Georges Méliès directed over 500 films so I'm not planning on reviewing all of these amazing pieces of cinema, but I'll try to stick to whats important. After his House of the Devil (1896) he produced the first mummy in film with Cleopatra (1899) and I'm sure theres a lot of firsts with his early, rare shorts (Cinderella in 1899 and Joan of Arc in 1900) but I'm moving on to the early signs of plot progression with Blue Beard.
The wealthy Lord Bluebeard is looking for a wife. He introduces himself to a room of women (of noble families) and bribes the bachelorettes with mass wealth. He eventually succeeds when one of the fathers grabs the hand of his daughter and urges her to be Lord Bluebeard's eighth wife. She gives in reluctantly and they celebrate. There's a great scene of servants hauling supplies to celebration through the kitchen, then rough housing ensues among the kitchen crew they end up accidentally knocking the cook into a brewing cauldron. They try to save the man, but fishout only his clothes. Gotta love the dark humor.
Lord Bluebeard reveals that he will be leaving town and gives his new wife keys and the freedom to roam his castle with one exception. That being, one forbidden room. He leaves and she is immediately tempted. She starts debating if she should go into this forbidden room….then a creepy looking imp jumps out of a large book in a poof of smoke. Definitely one of the creepiest scenes in film history. He crawls around the room menacingly urging the wife to open the door. She does so, and the demon jumps back into the book. She enters the dark room and fumbles for the light for a few seconds…..the light reveals Bluebeard's seven former brides hanging by the neck from the ceiling. There's also an axe propped up in the room in a puddle of blood.
slasher film: is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner.
slasher film: is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner.
I consider this short the first slasher movie. It definitely is a huge inspiration in the horror genre. I love the work of Georges Méliès and Ill continue with a few more of his films. But Blue Beard might be my favorite of his simply because of the shocking horror and creepy vibes that radiate from this 9minute long masterpiece. PERFECT.
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