The Monster (1903 film)

Plot

A priest is hired by an Egyptian prince to bring the prince's dead wife back to life. The priest retrieves her skeleton from a tomb and recites a prayer, making the bones dance. He then wraps the skeleton in cloth, creating a monster that dances wildly and grows larger.

A second prayer shrinks the monster, which becomes the prince's wife. The priest wraps her in another shroud and tosses her to the prince. When the cloth is removed, only the skeleton is left.

Themes

The Monster flips the premise of Méliès's earlier trick film, The Vanishing Lady. Where that film shows a living woman transform into a skeleton and then back, this one shows a skeleton briefly become a living woman. Both works illustrate the memento mori theme.

The film’s design reflects Egyptomania, the 19th-century Western fascination with Ancient Egypt. Like the 1901 British film The Haunted Curiosity Shop, it uses Egyptian motifs and a sense of ancient ritual and occultism. Rather than telling a story, it is a trick film where these stylized Egyptian elements heighten the atmosphere of magic.

Did You Know?

• Méliès appears in the film as the priest.
• The special effects used stage machinery, substitution splices, and superimpositions; the dancing skeleton was a marionette controlled by wires.
• In Méliès's American catalogs, the Egyptian priest was misidentified as a dervish.