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Méliès, Star Film 78-80, late 1896 (or early 1897), Théâtre Robert-Houdin. A bat enters a castle hall and becomes Mephistopheles; skeletons, witches, and a cauldron appear by substitution splice, and a crucifix ends the act. About three minutes, 60 metres, with Jehanne d'Alcy among the phantoms. Méliès meant a comic féerie, not a scare, though historians often cite it as an early horror sketch. A print thought lost turned up in 1988 at the New Zealand Film Archive (Ngā Taonga).
In two programmes
The job: conjure. A bat becomes Mephistopheles by substitution splice, the cut Méliès used for everything. Three minutes, a cauldron, a crucifix. The scares are jokes. The trick is not.
The Supernatural and the Occult
The first trick was a bat becoming the Devil. Substitution splices, skeletons, a cauldron, a crucifix. Méliès meant a comic féerie and the histories call it the first horror film. Take both readings. Three minutes.
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