Frames from the crypt... Episode 002 -
The Haunted Hotel and Phantasmagorie
The vault is open again!
Episode 002 of Frames from the Crypt is now live, and this time we’re stepping into the strange, playful world of early animation with two landmark films: J. Stuart Blackton’s The Haunted Hotel (1907) and Émile Cohl’s Fantasmagorie (1908).
After beginning the series with magic lanterns and phantasmagoria, I wanted the next episode to feel like a natural step forward in animation history. These two films seemed like the perfect pairing because they approach the idea of animated movement in completely different ways.
In The Haunted Hotel, Blackton uses live action, practical effects and stop-motion techniques to make ordinary objects behave as though they have minds of their own. Plates move, food prepares itself and the dining table becomes a miniature haunted stage. There is something wonderfully theatrical about it, and you can already see filmmakers discovering how movement itself could become the trick.
Then, just a year later, Émile Cohl’s Fantasmagorie pushes things in another direction entirely.
Instead of making real objects move, Cohl lets drawings transform endlessly from one thing into another. Figures stretch, disappear, change shape and reappear in ways that would be impossible in live action. It feels loose, strange and wonderfully imaginative, and it points toward the freedom that would eventually become one of animation’s defining qualities.
Putting the two films together made the episode feel like a small bridge between different ideas of what animation could become: objects brought to life, and drawings set free.
As with Episode 001, I wanted the tone to stay curious rather than overly academic. Frames from the Crypt is really about wandering through animation history with a lantern in hand, opening strange old doors and seeing what we find behind them.
Episode 002 also marks another little milestone for the project. The series now has multiple published episodes, an IMDb presence, and its own growing visual identity, with BearBera Steele Bearton continuing to guide us through the vault.
You can watch Frames from the Crypt: Episode 002 – The Haunted Hotel & Fantasmagorie now on YouTube.
Curious creatures, let’s open the vault.
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