The Bewitched House
About The Bewitched House
Two men and a woman, caught in a storm in the woods, take shelter in a lonely house. Lightning gives the facade a face and rolling eyes. Inside, furniture vanishes, a ghost appears, and the knives and food move by themselves. The house tilts. A clawed figure tries to eat the three travelers. In the last trick, the sorcerer from the living portrait sits down to a model of the wrecked house and devours the three of them as dolls.
Cast & crew
More about The Bewitched House
Segundo de Chomón directed and photographed the trick comedy for Pathé. French and English reference pages date the release to December 1907 and time it at about 6 minutes. Alternate titles include La maison ensorcelée, The House of Ghosts, and La casa hechizada. The stop-motion and substitution work is the whole method.
Themes
Making
Charles Pathé used Chomón's trick unit as an answer to Georges Méliès. The lightning bolts are painted in by stopping the camera.
Look
Chomón photographed the stop-motion meal, the walking ghost, and the house that grows a face.
Technique
Substitution splices and stop-motion move the furniture, the food, and the doll-sized travelers.
Preservation
A print of about 6 minutes circulates under the 1907 title La maison ensorcelée.
Notes
- Chomón made more than one haunted-house short for Pathé. A 1908 dating also circulates for this title, and a 1906 La maison hantée is a different, presumed-lost subject.
- English Wikipedia notes that Jennifer Kent put the film into a scene of The Babadook (2014).
Scenes
- A lightning flash turns the cottage front into a face.
- Cutlery and food cross the table on their own.
- The sorcerer swallows three dolls at a model of the house.
Influenced
- The Babadook (2014)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (La Maison ensorcelée (1907).webm)
