Diagonaldi Very well executed

Twilightfa Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

He_who_lurks Before I go into this film, I would like to point out that it and another film by the same person entitled "Satan at Play" appear to be one and the same, though I haven't seen the latter. Still, IMDb gives both titles a page, and both titles have reviews written on them. Also, two colored prints of this film are floating around YouTube: one with a purplish grotto, and another with a milder, brownish tint which I've seen.Now to the film. It's about a mysterious spectre who puts on a diabolical magic show. Many of these tricks are something you'd see Melies doing years before, although one scene uses a closeup, which you don't see in Melies's work. There is also a subplot of one spirit constantly trying to spoil his fun, and in the end destroying him.For 1907 this was actually a full-length feature, at 10 whole minutes long. The beginning is entirely tinted red, but later other colors come into play. The demon's makeup is really quite beautiful and ghastly, and the sets are pretty good. The main problem is that the pacing is off. In Melies's work you're treated to one trick after another, but here there's lots of set-up and it does drag. That said, I would agree with those who say that while watching it it's as though you have entered another world, because it's visually astounding and has some excellent tricks. Even despite lack of story this is a very nice watch.

MisterWhiplash Also, the story for this is somewhat confusing; if I hadn't seen the brief plot summary on Letterboxd, I wouldn't know (until near the end anyway) that this was about a Good Woman fighting the devil or a demon of hell or whoever this guy in a robe and skull-face is. It seemed if it was about a woman who might have even been this demon's boss, or maybe even some annoying underling, screwing with this Demon-Man has a penchant for bottling up women (literally, you can see this in full close-up, and that's how it seems - a full 8 years before Griffith did it in in Birth of a Nation you get a close-up, albeit in camera and with separate shots without a cut).But at any rate, this is a fun short because the filmmaking is clever and inventive: we're seeing the process this devil takes with his female wares/prisoners, and it's through blazing red and orange colors (thanks silent film technology!) and with a magician's eye for trickery. By the end 'good' does prevail, but the joy is in the evil, if that makes sense; it's filmmakers reveling in the villainy of this Demon, or at least playing with the line between showing something as being *bad* as in a devil, or something that is... enjoyable to do, like, uh, bottling up women and making them prisoners. Or slaves. Or, I don't know what. This is simply cool, and it also empowers women to fight Satan's ways at the end of it all! How to do that, well, don't look at this for answers to that question, just watch magic tricks!

JoeytheBrit If you've seen any of Georges Melies films there probably isn't anything here that you haven't seen before and, apart from one brief sequence, this film is pretty dull as a result.The film takes place in an underground cavern where a skeletal demon amuses himself by conjuring up a couple of hypnotised girls whom he wraps in plastic sheet before levitating them. The sheets burst into flames as they hover before the demon makes them disappear. A good spirit then appears to repeatedly spoil the demon's fun. This goes on for the best part of ten minutes and, to be honest, it gets a little tedious after a while.The one good sequence comes when the demon places three jars on a table then carries the table towards the camera. It's an unusual shot for 1907 and is quite effective - as is the demon's make-up.

wmorrow59 The first decade of the twentieth century saw the production of dozens of brief "trick films" which pushed the boundaries of the new medium, and France was the capital of this activity. Georges Méliès is the best known creator of these films, but The Red Spectre, which was produced at the Pathé Studio as a collaboration between Méliès' fellow pioneers Ferdinand Zecca and Segundo De Chomon, is perhaps the most bizarre and fascinating of them all. Or at least, allowing for the fact that so many of these films are lost, it certainly ranks with the best of the survivors. It is better seen than described, genuinely dreamlike in its images and transitions, and quite strange, but quite satisfying as well. The action lasts only about 8 or 9 minutes, but when it's over you feel as if you've been permitted to visit another world. When The Red Spectre was first exhibited the black & white footage was hand-colored to produce a dazzling effect, and happily, this material survives: a color print was discovered in a junk-yard in Mexico, and purchased for $25.00!Our setting is a mysterious underground grotto, and our "host" is a demonic magician who seems to be toying with the souls or spirits of several captive women. He causes them to levitate, then burst into flames; he captures their ashes in bottles, brings them back to life in miniaturized form, etc. The magician is opposed throughout by a Good Fairy who resembles Peter Pan (portrayed by a woman, as Peter traditionally is on stage). The precise meaning of the action is difficult to determine at times, but the central conflict amounts to a struggle between the forces of Good and Evil.One effect is especially notable: when the wicked magician produces three glass bottles, each holding a tiny woman prisoner, and brings them downstage to allow for a close-up, the scene instantly reminds latter day viewers of a similar sequence in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Did James Whale see this film, or is the similarity a coincidence? Notable, too, is the depiction of a device very much like television-- strongly suggested by the evil conjurer's magic screens, each of which depicts a series of moving images. Here's a real cinematic milestone: a film that predicts the coming of T.V., and, on top of that, attributes its invention to a demon!