Sadly, nothing much happens in this five-year stretch of early movie making. Georges Méliès is still doing movies, and he provides most of the few things I’ll discuss today. Like I’ve said, this is very early in horror, and it doesn’t really pick up until 1915-1920 (1920-1925 in some people’s opinions), but we can persevere until that jolly time comes. This won’t take long, so here we go.

Méliès did over 55 movies in this five-year span (as most of them, if not all, were shorts, it’s not as impressive as it sounds), but only did around three horror movies of any kind of importance. The first one, ironically enough, is hardly horror, but it is a nine-minute movie that actually has a plot, which is an importance advance made during this time. The movie: Barbe-bleue (Bluebeard, like the 1944 classic noir movie, only not). It’s much more of a crime than anything else, but one cannot deny that it was one of the more impressive things Méliès directed, and at nine minutes, it’s one of the longest. Here is a link to the movie:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxDVx5opjJc.

More akin to horror is his 1903, One minute and 13 second short Le chaudron infernal (The Infernal Boiling Pot, which is a great name. If you’ve ignored the other links, I recommend you actually watch this one). Though more fantasy, it does have horrific elements, especially if this is how this director views hell. A link to the short is as follows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZoQBbqOtA4. No, not the best plot-wise, but again, think of the year. Speaking of which, in the same year, he released Le monster (you guessed it, The Monster), a two-minute film with features on a skeleton dancing (not the whole thing, but a highly amusing scene). You should also watch this one at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md9WzJV88qM. To read more about this movie, including the plot, go here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0223755/ and here http://numbertwentythree.com/silentera/melies/Melies_Video_Monster/GM_vid_notes_monster_MOS.html.

 On a final note (I did say that this would be short), I bring to you a movie I know nothing about, but I thought that the title was really cool. In 1902, apparently a movie titled “A Fight with Sledgehammers” came out, which brings cool images to my eyes (and that’s the only way I’ll see it as there’s no video of it to be found anywhere) directed by Dicky Winslow, a British man with only two other movies, both of which from the same year. He did another movie titled Maria Marten: or, The Murder at the Red Barn, which may or may not be horror, but with a name like that, I would think it would at least be an attempt at a crime short.

So, with that, I come to the conclusion of the second writing on the history of this great subject. If anyone would like to bestow more knowledge on me about this time period or correct me on some mistake I may have made, please inform me.

Next up: 1905-1910, in which the first filmed adaption of a certain book is released as a 16 minute short. Be sure to read, and have a horrific day (my one time being corny).