A Terrible Night

Georges Méliès does it again in the same fashion as Le Manoir du Diable. Albeit shorter than his prior voyage into horror film. This is at least a different story. Instead of this being a period piece, it appears to be a modern one.

The film shows George Melies, himself, having One Terrible Night with a creepy, crawly, spider. The film is one of dozens of shorts released during the era that focused more on drawing crowds biased on technology rather than the plot of a film. It is still going to be a few years before Horror is fully shaped and functioning.

If you are curious to see what film looked like in the 1800's then check out below where I have included the short.

This one is kind of goofy, and I like the special effect used for the bug, but quite honestly the reactions after the bug doesn't make sense, even for a "one of the first ever films" vibe. He starts swinging at other bugs after the first huge one dies, but you see nothing during the time. It might be because of quality, but it seems unnecessary. It's very interesting to review this film, however, considering it's still part of the horror genre, as it shows how deeply instilled comedy can be in horror even from the very beginning of the film genre. Camp too! It can be classified as a campy film, and I honestly believe camp and horror go hand in hand.