The Scooby-Doo Show: There's a Demon Shark in the Foggy Dark (1976)

 

An excellent episode. 

In this episode, the gang goes out to enjoy a day of waterskiing. However, when an ancient demon shark appears, the gang has another mystery on their hands. 

There is so much to love about this episode. First off, the design of the demon shark is excellent. This design is the perfect level of creepy for a Scooby villain. He is creepy in a way that gives this episode a delightfully spooky feel, while never being too scary to take away from the lighthearted fun. It is too often in these episodes when a demon animal just looks like a regular animal. This makes me appreciate that this shark looks creepier than your typical cartoon shark. Also helping give this episode a delightfully spooky feel is the use of fog. The fog helps give the episode the same feel as an old Universal monster movie. The backgrounds here are also wonderfully detailed and atmospheric, especially during the climbing scenes. This episode also does a great job mixing comedy and mystery. Quite a bit of the episode cuts back and forth between Fred, Daphne and Velma asking questions to solve the mystery and slapstick gags involving Shaggy and Scooby. Both of these types of scenes work very well. The slapstick is often funny, and the mystery elements are very well handled. While you can probably figure out who did it, the way he did it and the clues that lead up to this reveal are great. 

 This is a real Scooby classic. 

Silent Film of the Month: The Haunted House (1908)

 

Run Time: 6 minutes. Studio: Pathé Frères. Director: Segundo de Chomón.

It is October once again and that means it is time to watch spooky themed films. One of my favorite types of spooky films is the haunted house flick. This sub-genre has been around since cinema was young. This month we take a look at one of the earliest haunted house flicks, a 1908 French classic, The Haunted House. 

Being only six minutes, the storyline here is very basic. Three friends are taking a trip together and decide to rest at an abandoned house, not knowing that the house is haunted. 

Like much cinema from this time period the narrative simplicity and brief running time are a part of this film's charm. Sometimes it is simply fun to watch something that is simple and directly to the point. And if you want to watch a haunted house movie, this film provides exactly that. This film puts our characters in that haunted house right away and soon after creepy stuff is already happening. Despite being a haunted house film, the main point here is not to scare you. Instead, it is to delight you with a flux of pure imagination. Much of the haunting comes from stop motion animation and camera tricks. There is a real playfulness to how these are executed that I find irresistible. It feels like everyone involved was having a great time making this and that feeling translates to the audience. 

Despite its age many of the visuals hold up quite well. The opening outdoor scene as well as our first view of the house (from the outside) are simply lovely to look at and quite atmospheric. While the special effect can seem simplistic compared to those of today, they still get the job done and are fun to watch. The demon (if that is what he is supposed to be) looks fantastic and I simply love his costume. The final scene offers wonderful horror movie visuals that are as fun and creative as anything modern horror filmmakers could come up with. 

If you want to watch this delightful film, you can do so below.