I didn't know anything about silent movies until I read "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" book. After that, I decided to see "A Trip to the Moon" for myself--and on the same YouTube page was this film, so I checked it out. While the actors in the film overact quite a bit and aren't really convincing, their makeup is cool and of course its effects are what steal the show. The stop-motion sequences are what particularly stand out, but it's all tons of fun.In the 6 minutes of this film, we have a trio take cover in an abandoned house that (by the use of clever effects) grins at us (check out the pictures in IMDb's photo gallery). They soon discover the house is out to get them: Their coats hover in midair, a ghost appears on the spot, a creepy caricature appears in place of a painting, the house tilts back and forth, and finally a specter appears and attempts to eat the trio. Talk about a haunted house! Audiences must've been fascinated back when it was made. People today will be fascinated seeing stop-motion animation occur in 1906 (or 1908, whichever it was). In fact, even for a movie this old, it is a good watch even by today's standards.(Note: Two IMDb titles for this film are in the database: "The Haunted House" and "The House of Ghosts". Both these films are one and the same, however, so don't be fooled by this mistake).

The silent era is filled all sorts of strange surrealistic features, and The Haunted House enters you into a really fun and strange experience that no one should miss.The story is simple, three friends take shelter to an abandoned old house where all sorts of spooky things (for them at least) starts to happen such has disappearing chairs and luggage's and dishes and cups moving on their own, Demon appearing in paintings and specter's taking possessions of their clothing. And that's about it.A fun little spectacle with nice camera effects for its time.If you are fan of George Mélés than this is a must see.

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.

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