The Infernal Cauldron (1903) Review

The Infernal Cauldron (1903)

The Infernal Cauldron follows two demons as they throw helpless captives into a boiling cauldron, hoping to summon their spirits. 

Back in January, I first brought you revolutionary filmmaker Georges Méliès with his film The Four Troublesome Heads. 5 years later though, he would create The Infernal Cauldron, and showing just how far his craft had come in that timespan, crafting another short that once again takes the landscape of early special effects to new heights. Now, while the story here, like most of his projects, is nothing to write home about, with it’s 1 minute runtime about demons trying to bring out the spirits of the dead, there’s still a genius element to it that Méliès uses to showcase his particular talents in terms of ingenuity. 

On top of the film being presented in color, by way of just coloring the film itself frame by frame, there’s also a mixture of pyrotechnics, soft focus, substitution splices, and multiple exposures at play to create the eerie effects, as well as the ghostly apparitions (which genuinely blew me away on first appearance and still kind of do). Credit also to the preservation of the film stock, in addition to the brilliant restoration work, because damn if the quality isn’t still really great looking. 

The Infernal Cauldron, starring and directed by Georges Méliès, is another mind boggling addition to the work of Méliès, whose work in early film illusions is still greatly impressive 120 years on. 

8.9/10