the Golden Fund of cinema. Of course, the creations of Méliès can not boast of music, dialogue and colors, because he created in the era of black and white, silent cinema, but it is on the examples of his works that cinema developed for many years and became what it is now. Well, an important place in the legacy of the director is a rather interesting experimental fantasy horror film "Devil's Castle", which became the first of its kind.
The plot of the three-minute prototype of horror is built around Mephistopheles, who appeared in the chambers of a medieval castle. With the help of dark magic, the Lord of Hell presents a huge cauldron to our court, from which a variety of otherworldly creatures – devils, skeletons and ghosts – will creep out. The main purpose of Mephistopheles is to intimidate the human souls under his control. Terrible otherworldly creatures now and then try to intimidate their victims, but in the end Mephistopheles and the company are forced to leave, as one of the souls somehow manages to make a saving, life-giving cross that can shed divine light even in the darkest corners of the universe. This is the whole story that Méliès wanted to tell us. Nothing special, you might say. But in fact, “Devil’s Castle” is a real jewel, because it was during the creation of this film that the director used several editing techniques and special effects, which became a real classic. Méliès himself considered his film experimental. And besides all this, horrors have always been considered one of the basic genres of world culture, because humanity has always felt the need for light, unobtrusive fear, to hide from which you can both under a blanket and in the arms of a loved one. And the movie simply could not leave its imprint in this direction.
If you look at the “Devil’s Castle” more closely, you can see what a simple, but at that time unimaginable method an ordinary flying mouse turns into the King of the underworld (famous for the editing glue!). In addition, the director played a lot on the acceleration of frames, due to which certain movements of his characters acquire rapid dynamics. Méliès also introduced us to many levitation frames. And here it is also worth paying tribute to the creator, because he tried to hide all the ropes and cables that simulate flight as much as possible. In addition, we were presented with an incomparable skeleton, which a priori could not be played by a living person. Méliès took all the best ideas that the predecessor of cinema, the theater, could come up with, and supplemented them with his own inventions, so that the viewer would really believe that he was in front of a real fairy tale.
I do not argue with the fact that in "Devil's Castle", if desired, you can find many disadvantages and some projects that came out just a couple of years after its premiere, a head higher in the quality of the plot and technical implementation. But don’t forget that Georges Méliès is a pioneer. It was he who put on his feet most genres, including horror and conducted many experiments so that the cinema of the future did not stand still, but developed his findings. Devil’s Castle is the first full-length on-screen horror movie and one of the first movies ever made. The creator tried to combine in his brainchild irony, horror and special effects. And he certainly did. I advise every true fan of the cinema and horror genre in particular to get acquainted with this tape, because it is a sin not to know what it all began with. So good to see you!
Every horror movie has to have a negative character, otherwise it doesn’t. But what if at that distant time, there was no Frankenstein or werewolves, and there was not yet a book by Brem Stoker about the terrible count, and therefore there was not yet a single story about vampires. Therefore, the only one who could become the hero of a horror film was Mephistopheles, aka the Devil, he is also the main character of the painting by Georges Méliès.
The only thing that can cause this picture in the modern viewer is a slight ironic smile in half with misunderstanding. In what ways did Méliès achieve on the screen and the transformation of the bat into a person, and the disappearance of the boiler, etc., etc. Really, how? After all, there was no technology that could not be discussed. Now we look at all these “special effects” with a smile, but it is easy for us to judge, we have already seen the creations of modern directors, action, slashers, fiction and so on. And before, everything that Georges Méliès depicted was considered something unprecedented, amazing and also incredibly terrible.
Look at this picture, you need only to compare the past and the present, as it was before and as now. After all, it is possible that in a few centuries over the "Hostel" or "Astral" as smile as we do over "Devil's Castle"
In 1896, the Frenchman Georges Méliès created a film that was later called the first horror film. However, as far as I know, the director did not intend to create a chilling picture. But why is this movie called the first horror movie?
In those distant years, when cinema was just forming and comedy and documentary films dominated all genres. Georges Méliès wanted to surprise and draw the attention of viewers to his new picture by adding primitive special effects to it and did not lose out. He also came up with a not bad story, which featured otherworldly forces. The Devil is the one who casts out all the evil that he has created. The goal is to scare and enslave the unhappy souls who find themselves in this damned place. But despite all the efforts of the dark forces, good prevails.
Despite the fact that the plot unfolds in an ironic style of narration, the film contains signs of horror films: mysticism, ghosts, skeletons, the Devil and other evil spirits.
Of course, the modern viewer this film will cause only a smile, but this picture marked the beginning of the most fascinating and frightening genre in cinema. A genre that scared millions.
Before Dracula, before Frankenstein, before Mummy, before Wolf, before Bates, before Voorhees, before Kruger, before Myers, before Leatherface, there was Devil's Castle.
Many people love the horror film genre. He is one of the most profitable genres in Hollywood. I personally consider this genre the best in the world. I think I'm just watching it.
This short film gave us a whole life for a new movie. There wouldn’t have been a lot of filmmaking without this 3-minute movie. Without him, there would be no genre of “horrors” and cinema would not be so interesting.
In the scenery of the ancient castle, a bat appears, which suddenly turns into Mephistopheles. Mephistopheles conjures up a magic pot. Out of the cauldron appear the clouds - ghosts, skeletons, witches, etc. - with which the devil frightens the souls who have fallen into his power. One of the souls makes the sign of the cross and Mephistopheles disappears.
Georges Méliès did not plan to shoot horror. As far as I know, he just wanted to make a fairy tale using new special effects.
A film that gave me a lot of beautiful sensations, a century-old cinema. As my friend Zombion once said:
Do you see a movie without horror?