The Haunted Curiousity Shop

The Haunted Curiosity Shop is a showcase of the elaborate and ambitious special effects techniques developed by director-illusionist W.R. Booth and producer-inventor R.W. Paul. The story features a curiosity shop owner discovering that the various pieces of bric-a-brac on his shelves have a life of their own as he is beset by all manner of apparitions: floating heads, disembodied women, Egyptian mummies and an animated skeleton. The effects where, respectively, a woman's two halves rejoin themselves and a man in armour is systematically dismembered, are particularly impressive.

Keywords: Haunted, ghost, trick film, skeleton, skull, bearded children, double exposure, wardrobe, curiousity shop.

Key frames

Download The Haunted Curiousity Shop (1:55)

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To find out more, see the analysis of The Haunted Curiousity Shop on BFI Screenonline.

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This film is included in the BFI DVD compilation R.W. Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908, with music by Stephen Horne and optional commentary by Ian Christie. It is also included on the BFI DVD of Jacques Rivette's Celine and Julie Go Boating. Visit the BFI BFI Filmstore to browse the collection.