🎃 31 Days of Halloween – Day 18🎃
The Monster (1903)
★★★★★ Watched 18 Oct 2025
By 1903, Georges Méliès had mastered the art of turning stage magic into cinema, and The Monster might be one of his most purely enjoyable short films. It’s good, clear storytelling, told with the brisk rhythm of a newspaper comic strip come to life.
A magician performs for a single spectator, summoning a skeleton from thin air. With a few waves of his hands (and Méliès’ ingenious jump cuts), the skeleton transforms. First, into a writhing monster, then into a beautiful woman. The spectator falls for her instantly, only for chaos to erupt when she’s turned back into a skeleton. The magician gives chase, desperate to get his creation back.
It’s a perfect time capsule of Méliès’ style: part horror, part comedy, and all showmanship. Over a century later, it still entertains, reminding us that sometimes the earliest filmmakers knew how to delight and surprise an audience.
